I 
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ESSAYS
DESIGNED TO ELUCIDATE THE SCIENCE OF
POLITICAL ECONOMY,
WHILE SERVING TO EXPLAIN AND DEFEND
THE POLICY OF
- PROTECTION TO HOME INDUSTRY,
AS A SYSTEM OF
NATIONAL COO0PERATION FOR THE ELEVATION OF
LABOR.
BY HORACE GREELEY.
BOSTON:
FIELDS, OSGOOD, & CO.
1870. 
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1869, by
HORACE GREELEY,
in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of New York.
UNIVERSITY PRESS: WELCH, BIGELOW, & CO.,
CAMBRIDGE.
4*
I I
.I 
OF
HENPY CLAY,
THE GENIAL, GALLANT, HIGH-SOULED PATRIOT, ORATOR, AND
STATESMAN; THE NOBLEST EMBODIMENT OF AMERICAN
GENIUS, CHARACTER, AND ASPIRATIONS; THE
MAN WHO MOST EFFECTIVELY COMMENDED
THE POLICY OF PROTECTION TO THE
UNDERSTANDINGS AND HEARTS
OF THE MASSES OF HIS
COUNTRYMEN,
THIS WORK
OF ONE AMONG THE MANY WHO STILL LOVE, HONOR,
AND ADMIRE HIM,
IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED
BY
THE AUTHOR.
Cro the Mfemory  
PREFACE.
"No doubt, ye are the People, and wisdom will die
with you," said patient, yet still human Job, when his
friends had rather overdone the business of reproving,
exhorting, correcting, and generally overhauling him. I
am often reminded of the old Patriarch's later and less
material tribulations, while scanning the lucubrations of
those who modestly claim for their own school a monopoly of all the wisdom wherewith the science of Political
Economy has yet been irradiated, and dismiss the arguments of their antagonists as the sophismis of rapacity
and selfishness, or of a mole-eyed ignorance and narrowness unworthy of grave confutation. There are minds
whereon such majestic assumptions of superior wisdomni
may impose; but I make no appeal to them.   I write
for the great mass of intelligent, observant, reflecting
farmers and mechanics; and, if I succeed in making my
positions clearly understood, I do not fear that they will
be condemned or rejected.
Had I been able to snatch more time from the incessant labors and cares of a most exacting vocation, I
should have presented a more complete and unexception
I 
PREFACE.
able work. I ought to have had at least one full year for
the preparation of this volume; whereas, I have given
it but a portion of my time for six months. I could
have fortified my positions far more strongly with citations from those whose arguments are weighty, and
especially with those of eminent Free-Traders, had I
enjoyed a fuller opportunity. But there is an important
sense wherein my whole past life has been a preparation
for this undertaking: for the experience and observation
of nearly half a century, so far as they bear upon the
sources and currents of industrial prosperity or adversity, have been freely drawn upon in the composition of
the following chapters, which embody what I have seen
and felt far more fully than they do what I have read
and studied. At all events, I cannot hope ever to find
time to study more profoundly and write more elaborately; so those who care to scan my views of the important topic here treated will seek them in the volume
herewith presented.
At all events, those who read will say that here is no
artifice, no concealment, no reserve. If Protection be
indeed the narrow, bigoted, short-sighted, one-sided, selfcondemned, envious, hateful policy its enemies proclaim
it, this work cannot fail to reveal the fact, so that it will
no longer be believed on the mere dictum of Baptist-Say,
Bastiat, McCulloch, and Mill. These essays will not disbrm hostility any more than they deprecate criticism.
viii 
PREFACE.
If it be true that Protection is based on envy or hatred
of others' prosperity, and seeks to pull them down to a
common level of obstruction, stagnation, and virtual ruin,
-if Protection be a device to sell inferior goods at
extortionate prices,- to enable manufacturers to enrich
themselves at the expense of involuntary customers, -
that lact may be demonstrated from the following pages.
I know that the hurry of preparation leaves my positions at many points exposed to cavil; yet my  confidence that they are based on absolute truth is so
profound that I heartily commend them to thoughtful
scrutiny.
Writing for commnon people, I have aimed, above all
things, to be lucid and simple.   My  illustrations are
drawn from our National history, mainly from that part
of it whereof there are many living witnesses; and I
have preferred those to whose truthfulness I could personally bear testimony.   If these shall often seem to the
fastidious homely and commonplace,  I do not believe
that they will, on that account, be less acceptable to, or
less effective with, the larger number of my readers.
Doubtless, some will disrelish my frequent citations
from the records of our past struggles to establish, on
the one hand, - to undermine and subvert, on the other,
the policy of Protection; but they are not made without a purpose. For the questions we are about to consider, the issues we are soon to try, are in essence the
ix 
PREFACE.
same that were passed upon by our fathers; and my
positions are substantially those held by Henry Clay,
Rollin C. Mallary, Walter Forward, and their compeers,
in opposition to those of John Randolph, John C. Calhoun, George McDuffie, and Churchill C. Cambreleng.
There are no stronger arguments for Free Trade to-day
than those so ably urged by Daniel Webster in his
speech against the Tariff of 1824, - a very great speech
indeed, and one which no man now living can surpass, -
but it did not defeat the passage of the bill, nor prevent
Mr. Webster becoming in after years a leading champion
of that Protective policy which he therein assailed so
forcibly. We who, as boys or as men, were humble participants in the contests for Protection in those days are
not likely to be dismayed by a reproduction of the arguments which the American People then debated, considered, and condemned, as inapt or unsound. 
We are about to enter, as a people, upon a very general and earnest discussion of Economic questions, and I
rejoice that such is the case. I welcome the conflict,
for I feel entirely assured as to the ultimate issue. Bull
Runs and Chickamaugas may intervene, but I look beyond them to our Atlanta and our Appomnattox.
H. G.
NEw YORK, December 1, 1869.
x 
CONTENTS.o
PAGE
13
26
I. LABOR - PRODUCTION......13
Il. COMMERCE - EXCHANGES........26
III. CAPITAL - SKILL - INVENTION - INTELLECTUAL PROP      ERTY...............          40
IV. MONEY - THE BALANCE OF TRADE...         54
V. PAPER MONEY -INTEREST- USURY.                 68
VI. SLAVERY- HIRED LABOR -PROPORTION- COOPERA      TION...............          81
VII. MONOPOLY - THE LAW OF PRICES -EFFECT OF DU       TIES ON COST............           95
VIII. AGRICULTURE AS AFFECTED BY PROTECTION- VIEWS
OF THE FATHERS...........           108
IX. THE STATE - ITS LEGITIMATE SPHERE - POWERS AND
DUIS FRE  TRD.XOSCNIEE 
X. PROTECTION FOR AGRICULTURE........
XI. MANUFACTURES AND THEIR NEEDS....
XII. THE LABORING CLASS-ITS RIGHTS, INTERESTS, DU      TIES, AND NEEDS...........
XIII. THE INTEREST OF CONSUMERS -IRON.... 171
XIV. PROTECTION ILLUSTRATED - SUGAR.....   186
XV. THE HARMONY OF INTERESTS -THE SUGAR INDUSTRY
OF FRANCE INVIGORATING OTHER INDUSTRIES -
BEET SUGAR ON ITS TRIUMPHAL MARCH... 199
0
.1
120
133
146
159
171
186 
CONTENTS.
IP-BUILDING, SHIPPING, AND FOREIGN
COERE~...........214
USES AND ABUSES- FOREIGN INDEBTUR NATIONAL DEBT..   283
EN ELUCIDATING WHAT SHALL BE    246
IECT AND INDIRECT...   264
X.COEAI...........273
XOLLENS....                   287
XIIIRTN..........8306
VALOREM -MINIMUM...   323
XXI.'.CONCLUSS......... 336
...   3855
xii
XVIII. WHAT HAS BE]
XIX. TAXATION, DIR
XX. CO0PERATION.
XXI. WOOL AND WO
XXII. IMMIGRATION.
XXIII. SPECIFIC — AD
XXIV. CONCLUSIONS.
APPENDIX. 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
I.
LABOR - PRODUCTION.
FIRST of Man's material interests, most pervading,
most essential, is LABOR, or the employment of human
faculties and sinews to create, educe, or shape articles
required by his needs or tastes. Though Providence is
benignant and NatuLre bounteous, so that it was possible, in the infancy of the race, that the few simple
wants of a handful of savages might be fitfully, grudgingly satisfied from the spontaneous products of the
earth; and though a thin population of savages is still
enabled to subsist, on a few fertile tropical islands, without regular, systematic industry, -their number being
kept below the point of mutual starvation by incessant
wars, by cannibalism, by infanticide, and by their unbounded licentiousness,-  the rule is all but inexorable
that human existence, even, is dependent on human labor.
To the race generally, to smaller communities, and to
individuals, God proffers the~ stern alternative, Work or
perish! Idlers and profligates are constantly dying out,
leaving the earth peopled mainly by the offspring.of the
relatively industrious and frugal.   Philanthropy may
drop a tear by their unmarked graves; but the idle,
thriftless, improvident tribes and classes will nevertheless disappear, leaving the earth to those who, by
0 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
planting as well as by clearing away forests, and by tilling, irrigating, fertilizing, and  beautifying  the earth,
prove themselves children worthy of her bounty and
her blessing. Even if all things were made common,
and the idle welcomed to a perpetual feast upon the
products of the toil of the diligent, still, the former
would rapidly pass away, leaving few descendants, and
the children of the latter would ultimately inherit the
earth.
Labor begins by producing and storing the food and
fabrics required to shield men from the assaults of hunger and thirst, from storm and frost, from bleak winds
and the austerity of seasons and climates; but it does
not end here. Man's wants expand and multiply with
his means of satisfying them. He who would once have
deemed himself fortunate if provided with the means of
satisfying his most urgent physical needs, and "passing
rich on forty pounds a year," learns gradually, as his
means increase, to number a stately mansion, with spacious substructures and grounds, a costly equipage,
sumptuous furniture, rare pictures and statuary, plate
and precious stones, among his positive needs.   "The
heart of man is never satisfied" with its worldly
goods; and this is wisely ordered, that none should
cease to struggle and aspire.   The possessor of vast
wealth seems more eager to increase it than his needy
neighbor to escape from the squalid prisonl-house of
abject want. The man of millions, just tottering on
the brink of the grave, still schemes and contrives to
double those millions, even when he knows that his
hoard must soon pass to distant relatives to whose welfare he is utterly indifferent.  The mania for heaping up
riches, though it has a very material, tangible basis, outlives all rational motive and defies all sensible limitations. Many a thoroughly selfish person has risked and
14
0 
LABOR - PRODUCTION.
lost his life in eager pursuit of gain which he did not
need and could not hope to enjoy.
Yet, when poets, philanthropists, and divines, have
said their worst of it, the love of personal acquisition
remains the main-spring of most of the material good
thus far achieved on this rugged, prosaic planet. Columbus, wearily bearing from court to court his earnest
petition to be enabled to discover a new world, insisted
on his claim to be made hereditary Lord High Admiral
of that world, and to a tithe of all the profits that
should flow from its acquisition. The great are rarely
so great or the good so good that they choose to labor
and dare entirely for the benefit of others; while, with
the multitude, personal advantage is the sole incitement
to continuous exertion. Man's natural love of ease and
enjoyment is only overborne, in the general case, by his
consciousness that through effort and self-denial lies the
way to comfort and ease for his. downhill of life and a
more fortunate career for his children. Take away the
inducements to industry and thrift afforded by the law
which secures to each the ownership and enjoyment of
his rightful gains, and, through universal poverty and
ignorance, even Christendom would rapidly relapse into
utter barbarism.
But, though Industry is mainly selfish in its impulses,
it is beneficent, and even moral, in its habitual influences
and results. Closely scan any community, and you will
trace its reprobates and criminals back to homes and
haunts of youthful idleness.  Of the hundred youth
this day living in a rural village or school district, or on
a city block, if it be found on inquiry that sixty are
diligent, habitual workers, while the residue are growing
up in idleness, broken only by brief and fitful spasms of
industry, you may safely conclude that the sixty will become moral, useful, exemplary men and women, while
la 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
the forty will make their way, through lives of vice and
ignominy, to criminals', drunkards', or paupers' graves.
The world is full of people who wander from place to
place, whining for "Something to Do," and begging or
stealing their subsistence for want of work, whose fundamental misfortune is that they know how to do nothing,
having been brought up to just that. They are leeches
on the body politic, and must usually be supported by
it in prison or poor-house, and finally buried at its cost,
mainly because their ignorant or vicious parents culpably
failed to teach them or have them'taught how to work.
Now they will tell you, when in desperate need, that
they are "willing to do anything "; but what avails that,
since they know how to do nothing that is useful, or
that any one wants to pay them for doing?
There have been communities, and even races, that
proclaimed it a religious and moral duty of parents to
have each child taught some useful calling whereby an
honest living would be well-nigh assured. That child
might be the heir of vast wealth, or even of a kingdom;
but that did not excuse him from learning how to earn
his livelihood like a peasant. The Saracens and Moors,
who bore the faith of Mohammed on their victorious
lances to the very heart alike of Europe, Asia, and Africa,
so trained their sons to practise and honor industry;
unlike the Turks and Arabs, who, since the decay of the
empires of Saladin and Haroun al Raschid, have inherited the possessions, but not the genius, of the earlier
champions and disseminators of their faith. Greek and
Roman civilization had previously rotted away, under
the baneful influences of that contempt for and avoidance of labor which Slavery never fails to engender.
Not till the diversification of industry, through the
silent growth and diffusion of manufactures, had undermined and destroyed serfdom in Europe, was it possible
16 
LABOR- PRODUCTION.
to emancipate that continent from mediaeval ignorance
and barbarism. Not while the world still waits for a
more systematic, thorough enforcement of the principle
that every child should in youth be trained to skill and
eficiencby in some department of useful, productive industry,
can we hope to banish able-bodied Pauperism, with its
attendant train of hideous vices and sufferings, from the
civilized world. So long as children shall be allowed to
grow up in idleness must our country, with most other
countries, be overrun with beggars, thieves, and miserable
wrecks of manhood as well as of womanhood.
Every child should be trained to dexterity in some
useful branch of productive industry, not in order that he
shall certainly follow that pursuit, but that hemnay at all
events be able to do so in case he shall fail in the more
intellectual or artificial calling which he may prefer to it.
Let him seek to be a doctor, lawyer, preacher, poet, if he
will; but let him not stake his all on success in that pursuit, but have a second line to fall back upon if driven
from his first. Let him be so reared and trained that he
may enter, if he will, upon some intellectual calling in
the sustaining consciousness that he need not debase
himself, nor do violence to his convictions, in order to
achieve success therein, since he can live and thrive in
another (if you choose, humbler) vocation, if driven
from that of his choice. This buttress to integrity, this
assurance of self-respect, is to be found in a universal
training to efficiency in Productive Labor.
The world is full of misdirection and waste; but all
the calamities and losses endured by mankind through
frost, drouth, blight, hail, fires, earthquakes, inundations, are as nothing to those habitually suffered by them
through human idleness and inefficiency, mainly caused
(or excused) by lack of industrial training. It is quite
within the truth to estimate that one tenth of our people,
B
17 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
in the average, are habitually idle because (as they say)
they can find no employment. They look for work where
it cannot be had. They seem to be, or they are, unable
to do such as abundantly confronts and solicits them.
Suppose these to average but one million able-bodied
persons, and that their work is worth but one dollar each
per day; our loss by involuntary idleness cannot be less
than $ 300,000,000 per annum.   I judge that it is
actually $ 500,000,000. Many who stand waiting to be
hired could earn from two to five dollars per day had they
been properly trained to work.   "There is plenty of
room higher up," said Daniel Webster, in response to an
inquiry as to the prospects of a young man just entering
upon the practice of law; and there is never a dearth
of employment for men or women of signal capacity or
skill.   In this city, ten thousand women  are always
doing needlework for less than fifty cents per day, finding themselves; yet twice their number of capable,
skilful seamstresses could find steady employment and
good living in wealthy families at not less than one dollar
per day over and above board and lodging. He who is
a good blacksmith, a fair millwright, a tolerable wagonmaker, and can chop timber, make fence, and manage a
small farm if required, is always sure of work and fair
recompense; while he or she who can keep books or
teach music fairly, but knows how to do nothing else, is
in constant danger of falling into involuntary idleness
and consequent beggary. It is a broad, general truth
that no boy was ever yet inured to daily, systematic,
productive labor in field or shop throughout the latter
half of his minority, who did not prove a useful man,
and was not able to find work whenever he wished it.
Yet to the ample and constant employment of a whole
community one prerequisite is indispensable,- that a
variety of pursuits shall have been created or natural
18 
LABOR - PRODUCTION.
ized therein. A people who have but a single source of
profit are uniformly poor, not because that vocation is
necessarily ill-chosen, but because no single calling can
employ and reward the varied capacities of male and female, young and old, robust and feeble. Thus a luinbering or fishing region with us is apt to have a large
proportion of needy inhabitants; and the same is true
of a region exclusively devoted to cotton-growing or
gold-mining.   A diversity of pursuits is indispensable
to general activity aLid enduring prosperity. Sixty or
seventy years ago, what was then the District, and is now
the State, of Maine was a proverb in New England for
the poverty of its people, mainly because they were so
largely engaged in timrnber-cutting.   The  great graingrowing, wheat-exporting districts of the Russian empire
have a poor and rude people for a like reason. Thus the
industry of Massachusetts is immensely more productive
per head than that of North Carolina, or even that of
Indiana, as it will cease to be whenever manufactures
shall have been diffused over our whole country, as they
must and will be.  In Massachusetts, half the women
and nearly half the children add by their daily labor to
the aggregate of realized wealth; in North Carolina and
ill Indiana, little wealth is produced save by the labor of
men, including boys of fifteen or upward. WThen this
disparity shall have ceased, its consequence will also disappear.
And, though Man is first impelled to labor by the
spur of material want, the movement outlasts the impulse in which  it originated.   The  miser toils,  and
schemes, and saves, with an eye single to his own profit
or aggrandizement; but commodious public halls, grand
hotels, breezy parks, vast libraries, noble colleges, are
often endowed in his will or founded on his wealth.
WVhatever the past has bequeathed for our instruction,
19 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
civilization, refinement, or comfort, was created for us by
the saving, thrifty, provident minority of vanished generations, many of whom were despised and reviled
through life as absorbed in selfishness and regardless
of other than personal ends. How many of those who
flippantly disparaged and contemned him while he lived
have rendered to mankind such signal, abiding service as
Stephen Girard or John Jacob Astor.
He who is emphatically a worker has rarely time or
taste for crime or vice. Nature is so profoundly imbued
with integrity,- so implacably hostile to unreality and
sham,- so inflexible in her resolve to give so much for
so much, and to yield no more to whatever enticement
or wheedling,-  that the worker, as worker, is well-nigh
constrained to uprightness.   The  farmer or gardener
may be tempted to cheat as a trafficker,   to sell honey
that is half molasses, or milk that he has made sky-blue
with water,- yet even he knows better than to hope or
seek to defraud Nature of so much as a farthing; for
he  feels that she will not allow it.  Every thousand
bushels of grain, wherever produced, cost just so much exertion of nmind and muscle, and will be commanded by no
less. Stupidity, seeking to dispense with the brain-work,
may make them far too costly in muscular effort; but
Nature fixes her price for them, and will accept no dime
short of it. Work, wherever done, bears constant, emphatic testimony to the value, the necessity, of integrity
and truth.   Carlyle states  this more broadly, hence
more impressively, thus:
It has been written,'An  endless significance lies in
1,Nork:  a man perfects himself by working.  Foul jungles
are cleared away; fair seed-fields rise instead, and stately
cities; and withal the man himself first ceases to be jungle,
and foul, unwholesome desert thereby. Consider how, even
1 Past and Present.
20 
LABOR -  PRODUCTION.
in the meanest sort of labor, the whole soul of man is composed into a kind of real harmony the instant he sets himself
to work!  Doubt, Desire, Sorrow, Remorse, Indignation,
Despair itself, all these, like hell-dogs, beleaguering the soul
of the poor day-worker, as of every man; but he bends with
free valor against his task, and all these are stilled, all these
shrink murmuring far off into their caves. The man is now
a man.  The blessed glow of Labor in him,   is it not as
purifying fire, wherein all poison is burnt up, and of sour
smoke itself there is made bright, blessed flame?'
"Show me a people energetically busy, heaving, struggling,
all shoulders at the wheel, their hearts pulsing, every muscle
swelling with man's energy and will; I show you a people of
whom great good is already predicable,- to whom all manner of good is yet certain, if their energy endure.  By very
working, they will learn; they have, Antmus-like, their feet
on Mother Fact; how can they but learn?"
Our own great Chaniling had, some years earlier, set
forth the same general truth,    that of the beneficence
of Labor as a groundwork of human education and discipline,-  in terms somewhat less vigorous, but no less
explicit and positive, than those of the British essayist.
iHe says:1 -
"I do not expect a series of improvements by which the
laborer is to be released from his daily work. Still more, I
have no desire to dismiss him from his workshop and farm,to take the spade and axe from his hand, and to make his life
a long holiday. I have faith in labor; and I see the goodness of God in placing us in a world where labor alone can
keep us alive. I would not change, if I could, our own subjection to physical laws, our exposure to hunger and cold, and
the necessity of constant conflicts with the material world.
I would not, if I could, so temper the elements that they
should infuse into us only grateful sensations, -  that they
should make vegetation so exuberant as to anticipate every
1 Lectures on the Elevation of the Laboring Classes. By the Rev.
William Ellery Channing, D. D.
21 
POLITICAL ECONOMIY.
want, and the minerals so ductile as to offer no resistance to
our strength and skill. Such a world would make a contemptible race. Man owes his growth, his energy, chiefly
to the striving of the will, -that conflict with difficulty
which we call Effort. Easy, pleasant work does not make
robust minds; does'not give men a consciousness of their
powers; does not train them to endurance, to perseverance,
to steady force of will,- that force without which all other
acquisitions avail nothing.  Manual labor is a school in which
men are placed to get energy of purpose and character, - a
vastly more important endowment than all the learning of all
other schools. They are placed, indeed, under hard masters -
physical sufferings and wants, the power of fearful elements,
and the vicissitudes of all human things;  but these stern
teachers do a work which no compassionate, indulgent fiiend
could do for us; and true wisdom will bless Providence for
their sharp ministry. I have great faith in hard work. The
material world does much for the mind by its beauty and
order; but it does much more for our minds by the pain it
inflicts,- by its obstinate resistance, which nothing but
patient toil can overcome, - by its vast forces, which nothing
but unremitting skill and effort can turn to our use, - by its
perils, which demand continual vigilance, and by its tendendy
to decay. I believe that difficulties are more important to the
human mind than what we call assistances. Work we all
must, if we mean to bring out and perfect our nature. Even
if we do not work with the hands, we must undergo equivalent toil in some other direction. No business or study which
does not present obstacles, tasking to the full the intellect
and the will, is worthy of a man.   In science, he who does
not grapple with hard questions, who does not concentrate
his whole intellect on vigorous attention, who does not aim
to penetrate what at first repels him, will never attain to
mental force."
Ross Browne, summing  up his observations, made
during a recent tour of the Holy Land, remarks that he
saw in all that country but one man doing anything: he
was falling off the roof of a house. Need it be explained
22 
LABOR -  PRODUCTION.
that Palestine is under the sway of a race and rule that
reject the idea of Protection to Home Industry, holding
it condemned by the precepts of that Koran which is
their Bible. Labor is amazingly cheap there,- cheap
as in the day when each of the laborers in the vineyard
received a penny for his day's wages, whether he had
worked twelve hours or but one,- yet barely a few of
the very rudest manufactures are still prosecuted, and
these are palpably feeble and declining, with the great
body of the people impoverished, wretched, despairing.
Well may they be so under a government which (as a
recent writer from Constantinople reports) charges an
excise duty of twelve per cent. on ship-timber cut from
Turkish forests, and an impost of but eiyht per cent. on
like timber imported from a foreign land. No plundering the masses here for the profit of "monopolists" and
"cotton-lords": yet the wild Bedouin of the desert
levies at will on the wretched tiller of the soil; the
local tax-collector seizes most of what remains; and the
hapless cultivator is driven in the spring to the usurer,
of whom he borrows, at twenty-five to fifty per cent., the
means of re-seeding his unfertilized fields, and thus beginning anew his dreary, hopeless round of famished toil
and vexatious care.
The Hon. Robert Dale Owen, who spent several years
at Naples as Minister of the United States, declares the
lazzaroni of that great city unjustly stigmatized as inveterate, wilful idlers; he having found them always
accepting with alacrity any job that was offered them
and that they knew how to do. They were habitually
idle, simply because they could get no work. Let us
suppose that the,new kingdom of Italy were ruled by
some great genius like Czar Peter or Napoleon I.; can
ou believe that he would not find or make some way of
ertting these idle hundreds of thousands at work 7 that
23 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
hlie would be withheld from attempting it by some college pedant or blear-eyed book-worm, who should magisterially admonish him that governments have properly
nothing to do with industry or commerce,- that the
extent of their legitimate function is to keep men from
breaking each other's heads or picking each other's
pockets, -that they transcend their sphere whenever
they meddle with production, and seek to make two
blades of grass flourish where but one has hitherto been
grown! Who does not see that to set those thousands
at work -to make  them  busy, useful, thrifty,-  to
proffer them ample, remunerative, diversified employment- is to elevate them morally as well as physically, to increase the wealth and strength of the kingdom
or state; nay, more,-  to elevate the standard of human
nature and increase the sum of human well-being 1
But the Turks are slaveholders; and Slavery does not
concern itself, unless inimically, with the elevation of
labor or of the laboring class. The fundamental ideas
on which Protection is based war implacably on the enslavement of man.   Hence, Henry Clay, though a slaveholder, was never in sympathy with the Slavery Propaganda, and never enjoyed its confidence, because he was
a Protectionist, and it was felt instinctively that he could
not be heartily devoted at once to Slavery and to Protection. Hence, John C. Calhoun, though a Protectionist while in the House,- as he showed in framing and
advocating the tariff of 1816, - became an extreme,
intense Free-Trader from the hour in which he presented
himself to the country as the foremost champion of
Slavery, not as an evil to be borne, but a good to be
cherished, perpetuated, extended.  "Instinct is a great
matter"; and the Southern aristocracy of the last age
could not help regarding every cotton-factory erected
within their domain as a nursery and citadel of Abolition.
24 
LABOR -  PRODUCTION.
No matter though only whites were employed in it,
no matter though each of these were surcharged with
pride of caste and negro-hate, they felt that there
was an inevitable antagonism between a diversified, in telligent industry and their darling institution, and that
the outbreak of open war between them was merely a
question of time. The South of 1815 - 60 had every
element of manufacturing prosperity but that of intelligent labor: she could not have this and Slavery together;
and her ruling caste, regarding Slavery as the paramount
good, naturally frowned upon and froze out manufactures.
An instinct profounder than any logic impelled them to
this: a like instinct impelled the Congress of 1860 - 61,
so soon as the slaveholders had deserted their seats to
inaugurate the war of Secession, to frame and enact a
Protective Tariff.
I insist, then, that the consideration of cheapness,
though important, is not all-important; that "the life
is more than meat";  that, in laying the foundations
of a national policy, we are to consider not alone by
what course we may obtain our supply of sheetings,
flannels, or iron, at the lowest cash price, but how we
shall most surely and  fully develop  and employ the
entire industrial capacity of our people. Even if it
wvere as true as it is false, that we might make more
money by devoting the entire energies of our people to
the growing of corn or cotton than by a broadly diversified industry it would still be a grave, a fatal blunder
to do this; because it could not fail to doom the masses
to relative ignorance and barbarism,- to obstruct their
intellectual as well as industrial development, and stunt
their growth in civilization and all the amenities of life.
Infinite are the uses of Labor; but its highest and noblest
frullitionll is MAN!
2
2 ,) 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
II.
COMMERCE  EXCHANGES.
OuRs is preeminently an age of Traffic. The rapid and
vast extension of commerce since the century distinguished by the invention of printing and the discovery of America; the applications of steam to facilitate
and speed the creation of material wealth through manufactures and its diffusion through transportation and
trade; the consequent sudden and vast increase of whatever ministers to the sustenance, comfort, or enjoyment
of the human race,- have combined to give to Traffic a
recent growth and development far transcending the
wildest dreams of antiquity. The commerce of Thebes
or of Tyre, of Carthage or of Alexandria in her palmy
days, was trivial in volume when compared with that
whereof London or New York is now the focus. And
the gigantic enterprises now in progress or in contemplation, whereby this continent, having already been
traversed by one line of railroad through the heart of
our country, is soon to be belted with at least two more,
paralleled by similar lines of communication, by rail or
by water, across the Isthmus of Darien, that of Tehuantepee, and the intervening plateaus of Nicaragua and
Costa Rica, with the no longer problematical ship-canal
across-the Isthmus of Suez, to say nothing of kindred
undertakings in other parts of the world, presage a still
further and vaster augmentation of the volume and
momentum of international, trans-oceanic and trans-con tinental commerce. In the conception of its votaries,
Traffic is yet in its infancy, and is on the verge of a
26 
COMMERCE - EXCHANGES.
development rapid and vast far beyond even its recent
advances.
Very naturally, the popular apprehension is dazzled by
the prospect, as it was, two or three centuries since, by
the newly expanded possibilities of maritime adventure
and discovery. The imagination of boyhood is intoxi cated by visions of wealth to be suddenly acquired, of
ease to be readily secured, through addiction to some
form of Traffic. Our ambitious, aspiring youth, unless
educated for professions, forsake, almost en m?asse, their
rural homes in quest of mercantile training and a mercantile career. The ignorant, friendless, penniless negro,
just let loose from hereditary bondage, drops his detested
hoe in the half-tilled cotton-field, and hies to the nearest
city, in the sanguine hope that he may there live lazily
and luxuriously upon the profits of huckstering, oysterpeddling, rum-selling, or some other form of petty traffic,
or at least as the servitor or menial of one of the more
favored votaries of some loftier guild of commerce. The
moderate but certain gains of patient, creative industry,
and especially of rural industry, seem petty and despicable when compared with the great prizes sometimes
drawn in the lottery of Trade. These prizes are paraded,
noted, discussed, envied; they fill the public eye and
command admiring regard; while the far more numerous
blanks are unobserved, unregarded, or soon forgotten.
Of every hundred who embark in traffic, it was long since
ascertained that a large majority fail, while scarcely one
in twenty secures and retains a competence; but the
one challenges attention and fixes regard, while the nineteen are quickly hidden from view by the waters of
oblivion. The passion for gambling, in whatever form,
seems as fascinating to the civilized as the savage breast;
and no exposure of its perils and horrors suffices to eradicate or fully master it. Individuals repel or vanquish
27 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
it; the masses are ever eager to expose themselves to
immolation on its gory altars.
And, while all Commerce is thus attractive, that which
traverses oceans and interweaves the transactions of
continents naturally proffers the largest prizes and the
most  resistless attractions.   Prices are charged and
profits realized on the products of another continent
which would be preposterous and unattainable were
producer and consumer acquainted with and living in
proximity to each other.   The greatest fortune ever
acquired by an American in Europe was mainly realized
in a few years by negotiating in England the bonds of
several of our railroad companies, and converting the
proceeds into the rails and chairs required in building
or renovating the roads of those companies. The colossal fortune of the Rothschilds had a basis not dissimilar
to this. Our most eminent and successful New York
merchant was not in youth trained to commerce, and
did not contemplate a mercantile career; but, after
devoting two or three of the later years of his minority
to teaching in this city, he returned to Europe to receive
the modest patrimony bequeathed him by the last to
die of his progenitors. Having obtained it, and being
on the point of embarking to return to this, the country
of his choice, a friend suggested that he might largely
increase his little fortune by investing it at Belfast in a
fabric of that busy city known as Lace Inse tions; and
he, though utterly unacquainted with merchandise, fol lowed the advice; selling the goods, on his arrival in
New York, for as many dollars as they had cost him
shillings (sterling), and thus probably trebling his pat rimony in the course of two or three months. The
revelation thus made to him of what might be acquired
through commerce changed and fixed his destiny; and
half a century of persistent, extensive, and constantly
28 
COMMERCE - EXCHANGES.
expanding importation and sale of European fabrics, has
placed him among the foremost in wealth and rank of
our merchant princes. His has been a most successful,
brilliant, and honored career; and yet I cannot doubt
that he would have been far more useful to his country
and to mankind had he consecrated his great abilities
and tireless, measureless energy to the naturalization on
our own soil of the usefuil arts and processes, along with
the artificers and workmen, whose products he has so
largely and so profitably imported from the Old World.
As this avowal brings me into open, direct collision
with the more widely accredited teachers of Political
Economy, I pause here to intrench and reconnoitre.
In my conception, the chief end of a true Political
Economy is the conversion of idlers and, useless exchangers
or traffickers into habitual, effective producers of wealth.
If a community whereof one-half live by vocations which
add nothing to its aggregate of useful products can be
so organized, so transformed, that the proportion of its
non-producers shall be reduced one-fourth, its wealth, comfort, intelligence, refinement, can hardly fail (other things
being equal) to be essentially increased by the change;
if the proportion of non-producers could thus be reduced
to one-eighth, the resulting benefit would be doubled.
And one of the chief waste-gates of human effort is that
afforded by the consumption of time and energies in the
transportation across oceans and continents of staples or
fabrics which might as easily -that is, with little or
no more labor - have been produced in the region
where they are required and consumed.
Understand, once for all, that I do not propose a contravention of the laws of Nature, nor of any of them.
If my countrymen can only grow coffee or allspice,
caoutchouc or cocoa, in hot-houses, at many times the
cost (in labor) of its production in tropical regions, then
29 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
I would nowise encourage its growth among us at all.
The free trade badinage about protecting the growth of
pine-apples in Minnesota, or of anrrow-root in Maine, extracting sunbeams from cucumbers, &c., &c., is simple
buffoonery in evasion of the true issue.  I quite comprehend that even international and trans-oceanic commerce
has a beneficent function, - that of diffusing among the
inhabitants of all zones and countries those natural products of each to which the soil or climate of another is
ungenial, so that all may enjoy, in a measure, the blessings divinely bestowed upon each. And, so far from
wishing to obstruct or impede such diffusion, I acquiesce
most reluctantly in the imposition or retention of any
duty or tax whatever on those products of other climes
which cannot, because of natural impediments, be successfully grown or rivalled on our own soil. Show me
that A~ature has interposed a serious barrier to the
growth or production of any staple in my country, and
I will strenuously insist that no duty be imposed on the
importation of that product unless for revenue, and
that this shall be removed so soon as the treasury can
spare its proceeds.
Now let me show, without reference to existing interests, wherein and why I would apply the principle of
Protection:  Tea is grown almost wholly in China, Japan, India;
and, wherever grown at all, in latitudes and climates
whereof parallels are found in our own country. And
we have already ascertained by experiment that the teaplant germinates, flourishes, and matures, in upper South
Carolina and in East Tennessee. It should have been
tested long since at a hundred different points throughout the Union; but there is no room for rational doubt
that as large an area of this republic as of China will
produce tea abundantly and continuously, under proper
cultivation.
30 
COMMERCE -  EXCHANGES.
Now it is inevitable that, so long as the tea drank by
our people shall continue to be grown in China and
Japan, the consumers here will pay (quite apart from and
above any tax or duty imposed on its importation by our
government) three to six times as much for their tea as
the Chinese growers receive for it. The old hyson, for
which our drinkers pay in the average a full dollar
(specie) per pound, over and above the tax which goes
into our Federal treasury, has doubtless been bought of
the grower for twenty to thirty cents per pound; the
residue of its cost to the consumer (less tax) being made
up of the profits and charges of the various traders and
forwarders, agents and brokers, through whose hands it
has passed on its way from the interior of China to the
interior of the United States.
I want to save the millions on millions thus annually
expended,- I believe uselessly, wastefully expended. I
want to divide them between the grower and the consumer of tea, or to secure them to him where the same
person shall be both grower and consumer. I believe
that to pursue this policy is to increase the reward of
Labor generally, and especially of American Labor. Instead of one thousand persons growing tea in China, one
thousand more mining gold and silver in Nevada to pay
for that tea, and other three or four thousands employed
as merchants, factors, shippers, navigators, canal-boat
men, brokers, &c., &C.,  &c., in transmitting the tea from
the grower to the consumer, exchanging hIis product for
the gold and silver wherewith the Chinese are mainly paid,
and forwarding that gold and silver (or some equivalent) to
the tea-grower, I would have two thousands of our own people growing tea, two thousands more producing the various
staples and fabrics that our tea-growers would require in
exchange for it, reduce the whole number required to
effect the necessary exchanges to one thousand, and save
31 
POLITICAL ECONOMAY.
the gold and silver to reinforce our now dishonored Currency and pay off our enormous Debt.
ANow I protest that, in maturing and avowing this conviction, I have been nowise impelled by contempt or
hate of the Chinese,   of their paganism, their polygamy, their pigtails, or their reputed fondness for stewed
puppies. Whatever there may be of evil or of good in
their peculiarities lies entirely outside of the range of
my economic conceptions and impulses.   Nor have I
been swayed by any special addiction to tea, or to teagrowing, nor by any desire to enrich present or prospective tea-growers, much less to endow them with a
monopoly, gainfill to them but baleful to all others. I
have no peculiar affection for them,- no desire to promote their interest otherwise than as it is identified with
the general good. I perceive and admit the possibility
that certain persons might, by an early importation of
tea-seed, or by growing large quantities of tea-plants for
sale in advance of most others, secure to themselves
peculiar advantages; but this is an incident which I did
not desire, and care not to obviate. I do not see how
those persons can be justly reproached as monopolists,
any more than the grower of a new American grape or
seedling potato. And, if they should proceed to grow
tea in advance of their neighbors, and should sell their
early crops at exceptionally high prices, I should be
rather inclined to rejoice over than deprecate their good
fortune, because I am sure it would incite more and more
to embark in American tea-growing, till the profit thereof should be reduced to an equation with that of other
departments of our National Industry. Unless a regard
for self-interest has been eliminated from human nature,
and water has ceased to run dowr hill, this consequence
of large profits accruing in a pursuit open to all is inevitable; and it is this that I seek by Protection to secure.
3'2 
COMMERCE - EXCHANGES.
" But how do you know that tea would be cheapened
to our people by home production?"
I do not know that the seaboard price would be reduced, though I firmly believe it ultimately would be.
Of the hundred leading products which we formerly
imported almost or quite exclusively, and which we have
naturalized on our soil by Protection, I am confident
that not less than ninety are now supplied to our people
at a lower cash price than they were previously, or could
now be in the absence of such naturalization. A few
of them might sell cheaper in the seaboard cities if
imported; but they would be dearer, in the average,
throughout the country. Thus the prices habitually
quoted, of such bulky staples as Salt and Pig Iron, are
those which rule in New York; but our home product
of those important articles is made at various points
throughout the interior, where they are nearer to the
great body of our consumers, and hence more valuable
to them, than if laid down in the Commercial Emporium. A ton of Saginaw or Kanawha salt, that would
be twice as dear in New  York as one brought from
Turk's Island, may nevertheless be cheaper to its consumers in Kentucky or Wisconsin than foreign salt
could be, even in the absence of any impost at all,the expense of transportation, which enhances the price
of imported salt to Western consumers, reducing the
relative cost, to them, of home-made salt. So of every
staple of considerable bulk or weight. Yet all the calculations and comparisons of Free-Traders are based on
the prices which rule in the seaboard cities, where imported articles are cheapest, and their home-made rivals
always relatively, and often positively, dearest.
I may now properly consider the uniform assumption
of Free-Traders that Protection is a device of wealthy
capitalists, who, having somehow secured a monopoly of
2A                                c
33 
POLITICAL ECONO.OMY.
our markets, wish to be upheld by law in their gainful
privilege of selling therein bad and dear fabrics in preference to such as are good and cheap. All tolerably
informed persons must be aware that this assumption
is a flagrant defiance of history. Whoever will consult
Alexander Hamilton's Report on Manufactures, the writings of Matthew Carey, Hezekiah Niles, and their compeers, with the speeches of Henry Clay, Thomas Newton, James Tod, Walter Forward, Rollin C. Mallary, and
other forensic champions of Protection, with the Messages of our earlier Presidents, of Governors Simon
Snyder, George Clinton, Daniel D. Tompkins, De Witt
Clinton, &c., &c., cannot fail to note that they championed, not the maintenance, but the creation of home
manufactures, - not mainly the preservation of existing
interests and industries, but the naturalizing or calling
into life of pursuits new to our countrymen; and this
not for the sake, primarily, of those who should thus be
incited to manufacture, or drawn hither from Europe to
plant their arts on our soil, but for the benefit, directly
and mainly, of those who then were, and would probably remain, farmers. In their day, manufactures were
unknown to or in their rude infancy among our people,
of whom fully seven-eighths were subsisted by agriculture, and a full tenth by commerce, navigation, and the
simpler mechanic arts; leaving but a minute fraction
engaged in the arduous, difficult task of naturalizing a
few of the ruder, simpler manufactures on our soil, with
scarcely a skirmish-line of legislative defence against a
powerful, determined, often crushing, foreign rivalry.
The main considerations which impelled our early
champions of Protection were fairly and forcibly set
forth by General Jackson, in his well-known letter to
Dr. L. H. Coleman, of Virginia, wherein, near the close
of our country's first half-century of independence, and
34 
COMIMERCE - EXCHANGES.
when he had been for thirty years conspicuously active
in every sphere of public life, in the very crisis of the
struggle for Protection as a recognized and cardinal feature of our national policy, he said:
I will ask what is the real situation of the agriculturist?
W\here has the American farmer a market for his surplus products?  Except for cotton, he has neither a foreign nor a
home market. Does not this clearly prove, when there is no
market either at home or abroad, that there is too much labor
employed in agriculture? and that the channels of labor
should be multiplied?  Common sense points out at once
the remedy. Draw from agriculture the superabundant labor, employ it in mechanism and manufactures, thereby creating a home market for your breadstuffs, and distributing
labor to a most profitable account, and benefits to the country will result. Take from agriculture in the United States
six hundred thousand men, women, and children, and you at
once give a home market for more breadstuffs than all Europe now furnishes. In short, sir, we have been too long
subject to the policy of British merchants. It is time we
should become a little more Americanized, and, instead of
feeding the paupers and laborers of Europe, feed our own, or
else, in a short time, by continuing our present policy, we
shall be paupers ourselves.
"It is therefore my opinion that a careful tariff is much
wanted to pay our national debt, and afford us the means of
that defence within ourselves on which the safety and liberty
of our country depend, and last, though not least, give a
proper distribution to our labor, which must prove beneficial
to the liappiness, independence, and wealth of the community."
I have cited this familiar passage to prove the state
of facts then existing, and the considerations which impelled many of our foremost men to advocate Protection
as a remedy for existing and formidable evils. True, I
hold the views thus expressed judicious and every way
sound, while by others they are decisively condemned
3  
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
and rejected; but even these must concede their value
as testimony, both as to our then subsisting economic
condition and to the views which impelled our wiser
statesmen to seek a remedy through Protection.
Yet again, I call attention to General Jackson's pregnant testimony in exposure of the fallacy which represents Free Trade as affording the farmer a choice of
tw.o markets, while Protection would confine him to one.
Our markets were then glutted with foreign metals,
wares, and fabrics, admitted at very moderate rates of
duty; yet General Jackson testifies that, "except for
cotton, we have neither a foreign nor a home market"
for our agricultural products, and insists that we must
create one by fostering and building up domestic mannfactures.  Now it may be said that the British Corn
Laws (since repealed) were the chief cause of this
dearth of demand for our food staples; but the obstacles interposed by nature to their sale abroad at a profit
are permanent, and more formidable than those devised
by man. Those edible products which the farmer grows
with comparative ease and to greatest profit   grass,
fruit, vegetables, &c., &c.- must find a market near
the point of production or they cannot be disposed of at
all without ruinous loss. They are too bulky or too
perishable to bear transportation to distant consumers.
Some twelve or fourteen years ago (since the British
Corn Laws were repealed) I visited Iowa City, then the
capital of the State, barely fifty-six miles from the Mississippi, with which, as with the whole country this side,
it was in direct communication by railroad. It was midwinter; the streets of that city were thronged throughout the day by the farmers of the vicinage, each with his
great wagon heaped with Indian-corn, which he was trying to sell at fifteen cents per (shelled) bushel.   WThen
one succeeded (which he did with difficulty, since the
36 
COMMIERCE - EXCHANGES.
supply exceeded the demands he had to take his pay in
the vilest shinplasters ever fabricated, purporting to be
notes of the "Bank of Florence," Nebraska, but all issued
and reissued in Iowa, and occasionally redeemed there at
ten to twenty-five per cent. discount. It was useless to
refuse or grumble, for there was no other money (I) to be
had, and the farmers must obtain groceries and pay overdue bills somehow. This corn was then worth in New
York at least five, and in New England six times the
price ruling in Iowa City; in Old England, doubtless,
still more: but the cost of transporting it thither from
Iowa would have eaten up the gross proceeds.   Not by
tariffs on either shore of the Atlantic was corn-growing
in Iowa rendered thus unprofitable, but by the inievitable cost of transporting so bulky a staple across half a
continent and a broad ocean in quest of purchasers and
consumers. It is possible that such cost has since been
somewhat reduced, but it still amounts to a virtual prohibition. That the recompense of farming in Iowa has
since been materially increased, is due mainly to the fact
that cities, villages, factories, furnaces, founderies, &c.,
&c., have meantime been established or enlarged within
or near her borders, signally increasing the money value
of her staples, by bringing adequate markets much nearer
than they were to her farmers. In other words, the
policy so forcibly commended by General Jackson has
been adopted, and the results foreshadowed by him have
been measurably realized.
And here let me notice the cavil which runs thus
"If Protection is good on the large scale, why not on the
small?  If the United States should be fenced about by
a tariff, why not Illinois or Rhode Island." In its
original form, this quip applied to the substitution of
stoves for fire-places when it had become desirable,
through the diminution of our forests, to economize fuiel;
37 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
and it ran thus, "If one stove will save half the fuel,
why not buy two, and save it all?" Suich logic may
provoke a smile, but can hardly require serious refuta tion. The fact that every industrial pursuit, and es pecially every one that requires a heavy concentration
of capital, skill, machinery, &c., to insure its successful
prosecution, must have "room to turn itself," - a rea sonably capacious area upon which to find customers and
consumers, - is too obvious to require demonstration.
To argue thence that there should be no tariffs is to in sist that, since cattle are benefited by a change of pas ture, therefore the grazing portion of each farm should
be fenced into so many pastures as there are days in the
year. Canada has cheaper labor and cheaper capital
than the United States; yet my question last winter,
"Why not establish cotton and woollen factories here in
Montreal?" was parried by another, "Where are our
markets. "- those of Europe being remote and unremunerative,- those of the United States at hand, yet
virtually inaccessible, - those of British America convenient, but inadequate. The cost of diffusing and exchanging the products of agriculture and manufactures
respectively throughout a country may be decidedly
less than if everything needed by its people were required to be produced on each square league of its area;
though it would nevertheless be ruinous to send the
ores, cotton, wool, and food of one continent to another,
and receive back their proceeds in the form of wares and
fabrics. In this, as in many things, there is a just, beneficent medium between extremes; and that medium is
not always determined by the prices that rule in the
open market, as I shall aim to show hereafter.
This, then, is our position respecting Commerce:
that it has a broad, though not a boundless, field of legitimate and benignant activity; that it should be the
38 
COMIMERCE - EXCHANGES.
servant, not the master, of Industry; that it should
interchange the productions of diverse zones and climates, following, in its trans-oceanic voyages, lines of
longitude oftener than those of latitude, and aiding to
disseminate useful arts and processes rather than serving to discourage and retard such diffusion by crushing
out infantile and crude essays at their establishment in
countries to which they have hitherto been strangers.
This they may do, and often have done, by bringing to
bear disastrously upon the young aspirants the fatal
competition of their older and far stronger rivals, located
in lands where those arts were long since cradled, and
wherein they have attained, through ages of prosperous
growth, a ripe and hardy maturity. Such competition
is neither just in its essence nor benignant in its effects.
It impels the trained and mailed veteran to mortal combat with the green, unarmed stripling who is yet a
novice in the art of war.  "Let every one look out for
himself! " brayed the donkey dancing among chickens;
which might answer for the donkey, but not so well for
the chickens. Industry has its campaigns and its battlefields, and is not yet beyond the need of intrenchments
and fortifications. How these are to be constructed,
armed, and manned, I shall endeavor to indicate in the
following chapters.
39 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
III.
CAPITAL - SKILL- INVENTION - INTEL            LECTUAL PROPERTY.
CAPITAL is the unconsumed and unwasted remainder
of the fruits or proceeds of Industry. He who spends
as fast as he earns accumulates no capital: the first man
who ever produced or fashioned any substance for use
beyond his instant need was the first capitalist. The
absolute savage, fixed to no place, and living from hand
to mouth on the spontaneous bounties of Nature, is as
nearly devoid of capital as a human being well can be.
The moment he begins to work or save for the satisfaction of his wants that stretch beyond the present hour,
he becomes in some sort a capitalist, feeling the instinct
as well as the need of accumulation. The hireling of
civilization, who "lives as he goes along," often spending
by night in dissipation more than he earns by day, and
usually in debt for board and clothing to the full extent
of his worldly goods or beyond it, is more destitute of
capital than the average barbarian. Apart from bankrupts, almost every adult freeman is to some extent a
capitalist.
Civilization is founded on accumulated Capital and
systematic Labor. It cannot dispense with either.
Though all men should work diligently, efficiently,
through each day, yet, if they spent as fast as they
earned, civilized society must perish, and human existence be maintained with difficulty, if at all. The barroom loafer who decries Capital could not survive the
next hard Winter without its aid. He lives, at least
40 
CAPITAL.
through the inclement season, on that which others
more provident have saved and stored against a time of
need. He may or may not render a prompt and fair
equivalent; but, in the absence of capitalists, opportunity to make the indispensable trade would be wanting.
There is none so poor or wretched that Capital - earned
and owned by others    has not already saved him from
perishing of want, as it doubtless will do again and again.
Capital, justly acquired and wisely employed, is every
one's friend, smoothing the ruggedness and lessening the
discomfort of even the most forlorn and hapless career.
Capital is at odds with Destitution when, and only
when, it monopolizes the bounties of Nature, and either
denies their use to the needy or exacts an exorbitant
price therefor. For Nature, though apt to be stern in
her requirements, does yet garnish the earth at seasons
with spontaneous fruits of her bounty, - Vegetables,
Roots, Fruits, Nuts, &c.,-  at once palatable and nutritious, -which signally conduce to the sustenance and
solace of Man. Capital, finding or deeming the partition of lands indispensable to their thorough improvement and efficient cultivation, declares the soil, with all
upon it, the rightful property of designated individuals,
and makes whoever intrudes thereon a trespasser in violation of law. Herein is natural right restricted in the interest of Property, which, on the other hand, is compelled
to fence and bolt, lock and guard, against the depredations
of those who would appropriate and enjoy that which
they never produced or earned. If the rights of Capital
were never stretched beyond their proper limits, the
tendency to override them might be modified.
In laying down the foregoing premises, I believe I do
not difbfer essentially from the accredited teachers of
Political Economy, who have expended many more words
on the subject; though I have failed to recognize the
41 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
distinction, strenuously insisted on by some if not by
all of them, between Wealth and Capital. All Capital
is Wealth, of course; but all Wealth is not (in their
view) Capital, which is restricted, in their conception, to
that portion or kind of Wealth which directly ministers
to the creation of other Wealth, through the employ ment and recompense of Labor. The distinction seems
to me unimportant if not wholly illusory. A youth
just of age works faithfully and lives frugally through
his first year of independence, and has a net surplus of
one hundred dollars paid him by his employer at the
close. This now is his Capital. He buys with it a gold
watch for his own wearing, and now he has no Capital;
but to-morrow, having a chance to sell his watch for a
horse with which he proposes to grow on shares a field
of corn next season, he makes the trade, and becomes
again a capitalist. He grows the corn, and, having sold
it with his horse, at the close of his second year finds
himself worth three hundred dollars in cash,- all Capital; but, being tempted to marry, he invests it all in a
house in which to reside after marriage, and, not regarding this as an element or instrument of production, he
is again without Capita]. It seems to me safer and
simpler to regard all Wealth as Capital, though for the
moment it may be but potentially, passively so. This
by no means ignores the truth that both Labor and Capital may be injudiciously, wastefully invested or expended,
nay,-  that Labor may be so wretchedly misapplied as
to produce no Wealth at all. The ruins of ancient capitals like Tadmor, Thebes, or Palmyra, are not capital,
and can be made to yield little or no wealth; the Pyramids cost a vast amount of labor, yet have no pecuniary
value; the remains of the Coliseum or of Pompeii have
very little. I fully concur in the assumption that a
prodigal's lavish expenditure no more contributes, in the
42 
CAPITAL.
large view, to the relief of poverty than to the increase
of national wealth. The drunken idiot or maniac who
sows the street with dollars, to be scrambled for by the
mob, does not befriend-he rather debauches-his scuffling, struggling, shouting followers. I fully insist that he
who makes and saves, though already possessed of vast
wealth, is a greater benefactor to the poor than though
he were content to riot, spend, and squander. But, when
I read that the wages of the poor necessarily rise or fall
with the increase of the wealth of the rich, I hesitate
and demur. Put it in the less positive form of the first 1
of Mr.  Mill's "Fundamental  Propositions  respecting
Capital," viz. "That Industry is limited by Capital,"
and I deem it still too sweeping. Do we not all know
that capital was very scarce as well as dear in California
throughout the year (1849) following the discovery of
gold, yet labor has rarely been anywhere in more eager
demand, or more bounteously rewarded, than just then
and there. To-day, the wealth of California must be
thrice as much per head as it was in 1849 or either of
the three following years; yet labor is neither in such
eager demand nor so generously recompensed as it then
was. I am far enough from wishing to assume or incite
an antagonism between Capital and Labor; I firmly be lieve that, other things being equal, an increase of the
wealth of a country per head is advantageous to its
poorer classes in promising them ampler and steadier
employment; yet, in so far as it tends to increase the
price of lands and other fixed property, and thus impede
the transmutation of hirelings into independent free holders and artisans who direct their own labor, it is
rather a bane than a blessing to the poor.
Nor do I admit that Capital must be consumed in
order to render it productive. It may be consumed in
1 Principles of Political Economy, by J. S. Mill, Vol. I. Ch. V.
4 "-I' 
POLITICAL ECONOMIY.
the process of production, and often is, since use is trying and most material things are frail and perishable;
but the plough that has broken up a hundred fertile acres
may have only been scoured brighter by the process, and
the colt that has been judiciously broken and inured to
labor this year may be only the better plough-horse therefore next year. What is generally true in the premises
is this: Industry applies itself to the transmutation of
certain substances into others presumptively of greater
value. The crop of wheat grown one year, being apportioned into seed and bread-corn, is in part paid to laborers (directly or indirectly) as the wages of their labor,
and in part sowed for next year's harvest; and the crop,
if no disaster is encountered, is reasonably expected to
replenish the farmer's granary and leave a surplus for
sale.
The material wealth which has been amassed by man kind throughout thousands of years is of incalculable
amount and value. Apart from that held by individuals, the churches and other public edifices, canals,
roads, railways, bridges, literature, paintings, sculpture,
&c., &c., though their cost was enormous, are worth far
more than that. Immense is our indebtedness to the
genius, industry, and thrift of past ages for the wealth
they have bequeathed us, and signal our obligation to
transmit these blessings, not merely unimpaired, but enhanced, to those who will come after us.
And, however great our obligation to the departed for
the palpable, material wealth they bequeathed us, they
have laid us under still greater obligation by their mag-.
nificent legacy of experience and skill.   Having this,
we might in time, were they all swept away, recreate
most of our worldly possessions; deprived of it, we could
scarcely, and with great difficulty, preserve our bare
lives. The teeming millions of China are constantly
44 
SKIILL - INVENTION.
near the brink of starvation,1 which many of them daily
overpass; less, I apprehend, because of the density of
their population than of the rudeness and inefficiency of
their labor-saving devices. On the other hand, so prodigious has been the progress of invention ill Europe
that the steam-engines of Great Britain alone have been
estimated as equivalent in force, if not in productive
capacity, to six hundred millions of men. Cheap beyond
comparison as is the labor of Eastern Asia, the machinery of Great Britain competes with it in its own markets, rivals it, undersells its products at the very doors
of the producers, divests them of employment, and
dooms them to die of famine. In my early boyhood,
Chinese cotton fabrics, known as Naukins, &c., were extensively worn, even by the poor, in New England; but
that trade was destroyed by British and American powerlooms nearly half a century ago; and now the peasantry
of China and India are largely clad in the products of
those looms.   Cotton grown  in India is extensively
shipped to England, there spun and woven, returned in
the shape of fabrics to India, and there worn all but exclusively by those among whom it was grown, who would
gladly have spun and woven it for six-pence sterling per
day's work, yet who paid the cost of two journeys around
the Cape of Good Hope, that of the British manufacture,
the interest on its value during its long absence, and the
profits of several mercantile transfers, and yet were supplied with it in the market of India at lower cash prices
than her own looms could afford.
Now I would not have had India rest content evermore
with her rude, inefficient, antiquated hand-looms, and for
their sake exclude the cheaper fabrics of the Occident;
1 Mr. Burlingame informed me that the estimated loss of life in
China by reason of the late formidable "Taeping" rebellion was no
less than twelve millions of human beings, most of whom died of want.
45 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
but I wouild have had her say in effect to her spinners
and weavers: "Purchase and import, or rival and sur pass, the British machinery, and acquire the skill needed
to work it; meantime, the duties on imported fabrics,
whether British or other, shall be fixed so that you can not be undersold and driven from the home market
while you are making the requisite experiments and
efiforts." I would have done this, had I been in power in
India, in the interest primarily of my own country and
her people, but ultimately in that of Labor everywhere,
and the permanent well-being of the whole human race.
In the infancy of our country, there were those who
honestly believed and argued that she should sedulously
eschew all species of manufactures, and devote her in dustry wholly to agriculture, as the nobler, more healthful, more invigorating pursuit, and that which would
most surely conserve the virtues and the liberties of her
people.1 This, in practice, would have constrained our
people to cling to the coast of the Atlantic and the valleys of the navigable rivers which pay tribute to that
ocean. True, they would have ultimately constructed
canals and railroads reaching out into the broad West;
but the cost of transporting grain and other bulky
staples thence to Europe in such enormous quantities
as would have been required to pay for all the wares
and fabrics we require, would have eaten up three
fourths of the proceeds, and kept the growers poor and
in debt evermore.   Were " our workshops in Ellrope"
(as Hamilton's antagonists contended that they should
be and remain), we could not have sold abroad our raw
staples of food and clothing in the requisite quantities,
but must have lived in rude poverty indefinitely. That
our people are ingenious and energetic is undoubted; but
1 See Alexander Hamilton's celebrated Report, as Secretary of the
Treasury-, on MAanufaetures- 1791.
46 
SKILL -  INVENTION.
they would have found it no more easy to make brick
without straw than did the Israelites in their Egyptian
captivity.   No  great invention ever yet sprang  fullarmed from the brain of its author; as a general rule,
none but a weaver invents or improves a loom; and
nearly every machine of great value is the product of a
score of successive inventions, by nearly so many different laborers thereon. Those countries only which cherish and delight in labor-savinlg devices have added aught
of moment to the world's inestimable aggregate thereof.
Europe could not now afford for a billion of dollars to
lose the inventions and improvements in machinery for
which she is indebted to America, and the great mass
of which, in all human probability, would never have
been, had the policy of buying from Europe every article
of manufacture, which marked and fitted the era of our
colonial dependence, been persevered in to this day.
Our oldest manufactures are naturally our cheapest
and best. Europe cannot rival our axes,1 adzes, and
other edge-tools; nor can she surpass, either in quality
or cheapness, the spades and shovels extensively made
by one Massachusetts family throughout the last fifty
years. Cut-nails are an American idea; and no other
nation yet makes them so cheaply or half so abundantly.
We  have begun, after  many years' trying, to make
wrought-nails also by machinery, anrid will naturally keep
the lead in this department also. I have heard that the
screw-auger, whereby the cost of boring holes in timbers
was reduced more than half, is a Connecticut invention,
and never patented, though its value to mechanics defies
1 Colonel Ashbel Smith, first ambassador to Great Britain from the
Republic of Texas, informed me that he (being a Southron) purchased
in England, on his first visit, a supply of British edge-tools, and sent
them home for sale; but their quality was so strikingly inferior to
their Yankee rivals, that no one could be found in Texas to use them.
47 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
computation.   The  planing-machine, the innumerable
reapers and mowers, the sewing-machine, and ever so
many kindred trophies of Yankee genius for invention,
have enriched not our-country only, but the civilized
world. And, as the cotton-gin would surely not have
been invented here had not the cotton culture preceded
and required it, so the arts, in the prosecution of which
other American inventions were called into being, had to
be previously known and practised among us, or the
world must have waited indefinitely for the triumphs
they incited. We are, I rejoice to learn, on the eve of a
similar stride in the production of all forms of wrought
or malleable iron, through a Pennsylvania invention
whereby the expensive process known  as puddling is
to be superseded or immensely reduced in cost; and
a thousand other beneficent applications of inventive
genius to the cheapening of processes, the increase of
pr9ducts, are on the point of practical realization. No
man can truthfully suggest an article which, having formerly been wholly imported, has since, through Protection, been so naturalized on our soil that it is now
produced here nearly to the extent of satisfying our own
wants, yet which now costs our people more than it did
when we procured it from abroad. And the area whereon such achievements are possible is by no means fully
occupied. We shall yet make our own crockery and
finer kinds of pottery, which we still mainly import,
and shall gTow as well as manufacture the silks for which
we are still mainly indebted to the insects of China and
the looms of France, we having in California a more
genial climate for the silk-worm than Europe or Asia can
boast; while we are already reeling and spinning, on
American machinery invented for the purpose, vast
quantities of raw silk imported in an imperfect or damarged condition (answering to the "swingle-tow" of flax),
48 
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY.
which all the ingenuity and patient industry of "the
Flowery Land" had given up as hopelessly intractable
and worthless. So shall we continue, under a beneficent
policy of encouragement and support, to develop new
and larger possibilities of industrial achievement, and,
in expanding and diversifying our own national industry,
benignantly stimulate, and ultimately renovate, that of
all mankind.
The rights of those who create Intellectual Property
are less clearly defined- perhaps less capable of unerring definition- than those of the producers or transformers of material substances; yet they seem to me
not less real, beneficent, and defensible. Let us suppose
that four brothers commence responsible life with equal
patrimonies, equal capacity, and like habits of industry,
temperance, and frugality. Twenty years afterward, one
of them, who has devoted his energies to farming, has a
fine estate, a commodious dwelling, a handsome herd of
cattle, a good collection of implements, a library, and all
the material elements of independence and comfort. A
second has addressed himself to the construction of
locomotives, and has done as well thereby as his farming brother. A third has given himself up to the study
of mechanics and engineering, and has, after many disappointments, perfected a new steam-engine, whereby
the power required to move a train or boat of so many
tons at a given rate per hour is reduced at least twentyfive per cent.   The  fourth  has addicted himself to
literature, art, and poetry, and has produced a book
which one hundred thousand of our people annually
read, deriving pleasure and instruction therefrom which
they would rather pay himn for than forego. I ask whv
this inventor, and this author, have not fairly earned,
and are not as justly entitled to, the price that others
prefer to give rather than forego the advantage or pleas              3                                D
49 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
ure derived from their products, as are their brethren,
the farmer and the locomotive-biilder, to a like remuneration for the use of their products   If, as Thiers
forcibly says,'  "The indestructible foundation of the
right of property is Labor," then, surely, the right of
property in Elias Howe to that combination of the
needle with the shuttle which gave practical existence
and value to the sewing-machine, of Alfred Tennyson
to  "The  Princess," " Maud,"  "In Memoriam,"  and
"The Lotus Eaters," is as perfect as any right of property can be. For the craftsman merely fashions, adapts,
or recasts, materials coexistent with the earth, and
which may be regarded as in some sense once the common property of mankind; while the inventor, the poet,
builds out into void space, makes chaos luminous, and
adds potentially, and as it were by original creation, to the
enduring wealth of mankind. I cannot perceive how or
why his right of property in his product is not at least
as perfect and pervading as that of the maker of a
locomotive, the grower of grain.
I have considered what has been urged in favor of a
restriction of this right of property to the material thing
wrought upon, — to the particular locomotive built by
the inventor, the author's manuscript copy of his poem,
- and it seems to me palpably absurd. For what the
inventor has labored twenty years to perfect is not the
single particular locomotive on which he expended his
handiwork, but all locomotives to be thereafter built;
his efforts were incited and upheld by a desire to make
all locomotives henceforth less costly or more efficient.
This he has achieved, or nothing; herein he has succeeded, or not at all.  Once completed, the machine
whereon he has labored so long may accidentally take
1 The Rights of Property: A Refutation of Communism and Socialism. By Adolphe Thiers.
50 
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY.
fire and burn to ashes, yet no one, surely, would thence
infer that his labor had been in vain.
Suppose that one who differs from me on this point
were to drop in at a friend's house, while some one was
there reading aloud Childe Harold, and should be asked
in a whisper by a non-literary acquaintance,  "Whose
poem is that? " I cannot doubt that he would truly
answer,  "Lord Byron's," no  matter though he saw
the letter-press, and read "Published by Harper and
Brothers" on the title-paoe. The rights of author and
publisher in the premises are perfectly distinct, and nowise clash with each other. The fact that those are (or
were) citizens of different countries, natives of diverse
hemispheres, does not vitally affect them.
I deeply regret that any one who upholds the Rights
of Labor and the duty of protecting those rights devolved on Government should question the policy of
International Copyright. Were there no other reason
than that afforded by patriotism, I should insist on
according copyright to foreign authors. In its absence,
their works are sold in our markets for the bare cost of
paper and printing, and bought because of their relative
cheapness by the great mass of our less-instructed, leastreflecting readers, whose opinions are thus moulded by
Bulwer, Alison, Disraeli, Dickens,  Michelet, Professor
Wilson, Victor Hugo, George Sand, Thackeray, Wilkie
Collins, the Trollopes, far more than by our own best
writers.  I do not regret that foreign authors are extensively read here; I do not deny that some of them are
eminently deserving of their American popularity; but
I protest against the legislation, or lack of legislation
on the part of our rulers, whereby foreign works are
habitually - nay, necessarily - proffered cheaper to
our people than those of our own authors. This is
unjust to both alike,-to those whom it deprives of
51 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
readers, and those whom it gives more than their fair
proportion of readers, but denies compensation for their
work.   Walter Scott barely escaped dying a bankrupt,
when one cent per volume from his American readers
would have saved him from pecuniary embarrassment,
smoothed his downhill of life, and perhaps enabled him
to live longer and write more and better. I wish we
had rendered him naked justice.
As to the abolition of the Patent system, which has
of late been influentially advocated, I shall be more
easily reconciled to it when I ]earn that it is to be swiftly followed by a repudiation of all rights of property
whatever, - or, more strictly, of all legal guaranties
and defences of such rights. Whenever the laws of my
country shall refuse to protect the inventor, they should,
in simple consistency, bid the land-owner, the bondholder, the merchant, the banker, "Take care of yourself, and of all that you call your own!"  Assuredly, no
man's right to the wild lands conceded to his ancestor
by a European monarch who never saw, and knew not
how even to bound them accurately, can be better than
that of Eli Whitney was to his cotton-gin, or that of
Daguerre to photography.   When these shall be successfully denied, be sure that no rights of property can be
secure.
"Then, why not make patents and copyright absolute
and perpetual?" is often asked.   I answer, there are no
absolute rights of property. The land you bought of
the government yesterday may be taken from you for
the bed of some highway or railroad to-morrow, and you
have no redress. All rights of property are held subor dinate to the dictates of national well-being; and the
government will batter down or burn to ashes your
house, if it shall have become (through no fault on your
part) a harbor or defence of public enemies, and make
52 
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY.
you no compensation therefor.  I only insist that intellectual property shall be recognized by law as standing
on a common foundation with other property and equally accorded the protection of the state and the respect
of all who hold property no robbery, but justly entitled
to deference and support from the wise and the good.
The right of an author to compensation for his labor
from so many as choose to use or enjoy its product being
conceded, it would be proper and reasonable for ourgovernment to say in effect to foreign authors: "Since the
ability of our people to read has been very largely increased by the systematic appropriation of one thirtysixth of our Public Lands to the support of Popular
Education, and since most of our States have likewise
expended large sums in promoting the same good work,
therebyastly increasing the sale of books in this country, we fix a maximum rate or percentage on the selling
price which you may exact of our publishers as copyright,
and with this you must be content." I hold that this
would be in accord with that provision 1 of the  Federal
Constitution which stipulates that private property should
not be taken for public use without just compensation.
I hold that thus may public interest be harmonized with
private right, and our country made to assume a more
creditable position among the nations of Christendom.
1 Amendment V.
53 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
IV.
MONEY- THE BALANCE OF TRADE.
THE general good demanding and being subserved by
the widest possible diffusion and practice of regular,
systematic industry, whatever tends to incite to and induce such industry must be accounted as in so far a
public good. And prominent among the agencies which
tend to overcome man's natural indolence is MONEY.
Labor being distasteful, especially to barbarians; the
realized presence of a strong stimulant to productive
effort is indispensable to the formation of habits of industry. There was never a savage so stolid, so rude,
or so lazy, that he would not work rather than starve:
if he famishes through his own fault, he does so because
he was not suffering from hunger in summer, when he
should have done the work; and, now that winter has
brought absolute destitution, no effort that he could
make would avail him.! "Quashee, up to his ears in
pumpkin," as Carlyle characterizes the emancipated, indolent West India negro, is but dimly conscious of other
and higher wants than those so cheaply, though indifferently, satisfied by his abundant food, his narrow, flimsy
hut, his ell of coarse cotton to cover his loins, and his
gourd-shell calabash. These may cost him an hour's
effort per day,- possibly, a day's exertion per week, -
leaving him the rest of his time for sleep or play; indolently changing from sunshine to shade as temperature
shall dictate. Thus I saw in eastern Kansas, ten years
since, a score of half-civilized and (I believe) wholly
christianized Delawares, sitting in company under the
54 
MONEY -THE BALANCE OF TRADE.
shade of the stately forest which belts the streams of
that region; men, women, and children, chatting and
laughing the day out, as they had evidently done through
many previous and would do through many succeeding
days, though it was the height of the planting season,
and the weather and soil most propitious. They played
through the spring, because they realized no adequate
inducement to work. Among our half-barbarized pioneers
of the border, the same tendency is evinced, somewhat
modified by differences of race, training, and condition.
I have known frontiersmen of pure New England blood
who, having moved on from infancy a little in advance
of civilization, would earn good day-wages by faithful
work when destitute; but who, with a bag of meal, a
ham or saddle of venison and a bottle of whiskey on
hand, could by no means be induced to work till these
ran short, though it was in the midst of harvest, with
labor in eager demand, and with wages at the highest.
"What is the reason," asked a friend of one of this
class, "that you, who always do a good day's work for
another, never seem to accomplish anything when working for yourself. "-" I hate to work for a poor paymaster," was the prompt response. To iinmpel uncultured
races and individuals to work steadily and faithfully, it
is essential that the inducement should be palpable and
the recompense imminent. The lowest in the scale of
civilization will work for prompt pay when pressed by
want; while only the enlightened and truly civilized
will drain morasses and plant forests for the benefit
mainly of generations yet unborn.
Money -whose origin is lost in the deep darkness of
pre-historic ages   is admirably calculated to combat
and master the baleful spell of indolence. In itself,
subserving hardly a want, in its attributed, artificial,
representative character, it inflames, while it promises
55 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
satisfaction to, every material desire. He who might refuse to work for the grain of the farmer, the timber of
the forester, the iron of the smelter, the table or bureau
of the cabinet-maker, may yet labor freely for the money
of either; because this will command at will the product
of either or all of these and of thousands beside. Industry is thus extended, quickened, intensified, rendered
habitual, by the adoption and use of Money. And, as
the labor unemployed on the instant perishes utterly
and forever, and even involuntary indolence to-day tends
to voluntary and chronic idleness in the filture, it is
manifest that the comfort, enlightenment and progress
of the race have been immensely promoted by the creation and use of Money.
Gold and silver, thence termed the precious metals,
were originally recognized as money for obvious reasons.
Scarcely subject to oxydation, they are well-nigh imperishable; procured with difficulty, and in moderate quantities, they are of high cost in proportion to their bulk,
rendering large values cheaply transferable  therein
while their beauty and ductility rendered them objects
of universal desire, even before their extensive use in
the arts and in the economy of households had induced
a full appreciation of their intrinsic worth. They owe
their employment as money to no political favor or patronage, since it appears to have preceded the foundation
of states or the creation of governments, other than
those of the most primitive patriarchal stamp. Originally valued and transferred by weight (as the gold obtained by digging and washing on our Pacific slope often
is to-day), governments long ago increased their utility
by dividing them into pieces of definite shape and weight,
and at length stamping or declaring on its surface the
value of each piece. Modern assay has fixed more exactly
the value of each piece, which coinage has beautified, while
56 
MONEY - THE BALANCE OF TRADE.
definitely proclaiming that value. Coins have come at
length to boast a historic worth; and it is lamentable
that, through Washington's modesty or ill-judging apprehension, those of this country fail to bear, like those of
Europe, the likeness of the Chief Magistrate under whose
Presidency they were minted.   The objection that to
place the head of a President on the coins struck during
his term would savor of monarchy seems to me childishly fantastic Who would be more likely to idolize, or to
abase himself at the feet of, a Pierce, Buchanan, Lincoln,
or Johnson, because of the substitution on our coins of
his features for the unmeaning figure which (because of its
cap) is now understood to image and body forth Liberty.
Paper Money, though as yet imperfect and liable to
great abuses, was and is a signal improvement on a currency exclusively of coin. Aside from loss by wear and
by shipwreck, conflagration, or other calamity, coin
fulfils sluggishly and rudely, in a civilized, wealthy, and
commercial community, the functions of money. The
payment and receipt of a million dollars in coin (and the
transfers of money in this city alone amount to hundreds
of millions per week) require considerable time and the
labor of several hands, especially if counterfeits are to
be watched for and light or clipped coins rejected; while
the same million dollars in paper may pass through many
hands and pay many debts in the course of a winter
morning; each transfer being effected by the delivery
and, receipt of a bank check or draft, filled up in a
minute and passed from hand to hand like a single coin:
the money which it represents lying all the time quiet in
the vaults of some bank, which it requires only to make
good in due time the balance which may thereby be
scored up against it at the clearing-house. If silver and
gold were as plenteous as pebbles, it would still be found
advantageous to create and use paper money, because of
3*
57 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
its immensely superior efficiency in effecting exchanges,
squaring accounts, or paying debts.  By means of checks
or drafts drawn against sums deposited in bank, one man
can receive and pay more money in a day than one
hundred could do if nothing but specie was recognized
as money, and if all payments were made in coin. Paper
money, then, is a labor-saving device of immense capacity
and efficiency, as clearly so as a modern reaping or sewing machine: hence, it will be more and more used indefinitely, in spite of its frequent and glaring abuses;
just as the use of Steam is always extending, in spite of
repeated and calamitous explosions, which science and
inventive genius are constantly laboring to prevent or
diminish, - manikind never dreaming of discarding the
use of Steam itself.  Counterfeits and kindred frauds
there would be, even if nothing but coin were accepted
as Money; but they would be far less common and less
disastrous than now: yet the advantages and benefits of
Paper Money so vastly outweigh its abuses and evils that
it can nevermore be given up; and, if Governments were
unwise enough to proscribe it, the substitute suggested
by necessity or devised by knavery would be found to
embody all the evils of a legalized Paper Currency with
but a small share of its benefits.
A young people, a newly settled or recently civilized
country, naturally realizes a dearth and keenly feels the
need of Money. Its wealth is necessarily scanty; while
its people are pressed on every side by wants,- wants
of tools, seed, stock, buildings, &c., &c. Almost every
one wants these faster and in larger quantity than he is
able to pay for; a great many would like to obtain them
on credit and pay for them out of the proceeds of future
harvests or earnings. Such a people have little money
at the outset, and very little produce to spare for years
wherewith to procure more; their labor being largely, if
58 
MONEY- THE BALANCE OF TRADE.
not mainly, devoted to clearing away forests, building,
fencing, &c., which yield no instant, salable, exportable
return.  The more rapid the growth of such a community, the stronger its tendency to send away its scanty
stock of Money in exchange for metals, wares, fabrics, of
which it is in constant and pressing need. Hence, the
ability of its banks, if banks it has, to maintain specie
payments, is often sorely tried, and, unless they be managed with signal probity and circumspection, will sometimes be overborne. If Paper Money be forbidden by
its laws, interest will rule high, usury will devour the
substance of its masses, and the sheriff and the constable be constantly at work among them, selling property
at a heavy sacrifice, and paying debts in a ruinous fashion through the medium of judgments and executions.
There are counties in this State whose pioneers wrestled
forty years with the great forests which formerly enveloped them, suffering meantime serious intellectual as well
as physical privations, which might have been triumphed
over in half the time had they been fairly supplied with
Money, or could they even have borrowed it on ample
security and at reasonable rates of interest.
Now it does not suffice to say that what they needed
was not merely Money, or a medium of exchange, but
Capital; for they suffered from a want of Money independently of their lack of Capital.   The  farmer, the
wheelwright, the manufacturer of wooden-ware, &c., each
having his scanty available capital invested in the implements of his industry or the products of his own labor,
are often exposed to great difficulty and delay in exchanging what each has to spare for what he most needs, because of the dearth of Money. And it is hard for them,
just as, having gained a foothold, they are beginning to
produce somewhat to sell, so as to satisfy their most
urgent needs, to be obliged to give a considerable part of
59 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
it for counters (for such is the use of Money as Money),
wherewith to effect their exchanges. Hence, the utility
and the popularity in such communities of well-managed
Banks and their issues.
I hold that the very general and deeply grounded deprecation of an adverse Balance of Trade, whereby Money
is carried out of the country and its return precluded, is
sound and wholesome.   The evil contemned may not be
clearly apprehended, - the popular instinct may not find
adequate or accurate expression; yet the uncultured
masses are on this head wiser than the philosophers who
have graciously condescended to illumine their darkness
and dispel their vulgar prejudices. It is not well for a
nation to buy more, year after year, than its surplus products will pay for; it is not well to import luxuries and
fripperies that "perish in the using," and export specie,
or bonds, or any kind of mortgages on posterity, to pay
for them. The nation which persists in so doing inevitably plays the part of a prodigal, and invokes the
heaven-sent penalties of culpable folly.   The dissertations of the Free Trade economists in contravention of
this truth assume conditions which do not exist, and
pummel men of straw of their own creation. To my
mind, they miss the point entirely.
Bastiat1 says: -
"It is a very unimportant circumstance whether there be
much or little cash in the world. If there is much, much
is required; if there is little, little is wanted for each transaction. That is all."
Mill2 says: -
"The uses of Money are in no respect promoted by increasing the quantity which exists and circulates in a country; the
1 Essay entitled "What is Money?"
2 Principles of Political Economy, Vrol. I. Preliminary Remarks.
Fourth Edition.
60 
MONEY - THE BALANCE OF TRADE.
service which it performs being as well rendered by a small as
by a large aggregate amount."
Now I have misread history if the steady diminution
of the aggregate of Money circulating in the Roman
Empire, through the constant, insensible draining off of
Specie to India and China in payment for their Silks,
Spices, and other luxuries coveted by the rich, was not
among the most potent causes of the decay and ultimate
downfall of that colossal fabric.  And I am  sadly in
error if the rapid and vast augmentation, after the discovery of America by Columbus, of the volume of Gold
and Silver circulating throughout Europe, did not powerfully conspire with other causes to improve the condition
of the masses, to increase their comfort, intelligence,
energy, power, throughout the civilized world.
But the real matter in debate is not touched by the
assumption that the instant annihilation of half the
money in the world would be no calamity,- the half that
remained answering every purpose, performing every
function, that the whole now does. True, I demur to
this proposition; but I dissent still more strongly from
the constant assumption of the Free Trade economists
that for a country to part with half its Gold and Silver
in payment for foreign fabrics can work that country no
serious harm. They say: "The bushel of grain that
formerly cost a dollar now sells for half a dollar; but
the rural day's work that formerly commanded a dollar
now costs but half a dollar likewise; and so with every thing else: hence (except to debtors) the change wrought
is nominal only: who is harmed by it'"
I answer, Great damage accrues to all the industrious
and thrifty, but especially to the workers for wages,
when, through whatever cause, payment in money is gen erally superseded by payment in commodities, - that is, in
farm produce, store orders, &c., &c. And this change
61 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
almost uniformly follows as a natural result a rapid and
serious diminution of the volume of the currency.
My distinct personal recollections on this head go
back to the period of industrial derangement, business
collapse, and wide-spread pecuniary ruin, which closely
followed the close, in 1815, of our Last War with Great
Britain. Peace found this country dotted with furnaces
and manufactories which had suddenly grown up, dur ing the few last preceding years, under the precarious
shelter of Embargo and War. These -not yet fairly
established, in a country whose commerce was almost
wholly external or confined to the seaboard, - steam
navigation being yet in its infancy, and canals or railroads unknown among us - found themselves suddenly
exposed to a determined and resistless competition from
abroad.  Great Britain, under the egis of her vast naval
armaments, had pushed her fabrics into almost every
corner of Asia, Africa, South America, and the isles of
the sea, meeting no competition but from the products
of the rudest and most inefficient barbarian rivals,
ignorant alike of spinning-jennies, power-looms, and
steam. Of some of her fabrics, great stocks had nevertheless accumulated, falling behind the fashions, and
only salable at prices far below cost. These were now
thrown upon our markets in a perfect deluge, being
advertised in the Boston journals at "pound for pound,"
- that is, what had- cost $ 4.44 (really $ 4.80) to manufacture in England, being. offered in Boston, duty and all
charges paid, for $ 3.33. The tariff of 1816, mainly
framed by William Lowndes, was intended to afford some
barrier against this inundation, but proved utterly inadequate, except with regard to coarse cottons and a few
other comparatively rude products. Our Manufactories
went down like grass before the mower; our Agriculture
and the wages of Labor speedily followed. In New Eng
62 
MONEY - THE BALANCE OF TRADE.
land, I judge that fully one-fourth of the property went
through the Sheriff's mill; and the prostration was
scarcely less general in any part of the country. In
Kentucky, the universal and intolerable pressure of Debt
incited a popular but illegal overthrow of her judiciary
and the establishment of a new one in its stead for the
sole purpose of staying the legal collection of debts;
and the conflict of authority and jurisdiction between
the "Old Court" and the " New Court" convulsed the
State with faction and anarchy for a number of years.
Here in New York, the principal merchants united
(1817) in a memorial to Congress for legislation to save
our Commerce as well as our Manufactures from utter
ruin by increasing the Tariff and prohibiting the sale by
auction of imported fabrics., They say: -
"Your memorialists, witnessing the sinking condition of the
commercial interest of our country, have, upon investigating
the causes, been led to the full conviction that nothing short
of the protecting arm of the Government can rescue it from
that ruin to which it is rapidly approaching.
"That, since the peace in Europe, the interdiction of British
manufactures on the European continent, conspiring with
other causes which we shall notice, has not only occasioned
our markets to be glutted to an alarming degree, but has diverted trade from its best and accustomed channels, and given
it a direction which, if pursued, must inevitably ultimate in
the ruin of the mercantile establishments of our country.
" Sympathy and patriotism combine to induce us, while on
this subject, to speak also on behalf of the manufacturing
interest of the nation. The same causes which are operating
the destruction of our commercial prosperity are fast precipitating our manufacturing brethren into the abyss of ruin.
The fate of the one is necessarily involved in that of the other,
and the destiny of the nation inseparably interwoven with
the welfare of both."
My father migrated from New Hampshire to Vermront
63 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
in January, 1821; and I remained a resident of the latter State for the next decade, or from my tenth to my
twentieth year. During that term, though hiring and
working for wages were common in Vermont as elsewhere, I am confident that not one dollar in twenty
there earned as wages or paid for farm produce was
paid in money.   Grain, orders on some "store," &c.,
&c., were the universal media of payment; very little
money was seen or circulated, and that little mainly in
connection with the "lumbering business,"- that is,
the cutting, sawing into boards, and drawing or rafting
away, of the scattering pines still hidden in clefts of the
mountains or in morasses hardly more accessible; no
one expected to be paid in money for work, or grain,
or meat, unless such payment was expressly stipulated;
and, when I was apprenticed to the printing trade in
1826, it was prescribed in writing that I was to be
allowed my board and forty dollars per annum, payable
in clothing or store-goods. Such was, even yet, the
usage, though money, since the passage of the Tariff
of 1824, was not so lamentably scarce as it had been.
Barter was still the general rule, as it has long since
been for years in the payment of mechanics in very
considerable and growing cities of this State.
Now, I cannot state the precise extent to which the
country had been drained of its specie by the excessive
importations of 1815-24; but I know thatour export
of the Precious Metals within that term left us considerably more than half the amount we possessed at the
close of the War. And, before a quarter of our specie
had gone,- when it was simply realized that it was going,- all the channels of circulation seemed to have
been suddenly frozen. The few who had money hoarded
and clung to it; the many who needed sought it anxiously, but in vain. Many banks failed or were wound
64 
MONEY - THE BALANCE OF TRADE.
up; taxes, though low, were paid with difficulty; those
who sold out to migrate westward, and must have some
money for travelling expenses, parted with lands, cattle,
implements, crops, furniture, &c., at very low prices.
I remember seeing a bale of Hops sold at auction by a
sheriff in New Hampshire (1820) at one cent and a sixteenth per pound,- less than $ 25 per ton. I judge that
more New England families were reduced from comfort
to want in the years 1817-20 than in the next halfcentury.
This, then, I hold a fundamental error of the economists in question: They assume that, if half the money
in a country leaves it in payment for goods imported, the
residue will perform the function previously devolved
on the whole, save only that there will be a general
reduction of prices; I, on the contrary, insist, and appeal
to the experience of mankind to sustain me, that in such
case the remainder, so far from  subserving the end formnerly answered by the larger volume of currency, will
not even subserve half of it, for it will all but cease to circulate at all. Money may continue to be, in some vague
sense, a measure of value; but it will cease to be usually
proffered and received in payments for Labor, for Produce,
or for almost any form of commodity. In its absence,
the people will quite generally be driven back to Barter,
- a discouragement of industry, and a long stride on
the downward road to barbarism.
Let me now deal directly with the Balance of Trade.
The opponents of Protection have no difficulty in knocking down the man of straw they have set up for the
purpose, and demonstrating that a nation may grow rich
while the declared or Custom-House value of its Imports
exceeds that of its Exports.   Bastiat fairly outdoes himself
in the flippancy and self-conceit wherewith he shows that,
E
6Po 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
exporting a cargo of Ice valued at $ 1,000, and bringing
home in exchange therefor a cargo of Lemons, worth
$10,000, is not a losing business,-  as though we did
not understand that quite as well as he does. It is not
our position that an importation of Goods valued at
$100,000,000 per annum, balanced by anl exportation of
Produce valued at $ 80,000,000, is necessarily ruinous.
We quite understand that the Produce so valued may
have paid for the Goods; and even left a balance on the
right side of the account. The presumption is otherwise;
still, the fact may be thus.  We do not determine that
the balance is against us merely because our Imports are
officially valued higher than our Exports.
But when a nation is, year after year, drawn upon for
coin to pay balances standing against it in the foreign
marts whither its Produce is sent, whence its Fabrics and
W1ares are imported, - when its Banks, because of such
drafts, find it difficult, and sometimes impossible, to
maintain Specie Payments,- when the obligations of its
Government, of its States, provinces, counties, or cities,
and of its industrial or moneyed corporations, are constantly tending abroad for sale, even at ruinous rates,
with no counter-current of securities in the opposite direction, -when such a country finds its banks founded
in part on foreign capital, its mines sold out to foreign
creditors, its railroads in good measure owned and managed, if not actually constructed, by them, and everything
tending more and more to make its people toil and sweat
through future ages to pay barely the interest and dividends which must necessarily be  due  from them to
foreigners, then I submit that the course on which that
country has entered is perilous, and portends evil at
hand. I do not insist that a nation should prize gold
and silver above all other wealth, seeking to import and
amass them; I do not say that a moderate efflux of the
66 
MONEY- THE BALANCE OF TRADE.
Precious Metals from a country which bounteously produces them is to be deprecated; I do not say that a
nation should never owe a stiver abroad nor import a
fraction more than its exports in a given year: but I do
firmly hold that a nation, like an individual, or a family,
should generally pay as it goes,   should buy no more
than it can pay for,- should dread running into debt
and avoid it when it may; and that the exportation of
its coin or bullion beyond the amount of its annual pro duct is improvident, thriftless, and tempts as well as tends
to grave financial disasters. I hold running in debt to
foreign nations for stuffs, luxuries, and gewgaws, that we
might well do without, is prodigality, and is defrauding
our children of their rightful heritage. In time of peace
and fair harvests, we need not run in debt to foreigners,
and we should not. Let us cut our coat according to our
cloth, - live within our means, - earn more or spend
less,- and try to bring our current expenses within our
accruing income, so that we may soon begin paying off
the enormous debt - not this day a dime less than One
Billion of Dollars - which we have unwisely incurred,
and which our Civil War but partially caused and can
but partially excuse. Such is the Protectionist view of
the Balance of Trade. Read Bastiat and his servile fol lowers, and see if they clearly comprehend or honestly
meet it!
67 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
PAPER MONEY - INTEREST - USURY.
IF one were to walk up any of our thronged streets,
and ask every stranger he met, "Would you like to bor row ten thousand dollars  " it is probable that, if the in quiry were presumed to be made in good faith, ninety to
ninety-five of each hundred would eagerly answer "Yes."
Ours are a sanguine and an enterprising people, most of
whom believe that they need but Capital to enable them
to achieve great results. And yet it is not probable that
one fourth of those who so borrowed $ 10,000 would ever
be able to repay it. The capacity profitably and safely
to employ and invest so large a sutm is even rarer than
its possession. Few learn how to use means much faster
than they, by industry and management, acquire and
retain them; and those most eager to borrow are generally the slowest to pay. Of young men who have as yet
earned little or nothing, I doubt that even so many as
one in ten would be benefited by a considerable loan, at
least until they had laboriously earned and honestly saved
a like amount.
Still, the desire to borrow, so prevalent with us, rests
on a perfectly intelligible and unobjectionable basis. An
extraordinary proportion of our young men  aspire to
position, consideration, fortuine, and expect to achieve
these by Trade, or in some department of Productive
Industry. Born poor, they seek independence through
the use of Credit. Others have borrowed, adventured,
and succeeded: these are conspicuous, and seen of all
men; while the far greater number who have failed con
68
v.'1 
PAPER MONEY - INTEREST - USURY.
elusively, and died or sunk into obscurity, are unnoted
and soon forgotten. If there were ten times as much to
lend, there would be no lack of borrowers, provided the
security proffered were acceptable.
To a community thus suffused with the spirit of aspiration, of adventure, of industrial and commercial enterprise, the use of Paper Money is as natural as breathing.
I do not believe its suppression a possibility, even. If
Government should proscribe it, it would set Government
at defiance; and we should only have a worse Paper Currency in lieu of the present. Drive out Nature with a
pitchfork, says the proverb, and she will return in spite
of you and your pitchfork. So it would be with Paper
Currency.
In California and her adjuncts, Gold and Silver being
staple products, it was early resolved that they alone
should be received and circulated as money; and that
resolve has been pretty generally lived up to. I cannot
learn that any of the expected benefits have been realized.   The ruling rate of interest at San Francisco was
long three per cent. per month on ordinary and at least
two on the best securities; it has at length fallen to
twelve per cent per annum. I do not understand that
over-trading has been less common, credit less abused, or
failures less frequent and disastrous, there than on the
Atlantic slope; nor do I believe that the spirit of rash,
presumptuous adventure has been at all checked by Hard
Money and Legalized Usury.
I object to legalizing unlimited Usury that it tends to
put the business of the country, with the use of its
floating capital, largely into the hands of the more san guine, headlong members of the community,-  of those
who will bid highest for loans, rather than those who will
use means most discreetly and safely. I am willing to
see our uaury laws so modified that any one may lend
69 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
money at exorbitant rates, provided he will make his
own collections and not trouble the State in the premises.
Let him, incurring no penalty, ask three per cent. per
day, if he will, and let those who choose pay it; but I
hold it contrary to good policy that such rapacity should
be upheld by law. Let the legal maximum of interest
be fixed and notorious; let those who see fit exceed it
at their own peril; let their usurious obligations be debts
of honor, and let those pay them who see fit.  The State
goes far enough when it undertakes the collection of
debts contracted in accordance with its convictions of
sound, beneficent policy; as to all other contracts, let
them stand or fall as they would do if the State did not
exist.
But I differ irreconcilably with those who argue that
Interest is unjust,- that a creditor should receive the
amount he loaned, and no more. If an apple-tree of
four years' growth is naturally more valuable than one
of one or two years', then it seems clear that he who
loaned me $100, still unpaid, with which I bought a
hundred apple-trees from a nursery three years ago, has
now a larger claim upon me than if he had loaned me the
like sum wherewith to purchase similar trees one year
ago. So the thrifty farmer who has seed-wheat at sowing-time, while his poorer neighbors have none, being
solicited by them to lend it on promise of repayment out
of the next crop, might fairly say, "If you are to pay
me barely the quantity lent, I prefer to keep my wheat
and be sure of it, rather than lend it at the risk of losing
it."  If to be idle half this year involves no penalty
beyond that of making up the lost hours in some future
year, indolence would vanquish thrift far oftener than it
now does. Man's energies are spurred to activity by the
knowledge that all savings are fruitful, - that the $ 100
earned and saved at one-and-twenty will have become
70 
PAPER MONEY - INTEREST - USURY.
$ 1,000, if carefully invested, before its owner is seventy.
To make men industrious, provident, saving, seems to
me one chief end of a true, beneficent public policy; and
this would be contravened by denying the rightfulness
of Interest. If he who lends $ 10,000 for a year is entitled barely to the return of his principal, then he who
lets a house or farm worth $10,000 is entitled to its restoration intact at the year's end and no more; and all
rights of property are limited to its personal use by the
owner.  Evidently, apart from the consideration of justice, mankind cannot afford to discourage saving, by
denying the rightfulness of Interest.
Banks were originally places where money could be
deposited for safe-keeping, with  reasonable assurance
that it would be returned on demand; and such they
long remained. After a time, the certificates or receipts
given for sums so deposited passed in trade for the sumns
they severally represented or specified, being simply
orders on the bank for the transfer or delivery of so
much money.   At length, it was discovered that, so
signal was the convenience and general acceptability of
these receipts or tokens, they might safely be issued in
excess of the coin at any time on deposit, being balanced
and secured by the notes on interest of borrowers, who
could be relied on to pay when required. Such in effect
is modern Banking. There is no deception in the case:
The holder of the note is well aware that, if every note
were presented at once, they could not be promptly met;
but the bank's creditors are often among its borrowers
and debtors, as well as its depositors and note-holders,
and naturally solicitous to maintain its solvency and
credit; hence, a bank has very rarely failed except fromn
mismanagement and dishonesty on the part of its officers, unless caught in the whirlwind of some great commercial revulsion. And, though bad Banks have inflicted
71 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
much injury, and even ruin, I cannot doubt that Banking
has, on the whole, been a benefit to our country, and
that Paper Money has, in the large view, done us vastly
more good than harm.
A currency of Paper exclusively - that is, of promises
that are not redeemed on demand - is a far more
questionable  blessing.   Our Revolutionary  War  was
mainly  fought upon Continental Money, -  the promises
of States to pay which were never redeemed, and were
at length, having become worthless, by general consent,
repudiated. In our Last War with Great Britain, all the
banks but those of New England suspended Specie
Payment; yet the Government, under the pressure of
necessity, continued to receive their notes for Customs,
Loans, and Internal Taxes, though their value was unequal and fluctuating. The Government, on the motion
of Daniel Webster, returned to Specie Payment about
two years after the War closed, when a part of the banks
failed utterly and went into liquidation; the rest resumed,  and went on as before the War.   There were
several other partial suspensions by the banks thereafter, and one, very general, in 1837, under the pressure
of a great commercial revulsion; but the Government
thenceforth collected its revenues in coin, and, despite
one or two later partial suspensions, went forward on
a specie basis, until December, 1861, when the banks
broke down under the enormous requisitions made upon
them for loans to uphold the prosecution of the War for
the Union. A moderate issue of Treasury Notes had
already been made; these, being receivable for all dues
to the Government, had been kept at or very near par;
but now a bolder and more comprehensive employment
of the National Credit had become imperative. This was
ultimately perfected in the Legal Tender act,' which pro
1 Approved February 25, 1862.
72 
PAPER MONEY -  INTEREST -  USURY.
vided at once for a loan of $ 500,000,000 and an issue
of Treasury Notes of the denominations of $ 1, $ 2, $ 5,
$ 10, &c., to the extent of $ 150,000,000; each note to
be a Legal Tender in all payments to individuals and to
the Government, except that payments into the Treasury
for Customs (Duties on Imports) and payments out of it
for interest on the Public Debt should be made in coin.
These Treasury Notes were not only to be received at
par in payment of Internal Taxes and of subscriptions to
loans to the United States, but they were fundable at
the option of holders in the "Five-Twenty" loan created
by the same act; so that a holder of "Greenbacks"
(Legal Tender Treasury Notes), which drew no interest,
might at any time convert them into bonds drawing six
per cent. interest in coin, and redeemable after five and
within twenty years from the date of issue. Beyond
this, provision was stipulated for "the purchase or payment" of at least one per cenltum annually of the entire
Debt of the United States out of the residue of the
receipts from customs after paying the interest as aforesaid.
This measure was born of the agonies and perils of a
great Civil War; it was (as passed) the work of many
hands, and was bandied back and forth between the two
Houses and their conferees, so that it differed widely in
the event from any original draft or preconception; yet
I doubt that so wise and salutary a schemne of War
Finance had ever been devised by any Cabinet or Minister, or adopted by any European Parliament.  It was
guarded at every point, and, though necessarily looking
to a wide departure from the Specie standard, provided
thoroughly for an early return thereto. It was deemed
necessary, a year or two afterward, to eliminate the im
portant clause that provided for unlimited funding of
the Treasury Notes at the pleasure of the holders  but
4
73 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
for which we should have returned perforce to Specie
Payments long ago.  Simply allowing holders.of "Greenbacks" to convert them at par into "Five-Twenties"
would have brought them up to par, or very near it,
soon after the War closed. And now, if the Greenbacks
were fundable, as the act aforesaid provided that they
should be, they would rapidly flow into bonds, and the
banks, thus deprived of " Legal Tender," would be obliged
to redeem in coin or fail, insuring general resumption.
If we are ever to have a purely Paper Currency,stable, yet elastic; irredeemable in coin, yet of nearly
uniform value, -it must inevitably be built on the
broad foundations of the act of 1862. It should be distinctly, avowedly, based on the Public Debt, and each
note should specify (as the original Greenbacks did)
"This note is payable [not in coin, but] in bonds of the
Consolidated Debt of the United States," each having forty [twenty, thirty, fifty, as may be stipulated]
years to run, untaxable, and drawing an interest of four
per cent per annum,  payable  quarter-yearly.   These
bonds [Consols] should in turn be exchangeable at the
Treasury for Greenbacks at par; so that, when Greenbacks were abundant, they would be converted into
Bonds or Consols; when they became scarce, Bonds
would be presented at the Treasury, and Greenbacks
issued in exchange for them. I am not sanguine that
any purely Paper Currency- that is, any Currency of
Paper not redeemable in coin on demand -will be
found in practice to subserve the ends of a true Circulating Medium and Measure of Value; but, if any will
answer, this seems most likely to do so.
The idea of creating and maintaining a currency of
Paper or Credit purely did not originate in the exigencies
and necessities of War.  More than twenty years ago,
74 
PAPER MONEY - INTEREST - USURY.
Mr. Edward Kellogg, a retired merchant of our City,
elaborated the plan of such a Currency, and expounded
it in a volume,' which was the sequel to and complement
of one previously put forth by him, entitled "Currency;
the Evil and the Ptemedy." In each of these works, the
author contends that our monetary system is mistaken
and oppressive,- that it discourages enterprise, and oppresses poverty, while it aggrandizes wealth, enabling
the few to enrich themselves inordinately at the expense
of the many. In Mr. Kellogg's view, the monopoly of
Money by the wealthy few is even a graver fault than
the monopoly of Land; the greatest evil of which the poor
are victims being the high rate of interest and the difficulty of obtaining money on loan.  Mr. Kellogg maintains
that two per cent. is a high rate of interest, and that
every one who can give good real-estate security ought
to be enabled to borrow thereon to the extent of half its
appraised value, and that the Government should be
ready and willing to loan to that extent. To this end
he would establish a great National Bank (called by him
a "National Safety Fund "), which should lend to every
citizen requiring it, on a mortgage of real estate worth
twice the amount, its Legal Tender paper, stipulating as
follows:
No. [689.]                MONEY.        Dated [June 5, 1869.]
$500.]          THE UNITED STATES           [$ 500.
will pay to the bearer FivE HUNDRED DOLLARS in a Safety Fund
note on demand, at the Safety Fund Office in the City of [Newu
York.]
The above note, designed to serve as money, is not on
interest; but the Safety Fund note, in which it is fundable at the pleasure of the holder, reads thus: -
1 Labor and other Capital: The Rights of each secured and the
Wrongs of both eradicated. By Edward Kellogg.
75 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
No. [446.]      SAFETY FUND NOTE.        Dated [Sept. 1, 1870.]
$ 500.]           One year from the          [$500.
1st day of Ifay next, or at any time thereafter, THIE UNITED
STATES will pay to A. B., or order, in the City of [New York]
FIVE IHUNDRED DOLLARS;  and, until such payment  is made,
will pay interest thereon, on the 1st day of Mlay in each year,
at the rate of one per cent. per annum.
The notes secured by mortgage given to the Government by borrowers as above, will bear an interest of
one cent and one mill per annum, on each dollar borrowed,
and will be payable only at the pleasure of the maker
so long as the interest shall be duly met. The borrower
who should object to this rate, or to giving the security
required, must be hard to please.
I must demur to several of Mr. Kellogg's fundamental
assumptions, viz.:  "The powers of Money, which alone
render it useful, are created by legislation; therefore,
Money can possess none but leyal value." I hold that
Money had been created, or recognized by common consent, before governments meddled with it; that their
interposition in thepremises was but the recognition or
declaration of a preexisting fact. I do not deny that
governments can create, have created Money, nor that
there may be and is Money whose value is representative
or artificial; I do not deny that this representative
Money may efficiently, beneficently, subserve the ends
of that Money which has original, intrinsic value; but I
decline to confound the sign with the thing signified,
and to suppose that Money may be created by the mere
fiat of any human power. If such a monetary system
as is above outlined were adopted, the value of the currency thereby provided would be influenced by many
considerations, whereof its being received in payments
to and made a legal tender by the Government would be
two; but others would prove at least equally potent.
?I' 6 
PAPER MONEY - INTEREST - USURY.
The very rate of interest stipulated, being far below
what I conceive the intrinsic worth or annual rental of
Capital, would insure a superabundance of currency,
quickly followed by an enormous inflation of prices,
whereby Speculation would be very likely to profit at the
expense of honest Industry. During the process of wiping out with wheat at ten or fifteen dollars per bushel
debts contracted when it was worth but one or two dollars per bushel, we should have brisk times and an easy
money market; yet a large portion of the indebted class
would be so intent on increasing their own enjoyments,
or amassing wealth by speculation, that they would
probably be as deeply in debt at the close as at the beginning. The necessity of paying other nations for their
products purchased by us would still exist; our new
money would of course be unacceptable to them; our
gold and silver would soon have taken wings and flown
over sea; and now the disagreeable necessity of paying
- actually paying- for our Imports, will have returned
in all its original force. If we buy Five Hundred Millions' worth (old style) of Foreign Products per annum,
we must henceforth pay therefor what the outside world
will receive as worth that amount; and this would
embarrass us then as it does now. Mr. Kellogg holds
that those who sold us Foreign Wares and Fabrics must
accept and export our Produce in payment therefor, having no alternative; and such might be the case at first;
but they would stop selling us when they could no longer
sell at a profit, and constrain us to pay prices in our currency for their goods at which they could afford to purchase and export our staples. Admit that this scheme
would lack some of the vices and impediments created
by the iron money of Sparta, it still seems to me that
Mr. Kellogg's currency, though at the outset it should
make money ever so abundant and payments remarkably
77 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
easy, would end in throwing us back upon Barter, through
the instrumentality of a legalized currency which must
gradually lose the character, by failing to subserve some
of the most essential ends, of Money.
I have given some consideration to this scheme, because the conception of a Currency of Paper purely has
fascinated many acute minds, and has ardent apostles
among European Radicals, intent on emancipating Labor
from what they denounce as the tyranny of Capital. I
do not say that the plan is impracticable; I believe in
Paper Money, and would gladly see its uses and benefits
extended; I readily admit that public good as well as
evil has resulted even from our Irredeemable Paper Currency of the last seven years, and that an abundance of
Money is a blessing, though (like other blessings) it may
be bought too dearly. The subject of Currency is one by
no means exhausted; the science of Money is still imperfectly known; and the fact that Capital (not merely
tokens which represent what does not exist) is really and
uniformly cheaper in Western Europe than in this country, is one of the impediments against which our National
Industry, and especially our Manufacturing Industry,
has struggled, and is doomed still to contend. Land is
so cheap with us that our farmers have an immense advantage over their European rivals in the cost of this
important element of production; but Labor is relatively
high with us; nearly every element of Manufacture is
dearer here than in Europe; and herein we encounter
one formidable impediment to the expansion and prosperity of American Manufactures. Whoever needs more
Capital than he possesses, and is compelled to borrow,
must pay a third to a half more annually for the use of
a certain sum than his British, French, German, or Belgian rival; and this interposes a grave obstacle to his
thrift and success.
78 
PAPER MONEY - INTEREST - USURY.
But why cannot we have cheap capital by adopting
some such plan as Mr. Kellogg's. "
I answer, Because the use of capital is worth more
here than any such plan assumes or supposes it to be;
while we might double or treble the volume of our Currency, without increasing materially the real aggregate
of our wealth. We might each be worth more dollars
than now, though our real wealth had not increased one
dime; just as he who has now an income of $ 5,000 a
year (in greenbacks) is no better off than he formerly
was when his income was called $ 3,000 a year (coin).
To illustrate the nature of Interest, I will suppose that
a hundred farmers of nearly equal means inhabit some
remote, secluded vale among the mountains, having little
intercourse with the outside world. Their settlement
being comparatively new and in a mild climate, they
have thus far done without barns; but, now that their
wealth has increased, and more pressing wants have been
satisfied, they generally conclude that the time has come
wherein to provide shelter for their stock and their fodder. Yet all cannot erect suitable barns at once: were
they to do so, their crops must be neglected and their
food run short: so they confer and agree that one-fourth
shall build this year, another fourth next, and so on till
all have barns, - such being the rate at which they
judge themselves able to supply this common want. B.,
C., D., are to refrain from building this year, lending
part of their labor or their crops to A., who builds now,
and taking his notes for their value; A., C., and D., doing the like by B. next year; and so on. Now, Interest,
in my view, is the consideration for which B., C., D.,
consent to forego building this year and help A. instead.
Each of the four would gladly have his barn built this
year; but A. is the most urgent, and bids most for the
first use of their conjoint surplus, and so obtains it.
(Thus many of our Cooperative Building Societies, hav
79 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
ing, by small weekly or monthly payments from each
member, accumulated enough to build one dwelling, put
the amount up at auction, and that member who bids
the highest premium has the first house.) Thus is established what I consider a natural rate of interest; and it
is one far above Mr. Kellogg's standard.  Were his system adopted, too many would seek to borrow the means
and hire the labor requisite for building, draining, fencing, and otherwise improving, and too few would be
left to cultivate the earth or otherwise produce what is
needed to supply our most urgent wants; we should
have new or enlarged dwellings, with more and better
furniture, but a scanty supply of bread.   I deem this a
natural result of any scheme whereby Interest is depressed to a fraction and Money created in limitless
abundance.
But I do not thence conclude that Paper Money is a
delusion, and that Coin alone should constitute our Circulating Medium. Golden yardsticks would measure
Textile Fabrics with perfect accuracy; yet it would not
be well to forbid the use of any other; since gold is
scarce and dear, many yardsticks are required, and we
have those that answer the purpose made of materials
far cheaper than gold. Have a golden one, if you will,
at the Treasury, the State House, the City Hall, and
enact that every one in use shall be tested by and conformed to that; but to require every yardstick to be of
gold would absorb in yardsticks too large a share of the
National wealth, for which we have other and better uses.
Between the bigotry which regards all Paper Money as
virtually counterfeit, and the folly which would enrich a
people by burying them in shinplasters, there is a happy
medium; and this medium experience and discussion
will yet make plain to the great body of those who
earnestly, dispassionately seek, not personal advantage,
but the widest and highest public good.
80 
SLAVERY.
VI.
SLAVERY- HIRED LABOR- PROPORTION                 COOPERATION.
SLAVERY appears to be, for the second time, dying
out of the civilized world, wherein its lingering remnants
can hardly outlast the present century. Yet it so disappeared once before, and was thereafter revived by the
Spaniards reducing to bondage the innocent, hapless
Aborigines of the West Indies directly after the discovery of those isles by Columbus; soon followed by the
introduction of captive negroes from Africa, under the
specious plea of mitigating the sufferings of the far
weaker Aborigines, and paralleled by the atrocious decree
of the Muscovite Czar Boris Godinoff, whereby the rural
peasantry throughout his dominions were "adscribed"
or confined to the estates of the nobles respectively;
being permitted to pass their boundaries. only by express
permission. Negro bondage did not save the fettered
Indians, who rapidly faded away; but it was speedily
communicated to the Spanish Main, and spread like a
pestilence over nearly all of North as well as South
America that had as yet been colonized from Europe.
Labor being in eager demand in all young and growing
settlements, which are apt to be largely peopled by adventurers who have migrated thither expressly to escape
the necessity of working, while dollars or other means
of payment are usually scarce among pioneers, the
temptation to purchase slaves at the low prices asked for
them by the early importers from the African coast was
obviously strong.  The negroes, unlike the "Indians,"
4*                              F
81 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
were generally robust and muscular; they were all well
adapted to the rude, rugged labor mainly required in
young colonies, where clearing the land of timber and a
rough kind of agriculture are the main pursuits; the
pioneers — of whom many left their native land because
of a disagreement with its laws or its magistrateswere little troubled with moral scruples and seldom exposed to the censorship of a vigorous public sentiment:
so Slavery, and kindred aberrations from the straight
line of eternal right, are apt to take root in them, unnoted, or at least unforbidden. Thus, in spite of some
feeble, ineffective protests, was America, so far as it had
been Europeanized, all but covered with a black pall of
bondage a century ago,-  as Europe had been fifteen to
twenty centuries before, and as Asia and Africa had been
at an earlier day, and in good part still remain.
In fact, Slavery is probably one of the oldest conditions of systematic industry. The barbarian, having a
taste for comforts and even luxuries, yet hating the toil
whereby they are created or procured, fancies it harder
to work himself than to compel some weaker or more
timorous person to labor for his profit, - in his stead.
So, making war, or finding one ready made, he invades
in force his enemy's tenitory, or pushes stealthily across
its border, and captures men, women, and children, to be
henceforth constrained to labor as his slaves. Unfortunate or profligate parents give or sell the children they
are unable to rear in comfort to the powerful and provident, by whom they are bred as servants for life.  Thus
Slavery roots itself in barbarism; the slave becomes the
main if not the sole reliance for regular, constant labor,
'which is thence regarded with greater aversion and
spurned so far as possible by the free as the business and
badge of -serfdom. The formation of a numerous working-class rapidly increases the aggregate of comforts and
82 
SLAVERY -HIRED LABOR.
luxuries; so that the community gradually emerges into
a semi-civilization which evermore betrays its barbaric
origin and genius through duels, street-brawls, and a
real or affected fondness for "the pomp and circumstance
of glorious War." A highly cultivated and polished
caste may be developed under such auspices; but not an
intelligent, refined, and truly civilized people.
These considerations derive importance from the imminence on this continent of a deluge of Asiatic paganism,
whereof the opening showers have already reached our
Western coast. As yet, our Mongolian visitors are substantially free to labor as they will and for whom they
will, so long as they render due obedience to our laws.
As yet, I judge that the benefits resulting from their
immigration have decidedly overbalanced the evils. But
what has hitherto been a rivulet may at an early day become a Niagara, hurling millions instead of thousands
upon us from the vast, overcrowded hives of China and
India, to cover not only our Pacific slope but the Great
Basin, and pour in torrents through the gorges of the
Rocky Mountains into the vast, inviting Valley of the
Mississippi.   This prospect demands  instant, earnest
consideration.  The stream of Mongol immigration may
vastly enlarge itself, yet remain beneficent and fertilizing; but not if it is to work (as many apprehend) a
retrograde change in our industrial organization, and result in the establishment of a novel and specious Serfdom but little removed in esseice from old-fashioned
Slavery.
For the Wages system, with all its defects and abuses,
is an immense advance upon the mildest and least objectionable form of Slavery.   The worker for Wages has
rights which the law affirms and constrains all men to
respect: his wife and children are his, and in no sense
another's; the latter are sometiines invited by the State
83 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
to partake of the bounties and blessings of an education,
which may be rudimentary and imperfect, yet is still of
inestimable value; he is usually a citizen and a voter,
and may almost always, by good conduct, become either
or both if he be not already such; he can often save a
part of his earnings, and thus gradually win his way
to independence and competence; he has always before
him the prospect of becoming his own master, and even
the employer of others,- a prospect which should, and
often does, make him considerate of the rights and saving of the property of those to whom he sells his services. He, surely, has never been a slave who rashly
proclaims the hireling's condition no better than the
bondman's.
Yet the Wages system is commendable only when
placed in contrast with absolute bondage.   Regarded
abstractly, it betrays many glaring imperfections. If
paid "by the piece " (by tale), the hireling is under a
constant temptation to slight his work, - to do it so that
it will pass muster, rather than so that it will render the
most service. If paid by the hour, day, week, month, or
year, he is tempted to give time rather than work, - to
weary out the stipulated period while performing as little
downright labor as will answer. To seiure the most pay
for the least work is the problem which too often taxes
the brain of the hireling, tempting  him  to imitate the
slave's idleness and eye-service, though with less than
the slave's justification. The highest average skill and
efficiency can never be developed through a Labor system so radically vicious.
Improvidence is another vice inherent in the Wages
system. The apprentice of yesterday, living on a very
scanty allowance beyond his board, finds himself to-day
a journeyman, capable of earning double the sum required
to satisfy his real needs. He receives, at the close of
84 
HIRED LABOR.
each week or month, money that he should save and
safely invest; but he has not been trained to saving; he
has loose cronies and hot passions, which prompt him to
spend on baneful indulgences and vicious gratifications
that which should be cherished as the nest-egg of his
future fortune. Thus he runs through the five or six
years which intervene between his majority and his marriage, "sowing his wild oats," only to gather a bounteous harvest of future poverty, infirmity, remorse, and
premature decay. Nine-tenths of our young men might
save in those years the means of securing themselves
against absolute want evermore, -might lay the sure
foundations of future independence, comfort, competence;
yet the great majority fail to do so, partly for lack of
proper moral training in childhood, partly through the
influence of prodigal and vicious associates, yet partly
also because the Wages system does not prompt to forecast and saving, but rather to present gratification and
indulgence in the fullest measure attainable. The young
man who finds himself, for the first time, the master of
an income twice as large as is required to supply his real
needs, and surrounded by shopmates and other familiars
who have made it their rule of life to "live as they go,"
will very generally fall into their ways, acquire their
habits, and imbibe, if not outdo, their vices. Culpable
as hlie may be, the system which afforded him the
means of lavish outlay, and presented no counter inducement to.save and thrive, is by no means to be accounted
guiltless.
The Wages system foments hostility between Capital
and Labor, employer and employed. The latter feels no
direct, tangible interest in the prosperity of the business
whence he draws his subsistence; his sole concern being as
to the amount of his dividend therefrom. Is he engaged
in making Iron?  What cares he for the market price of
85 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
Iron? He must have his wages, whether his employer
is working at a profit or at a loss; that is not his affair.
If Iron were suddenly to fall twenty-five per cent. he
could with difficulty, if at all, be made to realize that he
ought to work any cheaper than before. And, indeed,
since his employer would be very unlikely to volunteer
an increase of wages because the price of iron had sud denly riseni twenty-five per cent. he is right in resisting
a reduction so long as he safely may. Still, the fact that
a vicious system has placed the interests of employer and
employed in seeming if not real antagonism weakens
and disorganizes, not that trade merely, but Production
in general. Industry can never exert its due influence
over legislation and government until the interests of
employer and employed shall have been not merely
harmonized in fact, but the parties made to feel that
they are so.
The Wages system works habitual injustice between
man and man. I do not believe that employers are
habitual oppressors, -  that the current rates of wages
are uniformly or generally too low.  On the contrary, I
hold that - at least in this country, where every one
may have land for the asking and become his own employer if he will - the average range of wages is substantially fair and just.  I see young men in thousands
leaving the farms on which they were reared, and which
'they have at length inherited, to earn wages in cities and
villages; and I cannot but feel that they do this mainly
under the promptings of self-interest, - do it because
they can thus earn more, enjoy more, than if they remiained at home and employed themselves. He who,
being able to do thus, sells his services to another, thereby confesses that the wages he receives are more than
he could earn by working for himself.  Admit that the
employer procures the labor and skill he needs at the
86 
HIRED LABOR.
lowest market rates (which is generally, though not uni- 4
formly, the ease), it is equally clear that the employed
usually, if not always, sells his services for the most that
any one will give for them: so that if A. works for B. for
less than A. deems his labor worth, it is clear that others
are of B.'s rather than A.'s opinion; since, if they were
not, some one else would secure those services by offering a higher price for them. And if A. blames B. for
offering so little, he ought still more to blame others,
who offer either less or nothing at all.
And, while I hold Wages in general the fair equivalent of the services they buy, I see clearly that they are
at best a rude approximation to justice, regarded in their
application to individual cases. Here are one hundred
employds in a shop or factory, each working for an established and uniform rate of weekly or monthly pay. But
their work is not of uniform value, - not within twentyfive per cent. of it. One is a skilful, thoroughly instructed craftsman, who does a man's full work, and turns out
none but the best products; another comes to work late
and irregularly, wastes time in every way, can barely
pass muster as an artisan, and his handiwork narrowly
escapes condemnation. These men's services are not of
equal value, and probably never will be; and the fact
that their remuneration is equal tends to discourage ex cellence and fill our shops and factories with slovenly
inert, half-taught journeymen. This is not quite so bad
as Slavery, wherein the slave is deterred from evincing
unusual skill, diligence, efficiency, lest he should thereby
strengthen the barrier between him and freedom, by in creasing his master's estimate of his pecuniary value;
but the vice of the system is rather inferior in degree to
than different in kind from that.
Having overthrown Slavery, we must gradually out grow the ineradicable vices of the Wages system.  These
87 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
are not imbedded in political institutions, unjust laws,
and atrocious judicial decisions; so they cannot be as sailed by storm and overthrown by superior force as
Slavery was,- they must be slowly sapped, patiently
undermined, and gradually replaced by a better arrangement.   This work begins with the immense advantage
of an open field for inquiry and discussion.   Slavery
would not- perhaps could not - tolerate criticism, but
promptly suppressed opposition and silenced cavil by the
revolver and Bowie-knife. The Wages system can claim
no such immunity from criticism, but must plead, whenever arraigned, at the bar of reason. Thus far, it only
demurs, - " Show us your better plan for inciting and
rewarding universal Industry, and prove it not only
ideally just but practically fitted to endure the shocks
and buffets of conflicting interests, jealousies, rivalries,
and mutual distrusts." Here the controversy halts -
mnust halt -to await practical demonstrations. It is
idle to criticise what is, unless we are prepared to show
that something better is ready to take its place, and
keep it.
There is this to be said for the Wages system,- that
the world's necessary work does get done by it,- imperfectly, if you will, and with but an approach to justice,
yet still much better, and with less hardship, than under
any system which preceded it. Whenever some better
system shall have been, not merely devised, but put into
actual operation, and shall have proved capable of holding its ground for years against all the assaults of human perversity, selfishness, and folly, then we may confidently look for its wide and ultimately general adoption.
The rude outlines of such a substitute are already
visible. The Whaling industry of our country has been
generally prosecuted on a basis of partnership for a
century. The entire venture is represented by (we will
88 
COOPERATION.
say one hundred) shares, whereof the owners of the
vessel are allotted a certain number, those who supply
the outfit perhaps as many more, leaving (say) fifty,
whereof the captain has (say) ten, the mate five, the
minor officers three, the experienced whalers two, and
green hands one each, until the full number is apportioned.  If, now, the venture prove successful, - if
the vessel is rapidly filled with oil and bone, and returns
in triumph after a comparatively short absence,- every
one interested shares ratably in her good fortine; if
she has bad luck, her crew may come home poor as they
departed, while her owners are poorer. How admirably
calculated is this "lay " to secure daring, vigilance, efficienlcy, on the part of every person embarked in the
venture, I need not insist on.
This exemplification of a law, though striking, is by
no means solitary. A number of manufacturing establishments have been founded on, or modified into conformity with, the principle of making each worker a
partner in the business,- a sharer in its profits and (of
course) in its risks as well.  "Union stores," and other
combinations to procure the necessaries of life on favorable terms, and preeminent among them "the Equitable Pioneers" of Rochdale (England), illustrate different phases of the general idea.   In attempting its
reduction to practice, there have of course been many
errors and failures, as there doubtless will be many
more; and it may be fairly said, that, apart from sundry
enterprises wherein a common and ardent religious faith
supplied the necessary cement, no effort at complete
unification of interests and efforts, in the household as
well as in the field or factory, has thus far achieved
success, while hardly one has avoided absolute, unequivocal failure. These facts are instructive; they will by
most be judged conclusive, - but to what extent I
89
i
I 
POLITICAL ECOiNOIY.
When Franklin was asked in Europe if his countrymen
were not short-lived, he replied that the point could not
yet be determined, as the first generation were not all
dead. Coo6peration has achieved success in certain
efforts, and has encountered failure in others. Arrange ments are even now in progress designed to test (in
Kansas) the practicability of complete Industrial Asso ciation on a larger scale and with greater facilities than
any former experiment has enjoyed. All such efforts
must be regarded as tentative, experimental, likely to
fail, yet not impossibly destined to succeed; and in
either case calculated to shed light on one of the most
interesting and important problems that ever yet challenged the attention of mankind. A hundred such may
fail to achieve success, without exhausting the infinitely
varied conditions under which success may be sought,
whereby it may yet be attained. And, if it shall finally
be proved that a complete Association in industrial and
social effort by several hundreds of persons or families is
impossible, it by no means follows that a more limited,
qualified combination of energies and efforts is impracticable. Indeed, every Bank, Railroad, District School,
Church, Township, exemplifies, more or less perfectly,
the feasibility of such combination. Capital, we know,
can combine to achieve results otherwise unattainable,
witness the Panama and Pacific Railroads, the Suez
Canal,- and it remains to be proved that Labor is too
stolid or too shallow to grasp some measure of.the advantages to be achieved only through Coo6peration.
Thus far, the demonstrations conclusively attest a success which, if humble, is yet indicative of further triumphs. Labor has evidently passed its Cape of Good
Hope, and sees boundless oceans of beneficent possibility
stretching away into immensity before it.
Nor should we be discouraged by the consideration
90 
COOPERATION.
that further achievement in this direction requires a
measure of capacity, foresight, endurance, faith, selfdenial, whereof the masses have not yet been proved
possessors. Progress receives its impulse rarely from the
multitude, but from the enlightened, generous, unselfish
few, whom the masses follow only as the mob of adventurers followed in the track of Columbus after he had
discovered the New World. The radical defect of the
Wages system is its unfitness to develop and nourish
the very qualities which are needed to insure the success of Cooperation. That success may be achieved by
thousands, while the millions remain incredulous or indifferent; these will be ready enough to accept and profit
by it when it is proved that they may thus secure their
independence or increase their comforts. The very first
association mainly of the Laboring Class which shall
clearly demonstrate their ability to supply the want of a
great capital by combining their moderate means, and
directing their own labor to profit through the agency
of freely chosen foremen, officers, or chiefs, will have
done more for the Emancipation and Elevation of Labor
than all the speculators and system-builders from Plato's
day to our own.
But all rational hopes of continuous improvement in
the condition of the Laboring Class rest upon and assume the essential stability of their employment, and
are frequently blown to the winds by the disastrous
pressure of reckless competition. Establish the rule
that cheapness in money price is to be sought and se cared at all hazards, hence that no National barrier
shall be interposed to check the reckless sweep of un equal competition, and, so far at least as regards all
products which embody large values in small mass,
that is, Textile Fabrics and most other Manufactures
save the rudest and most bulky,- the countries which
. I
91 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
.'eminently combine Capital, Intelligence, Skill, Experi ence, the command of Steam and Machinery, with cheap
Labor, will inevitably underwork and undersell the
younger, less advanced, less artificial communities,
wherein Capital is relatively scarce, the Industrial Arts
more primitive, and Labor commands a larger average
reward. It is of such competition that Louis Blanc has
forcibly said:1
" The principle on which modern society rests is that of
isolation and antagonism; it is that of Competition.  Let us
consider a little what such a principle can carry in its
train.
"Competition is the perpetual and progressive increase of
poverty. Instead of associating forces, that they may produce the most useful results, Competition perpetually places
them in a state of warfare, and reciprocally annihilates them,
-destroying one by the other..... What fortunes are
formed solely of ruins! And of how many tears is often
composed the good fortune of those we call happy! Is it.
then, a good state of society which is so constituted that the
prosperity of one fatally corresponds with the sufferings of
others? Is that a principle of order, of conservation of
wealth, which makes of Society a disorderly confusion of
forces, triumphing only by the incessant destruction of opposing forces?
"Competition is a source of general impoverishment, because it induces an immense and continual loss of human
labor; because,  every  day,  every  hour, everywhere, it
reveals its empire by the annihilation of vanquished Industry,-that is to say, by the annihilation of capital, of
rawv material, of time, of labor employed. I do not hesitate
to assert that the mass of wealth thus devoured is so great
that any one who could at a glance measure it would recoil
with horror.
"Competition is a source of general impoverishment, because it delivers up Society to the gross government of
1 Address to Delegates of Workmen on the Organization of Labor:
Paris, April 3, 1848.
92 
COOPERATION.
chance. Is there under this system a single producer, a
single laborer, who does niot depend on the closing of some  -
distant factory, on a failure which takes place, on a machine
suddenly discovered and placed at the exclusive disposition
of a rival? Is there a single producer, a single laborer, whose
good conduct, foresight, or wisdom, can guarantee him
against the effects of an industrial crisis?"
The justice of these strictures I have at least twice
seen realized on a gigantic scale, in the general prostration of the Manufacturing Industry of my countrymen
under the pressure of European, mainly of British, comnpetition.   That Industry was thus crushed out after
the peace of 1815, when the eminent Henry Brougham
(afterward Lord Brougham) remarked (when Great
Britain was pouring out the goods that crushed our then
infant manufactures) that "England can afford to incur
some loss, for the purplose of destroying foreiln manufactures in their cradle"; and the noted economist and
Free-Trader, Joseph Hume, made a similar remark in
1828. Our tariff enacted in that year rendered all efforts to cripple and prostrate our manufacturing industry
temporarily fruitless; but it was otherwise after the
Compromise Tariff of 1833 began to take filil effect, in
that reduction of duties to a (presumptively) Revenue
standard which culminated in the collapse alike of Industry and Revenue in 1840 - 42.
A report on Strikes, made to the British Parliament
in 1854, significantly said:
"Authentic instances are well known of [British] employers having in such times [of depressed prices] carried on their
works at a loss amounting to three or four hundred thousand
pounds in the course of three or four years.  If the efforts
of those who encourage the combination to restrict the
amount of labor, and to produce strikes, were to be successful for any length of time, the great accumulations of capital 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
couldf no longer be made,' which enable a few of the most
weal-thy capitalists to overwhelm all foreign cow?petition in
times of great depression, and thus to clear the way for the
whole trade to step in when prices revive, and to carry on a
great business before foreign capital can again accumulate to
such an extent as to be able to establish a competition in
prices with any chance of success."
Those, whether capitalists' or laborers, on whom the
heavy blows thus dealt took immediate effect were as
impotent to resist or evade them as a feather in the vortex of a tornado. Of these great commercial cyclones
which from time to time sweep over the civilized world,
annihilating Property and paralyzing Industry, the area
and the fury are enormously increased by that excessive
interweaving and comnmingling of National interests
and industries which is the necessary consequenceand, indeed, the avowed object -of Free Trade.
A 
MONOPOLY.
VII.
MONOPOLY - THE LAW OF PRICES - EFFECT
OF DUTIES ON COST.
MONOPOLY is perhaps the most perverted and misapplied word in our much-abused mother tongue. The
term is properly applicable solely to an exclusive privilege, conferred by law or patent, to make, vend, or supply, a certain article or articles; though Noah Webster
-justifies also the use of the word in that qualified or
accommodated sense in which it is applied to a temporary control of the market, obtained by buying up the
entire stock on hand or accessible, and holding it for
exorbitant  prices.   Formerly,  the  British  monarchs
claimed and exercised the right of granting monopolies
by patent; and Anderson says  1  "Such grants were common previously to the accession of
the House of Stuart, and were carried to a very oppressive
and injurious extent during the reign of Queen Elizabeth.
Commercial monopolies reached to such a height in England
that Parliament petitioned against them, and they were in
consequence mostly abolished, about the close of Elizabeth's
reign, 1602. They were further suppressed, as being contrary to law, under James I., in 1622, and were totally abolished under Charles I., in 1640, and it was decreed that none
should be in future created, as was previously the custom."
Of course, it is possible to regard every exclusive possession,- the power of Pope or Czar, President or Governor,- as, in some vague, secondary sense, a monopoly,
since it is peculiar and exclusive; and so a man may be
1 History of Commerce.
95 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
said to have a monopoly of his wife and children,- of
the farm he has bought and paid for or hewed out of the
primitive wilderness; and so on, until everything but
air and sunshine may be spoken of as monopolized.
This, however, is hyperbole, bearing but a faint resemblance to fact. If the law here conferred on one person
the exclusive right to make Blankets or Brandy, Ships
or Sheetings, we might accurately pronounce that man
a monopolist, and deprecate his privilege as stifling enterprise and stimulating extortion.
But with what reason, with what justice, does one
say that an impost or tax on imported Iron or Nails,
Cloth or Cutlery, creates a monopoly? A great many
of our countrymen were previously employed in making
these articles: which of them has been granted a monopoly. In what sense is a monopoly accorded to any or
the whole of them together? Do we not know that, not
only will each of them sell as his own interest prompts,
and increase his product so fast and so far as he can do
so with profit, but that any one else who will may embark
in the business whenever he shall see fit  - nay, do we
not know that this impost or tax will, to a moral certainlty, impel hundreds to do so? How can A. have had
conferred on him by law a monopoly of that which B.,
C., D., and all the rest of the alphabet, are not only at
perfect liberty to embark in whenever they will, but
which this very act strongly tends to invite them to
engage in, having been passed for that express purpose.
In 1822, a very earnest effort was made to increase
the then existing Tariff (of 1816) with a view to more
efficient Protection; and the bill prevailed in the House,
but was beaten in the Senate. Massachusetts was then
eminently commercial, and conspicuously hostile to Protection. The Hon. James Lloyd, one of her Senators,
used with effect this argument against the passage of
the bill:
96 
MONOPOLY.
"I am (said, he in substance) interested in manufacturing. I own stock in one of the very few cotton-mills
now running in my State. That mill regularly pays
good dividends, and is likely to do so indefinitely, if the
Tariff be let alone.  But, should you pass this bill, hundreds of such factories will be erected, till the market is
glutted with their fabrics, when prices must fall, and
our concern, very possibly, may be broken down. I
choose to let well alone, and entreat you not to pass this
bill." (I state the above from recollection; but I think
not inaccurately.)
Nearly a quarter of a century had intervened before
the defeat, in 1844, of Mr. Clay as a candidate for President incited and justified apprehension that the Protective Tariff of 1842 would be overthrown under the incoming Administration of Colonel Polk. Pennsylvania
was strongly interested in the continuance of Protection,
yet had given a small popular majority for Polk, some
of whose zealous partisans had gravely assured their
neighbors that he was a better Protectionist than Clay.
A meeting was called at Pittsburg to rejoice over Polk's
triumph; and to this meeting the Hon. James Buchanan
(who had voted in Congress for the Tariffs of 1824,
1828, and 1842) transmitted this sentiment: -
" Domestic Manufactures. - They have been saved, by the
election of James K. Polk, from being overwhelmed by the immense capital which would have rushed into them for investment, and from an expansion of the currency which would
have nullified any Protection short of prohibition."
When a general revision of the Tariff was last before
the House of Representatives (February, 1867), I was
on the floor, and, meeting a leading member from lMis
souri, I said to hinm: "It does not disappoint me to see
Massachusetts lukewarm and half-hearted in support of
Protection, -her factories are built and running; she has
5                                G
97 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
machinery, skill, experience, markets; I expect her soon
to desert us, under the impression that she has more to
dread henceforth from American than from Foreign competition;-but what you Missourians, with your vast wealth
of unopened mines, your unused water-power, your unbuilt factories, can mean by voting against Protection, I
cannot imagine." My Missouri friend winced a little,
but replied: "I think we might harmonize on this subject, were it not for the Pennsylvanians -the Iron men;
they are too greedy."-" Stop!" I rejoined, "and answer
me one plain question right here: Suppose the duty on
imported Iron were $ 1,000 per ton, and could never be
less; what would then govern the price of Iron in this
country." -  "I suppose," he replied, "that the price
of Iron would be governed by the cost of producing it."
"Quite right," I responded; "and it seems to me that
you, who comprehend so well the law governing prices,
must know better than to vote here with the enemies of
Protection."
Not many months ago, the price of fair, merchantable
Brick in this city ranged from $ 15 to $ 16 per thousand.
Extensive building had run it up to that figure,-  the
demand for Brick pressing hard on the heels of supply.
The brick-makers along the Hudson were coining money;
and of course more yards were opened, more and more
brick made, until the price was pressed down to $ 9 and
$10 per thousand, from which it has since slightly advanced. In neither case, was the price at all affected by
importation, or duties on imports,- Brick being too
bulky to bear, in ordinary times, the cost of an ocean
voyage.  The price rose because the demand for Brick
rapidly and steadily increased till the supply became inadequate': then the enhanced price incited a largely increased production; and this in turn bore down  the
price: then the production slackened, and the price be
98 
MONOPOLY.
gan to rise again. No scales or steel-yards ever responded more surely to the law of gravitation than did the
Brick manufacture and market to the kindred law of
supply and demand.
I ask, then, why this law may not, in the absence of
foreign competition, be trusted to regulate the price of
Iron (for instance) precisely as it does that of Brick.
Ore, Coal, and Limestone - the raw materials required
for the production of Iron -are found on almost every
hundred miles square of our country; our rivers, lakes,
sounds, canals, and railroads, afford extensive, though as
yet imperfect, facilities for their cheap concentration;
they can be bought, as they lie where Nature placed
them, as cheaply here as elsewhere,- the Government
having still millions of acres filled with them for sale at
ten York shillings per acre, - while the high wages of
the last seven years have drawn hither some of the most
skilful and experienced iron-makers of Europe, to say
nothing of those trained and schooled on our own soil.
Suppose, now, that our present Iron-masters, being very
human, want to make money too fast, and are thus
moved to ask too much for their metal, what under
Heaven prevents others from going into the business,
and so increasing the product till the price of Iron comes
down as that of Brick so lately did? Has the Prophet
Elisha been working another and more gigantic miracle,
whereby Iron is made to defy' the law of gravitation?
Say that all Protectionists are so greedy that they exact
fifty per cent. more for their Iron than it is worth, what
hinders Free-Traders from stepping in and enriching
themselves, while blessing their fellow-citizens, by making
a plenty of Iron at fair prices I There is no mystery,
there is no magic, in Iron-making; it requires no,elaborate
preparation or enormous aggregation of capital; there
are thousands all around us who could run up a fuirnace
99
I I
1. I 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
and smelt therein Ore into Pig as promptly and cheaply
as it is now done; and they are ready for the work, -
not to speak of furnaces out of blast and now for sale at
less than cost.  Why is it that Free-Traders don't and
won't make Pig Iron, when the business is so simple and
they say it is so enormously profitable l Some of them
own long lines of railroads which require thousands of
tons of new rails, chairs, spikes, &c., annually, and could
easily make them if they would; why don't they? They
understand business; they own, or at least wield, ample
capital; they are not averse to making profits. Why
can't they be persuaded, coaxed, jeered, shamed, driven,
into making American Iron, instead of standing aside to
make faces at those who do - What answer?
In all the dissertations of Free-Traders, I meet an
unfailing, quiet assumption that a Tariff must enhance
the PRICE of a given article, or it can do our producers
of that article no good. The truth, as I apprehend it, is
otherwise.
I am a manufacturer of newspapers,   bred to that
trade, which I have assiduously followed through life.
I have made a fair living by that, and nothing to speak
of by anything else. Having given forty-odd years to
its acquirement and prosecution, I ought to have a tolerable comprehension of its wants and its laws. It happens not to be one that needs direct legal Protection,
because an imported newspaper cannot supplant or replace an American one, as a piece of foreign calico or
shirting can take the place and subserve the end of one
made in this country. I make no pretensions to unselfishness, and would gladly make more money by my
business than I now do. Yet I do not want a higher
price for my product, would not raise that price if I could.
I would like to double the demand for that product,
100
I..
I I
I. 
THE LAW  OF PRICES.
to sell a thousand copies where I now sell five hundred, to have a sale that would keep my steam presses and
other costly machinery running up to the limit of their
capacity. Secure me such a market, and I will agree
never to ask an enhanced price while I live. Nay, I
would covenant to make a better and more costly paper
than I can now afford, if I could thereby secure a quick
demand for all the copies I could print. I now give a
better paper than I could possibly afford for the price, if
the edition I print during the night could be rivalled and
superseded by British journals arriving by steamer in the
gray of the morning. And this is true of newspapers
generally; and true, I presume, of Prints or De Laines,
as well as of newspapers.
Years ago, under a low duty, we imported most of
the Starch used in this country, making a little capriciously when the market, from whatever cause, was bare;
but soon a fresh importation would flood our ports,
shutting up our starch-factories and driving out their
workmen to find employment at something else. Of
course, they acquired no decided proficiency in the art,
and our Starch was undoubtedly inferior in quality to its
imported rival. But the Tariff of 1842 imposed a duty
of two cents per pound on imported Starch; and, at
once, a leading house in this city resumed its long suspended manufacture of Starch, called in its scattered
workmen, made a good article, and put it on the market
half a cenit per pound below the price previously ruling.
This was done purely on business principles,- because
Starch could be aforded for less in a large and steady
market than in one contracted and capricious.
Mr. Clay, in his Raleigh speech,1 pleasantly exposed
the fallacy of the Free-Trade assumption that the price of
an article is enhanced by the amount of the duty there
1 June 17,1844.
101 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
on, by citing the discomfiture of a Democratic canvasser
who, seeing a shabbily dressed hearer just in front of
him, arrested the regular flow of his eloquence long
enough to ask, "My friend, do you know that these
Tariff monopolists make you pay six cents per yard more
than you should for that shirt you have on I " -" I suppose it must be so, since you say it," responded the surprised and scared auditor; "but I have no learning, and
don't quite understand it, since I only gave five and a
half."
The Tariff of 1842 found the duties on Cotton fabrics
very low, and raised them to a minimum of six cents
per square yard on plain and nine cents per square yard
on printed or colored,- which was in fact higher than
though it had been one hundred per cent. on the importers' valuation of their goods. No doubt, this enhancement shut out foreign and enlarged the market for our
American fabrics, as it was intended to do. - " Of course,
the manufacturers raised their prices," you say.  No,
they did not; though they probably would have done so
if they could. They did not, because, 1. They could
make cheaper, running their machinery full time in
presence of an ample and eager market, than running
capriciously and while obliged to keep their goods on
hand for months, awaiting purchasers; 2. Because competition was keen among them, and kept down prices to
the point at which a fair, living profit could be made,he who refused to sell at such rates losing his customers
to rivals who believed in the nimble sixpence. So Mr.
Samuel Lawrence, writing from Lowell (December 14,
1842) in reply to my inquiry for specific information as
to the effect of the new Protective Tariff on the prices
of cotton fabrics, gave the following exhibit of the prices
at which Lowell fabrics sold for the three months before
and the three months after the passage of that act: l__
1 Approved August 20, 1842.
102 
EFFECT OF DUTIES ON COST.
AVERAGE PRICES OF LOWELL COTTON FABRICS.
In May, June, and July, 1842.           Ini Sept., Oct., and Nov., do.
Drillings,            7, cts. per yard.      7 cts. per yard.
Shirtings, common, 5~          "    "       5  
Shirtings, heavy,    641       "    "       5       "    "
Sheetings, comminon, 6         "   "        6       " 
Sheetings, wide,      8i         "' 7C              "    "
Flannels, (cotton,) 10         "    "        $      U  "
Here (as in the case of Starch, before cited) the
American producers of Cotton fabrics were not only
enabled to sell their products cheaper in the larger and
surer market secured to them by Protection; they
actually did it,- doubtless to their own profit.
Now look at the same truth from the other side:  Mr. Edward C. Delavan, in a letter to The Northern
Light of December, 1842, quoted the circular and pricelist of a British hardware house in this city, intent on
retaining its customers in this country in spite of the
enhanced duties on their goods levied by the Tariff of
that year. This circular and price-list were addressed
(October 26) to Messrs. Erastus Corning & Co., Albany
(among others), and gave inparallel columns the prices
they charged respectively before and after our Protective
Tariff was passed: the reductions being nicely graduated to meet the increased duties, -an invoice of
twenty articles, which cost ~ 143 16 s. under our old
Revenue Tariff, being put at ~ 131 10 s. under our new
Protective Tariff; making the cost here, after paying the
enhanced duty, a little less than it was under the old
tariff. Here there was no more pretence of philanthropy than in the case of the Lowell men just cited.
The Lowell manufacturers sold their goods lower under
the Protective Tariff because they cost them less than
when their market was restricted, languid, doubtful,
capricious; the British hardware men sold their goods
103 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
cheaper, because they must otherwise lose their American customers, and they preferred a market with small
profits to no market and no profit at all. Each, I presume, sold for the most they could get; but our consumers were supplied with both Hardware and Cotton
Fabrics at lower prices because of Protection.
Let me not even seem to maintain that Protection
always and everywhere produces an imnmediate reduction
of prices.1 Doubtless, we are now paying more for some
articles - such as Iron and Steel- than we should pay
if they were imported free of duty. But abundant facts
sustain and justify these general propositions: —
I. The circumstance that an article is largely imported under a duty of thirty per cent. by no means proves
that it would be sold here thirty per cent. cheaper 2 if
the duty were abolished.
1 " The League" (the Free-Trade organ in this country) for May,
1868, under the head of "Protection Unattainable by Tariff," says: -
" Factories were not extensively established until the war of 1812,
and were specially protected by the Tariff of 1816. This raised the
price at first, and was all the encouragement that was desired. But,
in a little while, another effect fqllowed: The foreign manufJcturers
contrived to reduce the cost of producing their goods, by improved machinery and other means, and submitted to a reduction of their profts in
order to keep as much as they could of Amnerican trade by counteracting
the Tarif; while the American manufacturers, who could only supply
a part of the demand for broadeloths, found their profits diminished by
the rise in the cost of labor and subsistence, which was caused by the
diversion of labor from its natural channels. To this was added the
more abundant capital of the foreign manufacturers, enabling them to
give longer credits; their wider access to established markets enabling
them to accept a lower rate of profits, and the great advantage of being
already established, with machinery all built, trade all regulated, and in
the midst of a superabundant supply of labor, which had no competing
opening, and which could therefore be had for the asking, at the lowest
wages on which people could live."
2 Mr. Commissioner Wells, in a note to his last Annual Report,
savs: -
"The experience of Great Britain for the last twenty years in respect to Tea, as a source of revenue under the customs, has established
this curious fact, that a decrease of the tariff on this article brings no
104 
EFFECT OF DUTIES ON COST.
II. The cheapest articles in this as in any other country are those which are wholly or mainly home-made.
Thus, we make nearly all our Axes, Ploughs, Harrows,
Scythes, Hoes,  Spades,  Shovels,  &c.; and the  wide
world can show none better nor (of like quality) cheaper
than ours. On the other hand, we have hitherto imported most of our Log-Chains, Trace-Chains, Saws, &c.;
and these are not relatively so cheap, and have not improved in efficiency so decidedly, as the farming implements that we mainly make at home.
III. Whenever  a department  of manufacturing or
other industry has become firmly established in our
country, - whether by the aid of Protection or otherwise, - so that its endurance and expainsion are virtually
assured, we may safely rely on domestic competition to
graduate the price of its product, the profit of the producers, to the average standards afforded by other and
kindred pursuits. Unless self-interest has ceased to influence human conduct, we may be sure that, if Corn or
Cotton should this year be produced to great profit,
more people would engage in its production next year,
and so reduce prices and profits; and the rule holds
corresponding benefit in the way of reduction of price to the consumer. Thus, for example, while the duty on Tea, under the British
tariff, was reduced to the extent of 77 per cent. between the years
1849 and 1866 (from 2 s. 2i d. in 1849 to 6 d. in 1866), the average price
of Tea'in bond,' or duty-free, during the same period, exhibited a
corresponding incr-ease of about fifty per cent. (i. e. from 1 s. 1 d. to 1 s.
7i d.); and this, too, notwithstanding the fact that the supply through
importation had nowise abated, but, on the contrary, increased during
the years 1862-63 to an extent sufficient to overstock the market.
The explanation of this commercial phenomenon is, that there being
practically but one Tea-producing country, the trade partakes of the
character of monopoly to such a degree that a decr-ease of the duty
enures mainly to the advantage  of the producer, and an increase, conversely, to his disadvantage. The opinion, therefore, so often expressed
of late, that a reduction of the present duty on Tea would result to the
advantage of the American consumer, is not likely to be practically
realized."
5*
105 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
good with regard to Pig and Bar Iron, Wool and Woollens, Prints and Sheetings. Protection determines only
that certain articles shall be mainly produced in the consuming country; it does not decide that A. or B. shall
have a monopoly of their manufacture. And when Mr.
Commissioner Wells asserts, evidently alleging a permanent, and not merely a transient result, that
"It not unfrequently happens that the imposition of a tax
in the form of a tariff on an imported article is made the occasion for very greatly and unnecessarily advancing the price
of a corresponding domestic product "
he ignores and defies a law as inexorable as gravitation,
- that which impels men to rush into a pursuit which
is supposed to yield extraordinary profits. Let one
farmer make money by growing Hops (for instance), and
twenty others will forthwith plant hop-yards, - very
possibly to their own damage and loss, but very certainly to the reduction of the average profit of Hopgrowing. If Wool sells exceptionally high, Sheep will
increase and multiply; if Lumber brings a high price
this Summer, the pine-trees are bound to suffer for it
next Winter.  He who imagines that the law here indicated stops short at the doors of a furnace or factory,
fearing to venture in, evinces deplorable ignorance or
blinding prejudice.   Cost is the general measure of
Price, alike in the presence and in the absence of Protection. True, if there were but one mine of Zinc or
Copper in our country, a high duty on that mineral
might enrich the owner or owners of that mine; and
thus it may be that the owners of certain ingenious inventions subservient to the production of Screws have
realized large profits on their patents,- larger, it may
be, than they would have done in the absence of any
duty on imported Screws; but they owe their good fortune primarily to their inventions or patents, and but
106 
EFFECT OF DUTIES ON COST.
subordinately to the Tariff. Had there been no duty
on Screws, they would still have held substantial possession of our market, and realized large profits therefrom,
though they might hate been constrained to make their
Screws in Europe, because of the relative cheapness of
foreign labor. Their patents would have held good here
in any ease; the Tariff only makes it their interest to
manufacture in this country rather than abroad. And
I hold mankind benefited and the world enriched by
the development and perfection of the Screw manlfacture in this country which the last few years have witnessed,- a development to which Protection gave an
impulse, by naturalizing this industry among us, and
thus calling into activity the genius for invention which
might else have passed away undemonstrated and unknown. In a few years the patents will all have expired, as I am assured most of them have already done;
while the inventions they cover, the new industry they
have built up, will remain an embodiment of Man's
power over material Nature and a blessing to all generations.
107 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
VIII. 
AGRICULTURE AS AFFECTED BY PROTECTION
-VIEWS OF THE FATHERS.
WHOEVER is familiar with our country's Economic and
Fiscal legislation must concede the following positions:  I. That the great men who framed, advocated, and
secured, the adoption of the Federal Constitution, who
ruled the country throughout the next generation, and
thus laid the foundations of our National policy, were
not manufacturers nor interested in any form of handicraft, but were for the most part connected, directly or
indirectly, with the Farming or Planting interest, which
was then not merely the dominant but the sole reliance
of nine-tenths of our People.
II. That these great men all but unanimously suggested and commended the fostering of Home Manufactures by discriminating Protective Duties on their
Foreign rivals.
III. That they undoubtingly believed that, in so doing,
they were subserving the interest of American Agriculture and laboring to secure to themselves and their fellow farmers or planters, not merely a more assured and
constant, but a more ample, recompense for their labor,
by creating larger, nearer, steadier, and better, markets
for their products.
Generations swiftly succeed each other, and truths
which were familiar forty years ago, having been overlaid by the exciting topics and events of the last decade,
may be unknown to many now on the stage of action.
For the benefit of these, I proceed to prove what is already well known to older readers.
108 
AGRICULTURE AS AFFECTED BY PROTECTION. 109
General Washington, -an extensive and practical farmer through life, never interested, so far as I can learn,
in the manufacture even of a Jew's-harp,- in his first
Annual Message1 (which he read in person to Congress), says:  "The safety and interest of the People require that they
should promote such Manufactures as tend to render them
independent of others for essential, particularly for Military,
supplies."
Congress responded to this suggestion by ordering 2
"That it be referred to the Secretary of the Treasury, to
propose and report to this House a proper plan or plans, conformably to the recommendation of the President in his
speech to both Houses of Congress, for the encouragement
and promotion of such manufactories as will tend to render
the United States independent of other nations for essential,
particularly for Military, supplies."
The Secretary thus appealed to was ALEXANDER HAMILTON,-  not a small man for those days, and never,
so far as I have heard, engaged in the manufacture of
either horn gunflints or basswood pumpkin-seeds.  He
took time to consider the matter, and at length responded3 in a Report which remains a landmark in our history. I will here quote from it just enough to show the
grounds on which Colonel Hamilton based his advocacy
of a Protective policy, with his conception of its bearings
on Agriculture and of its National importance. If any
reader shall deem his view narrow or partial, mole-eyed
or sordid, I shall be sorry for that reader, not for Alexander Hamilton, who, in his introductory paragraph,
says:
"The embarrassments which have obstructed the progress
of our external trade have led to serious reflections on the
8 December 5, 1791.
2 January 8, 1790.
2 January 15, 1790. 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
necessity of enlarging the sphere of our domestic commerce.
The restrictive regulations which, in foreign mnarkets, abridge
the vent for the increasing surplus of our agricultural produce, serve to beget an earnest desire that a more extensive
demand for that surplus may be created at home; and the
complete success which has rewarded manufacturing enterprise in some valuable branches, conspiring with the promising symptoms which attend some less mature essays in
others, justify a hope that the obstacles to the growth of this
species of industry are less formidable than they were apprehended to be, and that it is not difficult to find in its further
extension a full indemnification for any  external disadvantages which are or may be experienced, as well as an accession of resources favorable to national independence and
safety."
The House of Representatives, impelled by this Report, proceeded to create a Standing Committee of Commerce and Manufactures, which it continued for twenty
years thereafter, and then divided, because of the great
variety and importance of the subjects claiming its attention. The fact that Manufactures were deemed,
under the sway of Washington and Hamilton, deserving,
in connection with Commerce, the regard of a Standing
Committee of Congress, remains.
President Washington, in his second Annual Address1
to Congress, thus tersely and forcibly affirms his unchanging convictions:  "Congress have repeatedly, and not without success, directed their attention to the encouragement of manufactures.
The object is of too much consequence not to insure a continuance of their efforts in every way which shall appear
eligible."
Thomas Jefferson was, like Washington, a farmer or
planter, and never personally connected with Manufactures or interested therein. Yet, in his second Annual
1 December 7, 1796.
110 
VIEWS OF THE FATHERS.
Message,l he deliberately sums up the legitimate objects
or purposes of the Federal Government, in these words: -
"To cultivate peace and maintain commerce and navigation in all their lawful enterprises; to foster our fisheries as
nurseries of navigation, and for the nurture of man, and protect the manufactures adapted to our circumstances; to preserve the faith of the nation by an exact discharge of its
debts and contracts, expend the public money with the same
care and economy we would practise with our own, and impose on our citizens no unnecessary burden; to keep in all
things within the pale of our constitutional powers, and cherish the Federal Union as the only rock of safety, -these,
fellow-citizens, are the landmarks by which we are to guide
ourselves in all our proceedings. By continuing to make
these the rule of our action, we shall endear to our countrymen the true principles of their Constitution, and promote a
union of sentiment and of action equally auspicious to their
happiness and safety."
In a subsequent Message,2 in view of the rapid reduction and in anticipation of the early extinguishment of
the National Debt, he inquires, with regard to the ex
pected surplus of revenue: -
" To what other objects shall these surpluses be appropriated, and the whole surplus of impost after the entire discharge of the public debt, and during those intervals when
the purposes of war shall not call for them?  Shall we suppress the impost, and give that advantage to foreign over
domestic manufactures?"
These fond anticipations were suddenly blasted by the
wrongs to which our commerce was exposed by the arbitrary British "Orders in Council," declaring the entire
coast of France under blockade and every vessel trading
thereto lawful prize of war, with the equally unjustifiable and even less plausible "Decrees," dated at Berlin
1 December 15, 1802.
ill
2 December 2, 1806. 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
and Milan respectively, with which Napoleon retaliated.
Mr. Jefferson felt constrained thereby to embargo our
own merchant vessels, forbidding them to trade with
either of the belligerents until those atrocious "Orders"
and "Decrees" should be rescinded. Our Revenue thereupon shrank from a river to a rivulet, and the payment
of our Debt was arrested, but our still infant Manufactures received a powerful impetus. Mr. Jefferson, in his
last Annual Message,1 refers to the changed condition as
follows: -
"The suspension of foreign commerce produced by the injustice of the belligerent powers, and fthie consequent losses
and sacrifices of our citizens, are subjects of just concern.
The situation into which we have thus been forced has impelled us to apply a portion of our industry and capital to
internal manufactures and improvements. The extent of this
conversion is daily increasing, and little doubt remains that
the establishments, formed and forming, will - under the
auspices of cheaper materials and subsistence, the freedom
of labor from taxation with us, and of protecting duties and
prohibitions - become permanent."
President Madison has been styled the Father of the
Constitution. He certainly bore a leading part in its
formation and in commending it to popular acceptance.
His philosophic spirit, his habitual moderation and equipoise, give weight to his oracles of wise and cautious
statesmanship.   In his second  Annual  Message 2 he
says:
"I feel particular satisfaction in remarking that an interior
view of our country presents us with grateful proofs of its
substantial and increasing prosperity. To a thriving agriculture, and the improvements relating to it, is added a highly
interesting extension of useful manufactures, the combined
products of professional occupations and of household indus
2 December 5, 1810.
112
I November 8,1808. 
VIEWS OF THE FATHERS.
try.  Such, indeed, is the experience of economy, as well as
of policy, in these substitutes for supplies heretofore obtained
by foreign commerce, that, in a national view, the change is
justly regarded as, of itself, more than a recompense for those
privations and losses, resulting from foreign injustice, which
furnished the general impulse required for its accomplishment.
Hovow far it may be expedient to guard the infancy of this
improvement in the distribution of labor, by regulations of
the commercial tariff, is a subject which cannot fail to suggest
itself to your patriotic reflections."
ual Message' he recurs to the subject
in these terms -
"Although other subjects will press more immediately on
your deliberations, a portion of them cannot but be well bestowed on the just and sound policy of securing to our manufactures the success they have attained, and are still attaining, in
some degree, under the impulse of causes not permanent, and
to our navigation the fair extent of which it is, at present,
abridged by the unequal regulations of foreign Governments.
"Besides the reasonableness of saving our manufactures
from sacrifices which a change of circumstances might bring
upon them, the National interest requires that, with respect
to such articles at least as belong to our defence and primary
wants, we should not be left in a state of unnecessary dependence on external supplies."
War with Great Britain soon followed; and, for more
than two years ensuing, the land resounded to the clash
of arms.  When peace was at length restored, Mr. Madison transmitted 2 the Treaty of Ghent to Congress, accompanied by an explanatory Message, in which he
says:
" But there is no subject that can enter with greater force
and merit into the deliberations of Congress than a consideration of the means to preserve and promote the manufactures
which have sprung into existence, and attained an unparal
2 February 20, 1815.
H
113
1 November 5, 1811. 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
leled maturity throughout the United States during the period
of the European Wars. This source of national independence
and wealth, I anxiously recommend, therefore, to the prom72pt
and constant guardianship of Congress."
Finally, in his seventh Annual Message,l to a new
Congress, about to enter upon the revision of the Tariff
and its adaptation to the changed circumstances of our
country, consequent not merely on the close of our own
War with Great Britain, but, on the final overthrow of
Napoleon, and the resulting restoration of peace to the
world, the veteran statesman, about to take leave forever
of public life, addressed words freighted with the wisdom born of rare natural sagacity and the observations
of a long, eventful, thoughtful, active, honored career.
I entreat every reader to weigh carefully every word of
the following, in contrast with the antagonist inculcations now so persistently dinned into the public ear.
Mr. Madison says:  " In adjusting the duties on imports to the object of revenue, the influence of the tariff on manufactures will necessarily
present itself for consideration. However wise the theory
may be which leaves to the sagacity and interest of individuals the application of their industry and resources, there are
in this, as in all other cases, exceptions to the general rule.
Besides the condition which the theory itself implies, of a reciprocal adoption by other nations, experience teaches that
so many circumstances must concur in introducing and maturing manufacturing establishments, especially of the more
complicated kinds, that a country may remain long without them, although sufficiently advanced, and in some respects
even peculiarly fitted, for carrying them on with success....
In selecting the branches more especially entitled to the public patronage, a preference is obviously claimed by such as
will relieve the United States from a dependence on foreign
supplies, ever subject to casual failures, for articles necessary
for the public defence, or connected with the primary wants
1 December 5, 1815.
114 
VIEWS OF THE FATHERS.
0o individuals. It will be an additional recommendation for
particular manufactures when the materials for them are extensively drawn from our agriculture, and consequently impart and insure to that great fund of national prosperity and
independence an encouragement which cannot fail to be rewarded."
Mr. Alexander J. Dallas, the eminent Secretary of the
Treasury, supplemented 1 Mr. Madison's Message, with a
special Report (drawn up in obedience to a requirement
of the House), embodying the draft of a Tariff contemplating both Revenue and Protection, and cogently commending the policy of Protection. I ask attention to
but a single paragraph of that Report, which bears directly on the points under discussion. Says Mr. Dallas:
"Although some indulgence will always be required for
any attempt so to realize the national independence in the
department of manufactures, the sacrifice cannot be either
great or lasting.   The inconveniences of the day will be
amply compensated by future advantages. The agriculturist,
whose produce and whose flocks depend for their value upon
the fluctuations of a foreign market, will have no occasion
eventually to regret the opportunity of a ready sale for his
wool or his cotton in his own neighborhood; and it will soon
be understood that the success of the American manufacture, which tends to diminish the profit (often the excessive
profit) of the importer, does not necessarily add to the price
of the article in the hands of the consumer."
Mr. Newton of Virginia,-  who lived and served till
he was known as the father of the House, - on the same
da      y    made, from the Committee on Commerce and Manufactures, a Report urging a largely increased duty on
Cotton Fabrics, and of course favoring Protection in
general. In view of the base efforts since employed to
sow dissension not only between different classes but
between different sections of our country, on the assump
1 February 13, 1816.
115 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
tion that Protection taxes one for the benefit of another,
I solicit attention to two paragraphs of the language of
the Committee, through Mr. Newton, as follows:   "The States that are most disposed to manufactures as
regular occupations will draw from the agricultural States all
the raw materials which they want, and not an inconsiderable
portion, also, of the necessaries of life; while the latter will,
in addition to the benefits which they at present enjoy, always
command, in peace or in war, at moderate prices, every spe cies of manufacture that their wants may require. Should
they be inclined td manufacture for themselves, they can do
so with success, because they have all the means in their
power to erect and extend at pleasure manufacturing establishments. Our wants being supplied by our own ingenuity
and industry, exportation of specie to pay for foreign manufactures will cease."
Referring to the general advantages of the Protective
system in developing the resources of the whole country,
the Committee say:  " Every State will participate in those advantages; the resources of each will be explored, opened, and enlarged. Different sections of the Union will, according to their position,
the climate, the population, the habits of the people, and the
nature of the soil, strike into that line of industry which is
best adapted to their interest and the good of the whole; an
active and free intercourse, promoted and facilitated by roads
and canals, will ensue; prejudices, which are generated by
distance and the want of inducements to approach each other
and reciprocate benefits, will be removed; information will
be extended; the Union will acquire strength and solidity;
and the Constitution of the United States, and that of each
State, will be regarded as fountains from which flow numerous streams of public and private prosperity."
The Tariff thereupon framed and passed was reported
by William Lowndes of South Carolina, one of the ablest
and purest men whom this country ever knew. One
of its most salient provisions was that which established
116 
VIEWS OF THE FATHERS.
a minimum  of twenty-five cents per square yard for
Cotton Fabrics,- that is to say, the duties on Cotton
and on Woollen Fabrics being alike fixed at twenty-five
per cent., it was provided that all Cotton Fabrics invoiced as costing less than twenty-five cents per square
yard should be deemed to have cost that sum, and subjected to duty accordingly. The effect, of course, was
to make the amount actually assessed on cheap, coarse
Cotton goods equal to an Ad Valorem impost of fifty to
one hundred per cent. [Here is that atrocious imposition of exorbitant taxes on the fabrics worn by the poor,
while those bought by the rich pay next to nothing,
whereupon modern demagoguism so exuberantly disports
itself.] A desperate effort was of course made to strike
out this provision for a minimum. This was resisted
by JOHN C. CALHOUN, then a young member from South
Carolina, but one of recognized eminence and power.
Mr. Calhoun based his support of a high specific duty
on cheap, coarse Cotton Fabrics, on these grounds:
"Neither agriculture, manufactures, nor commerce, taken
separately, is the cause of wealth; it flows from them combined, and cannot exist without each.  The wealth of any
single nation, or individual, it is true, may not be immediately
derived from the three; but such wealth alwvays presupposes
the existence of the three sources, though derived immediately from one or two of them only. Taken in its most
enlarged sense, without commerce, industry would have no
stimulus; without manufactures, it would be without the
means of production; and without agriculture, neither of the
others can exist.  When separated entirely and permanently,
they must perish. War, in this country, produces to a great
extent that separation; and hence the great embarrassment
that follows in its train. The failure of the wealth and resources of the nation necessarily involves the ruin of its finances and its currency. It is admitted by the most strenuous
advocates on the other side, that no country ought to be de
117 
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 
pendent on another for its means of defence,- that at least
our musket and bayonet, our cannon and ball, ought to be
of domestic manufacture. But what is more necessary to
the defence of a country, than its currency and finance?
Circumscribed as our country is, can these stand the shock of
war? Behold the effect of the late war on them! When
our manufactures are grown to a certain perfection, as they
soon will under the fostering care of the Government, we will
no longer experience those evils. The farmer will find a
ready market for his surplus produce, and, what is of almost
equal consequence, a certain and cheap supply of all his
wants."
These and like arguments prevailed, - South Carolina
herself giving six votes for sustaining the minimum to
two against it, - and the high duty thus imposed on
cheap, coarse Cotton Fabrics enabled our few cotton-mills
to ride out the storm that quickly followed the opening
of our ports to British Manufactures at generally low
duties upon the proclamation of Peace. While most of
our Manufactures were prostrated, these withstood the
convulsion, and our production of cheap Cottons has
ever since been more solidly, uniformly prosperous than
any other, and the relative price of such Fabrics has
long been lower here than elsewhere in the wide world.
I might quote from the Messages of Governors GEORGE
CLINTON,  DANIEL  D.  TOMPKINS,  DE WITT  CLINTON,
SIMON SNYDER, and many others of like eminence, urgent recommendations of Protection to Manufactures on
grounds substantially identical with those taken above;
but need I? The fact that they commended such Protection ill the interest of American Agriculture, and as a
means of enhancing the measure of its recompense while
insuring a far larger and steadier demand for its products,
is undenied and undeniable. These illustrious patriots
had no special interest in Manufactures, save as a means
of promoting and securing "the greatest good of the 
VIEWS OF THE FATHERS.
greatest number."   Not for the sake of Manufactures
primarily or mainly, but in pursuance of what they profoundly believed the general good, did they uphold and
commend the policy of Protection.
Names are nothing. I would have no one accept a
proposition merely because Washington or Jefferson,
Madison or Dallas, did. I ask attention, not to the fact
that these held as I do, but to their reasons for so doing,
- their grounds for believing that the upbuilding and
diversification of Manufactures among us were essential
to the prosperity and growth of our Agriculture, the
just recompense of our Labor.   If their views  were
crude and narrow, selfish and perverse, let judgment be
rendered accordingly; but first consider their positions,
weigh their arguments, and do not condemn them unheard, merely because a different school of economists,
with admirable self-complacency and modesty, assure
you that their own views are liberal, enlightened, philosophic, statesmanlike, and that all who dissent therefrom are inevitably selfish, shallow, short-sighted, and
absurd.
119 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
IX.
THE STATE- ITS LEGITIMATE SPHERE -
POWERS AND DUTIES- FREE TRADE AX  IOMS CONSIDERED.
As I write, the proceedings of a Free Trade meeting1
in Chicago are laid before me. They open with a preamble and resolves, moved by Dr. Ray, whereof the
base or groundwork is the following proposition:
" Whereas, The right of each citizen of a free country to
have and to hold the fruit of his own labor at the control of
his own will; to sell the same where he chooses; to take
what, he pleases to pay therefor, without let or hindrance,
save in the:way of just taxes to maintain law and order in the
state, is as clear as his right to his own life, and may not be
overridden without danger to all his other rights."
Here it is clearly affirmed that taxation is legitimate
and rightful only when its proceeds are devoted to a
single purpose, -  "to maintain law and order in the
state." Of course, taxation to pay the purchase-money
for Louisiana was usurping and fraudulent, not merely
on the ground affirmed by Mr. Jefferson, that the Federal Constitution did not warrant any such expenditure,
but on the broader, more sweeping assumption that no
Constitution could warrant it, - that it was made for a
purpose wholly foreign to the legitimate ends of government.
Yet Dr. Ray, I cannot doubt, has favored the expenditure of large sums and the contracting of a con
1 July 18, 1869.
120 
THE STATE -ITS LEGITIMATE SPHERE.    121
siderable debt, by Chicago expressly to provide her people with pure, sweet water, - a purpose which he declares wholly without the legitimate sphere of government. At all events, I very heartily voted, thirty-six
years ago, to bring the Croton water into our city at a
very heavy cost to her tax-payers, of whom I was not
yet one.  There was a spirited opposition, especially inll
the poorest quarters of the city,- two of the Wards
mainly inhabited by non-tax-payers giving majorities in
the negative.  Yet, at least two-thirds of all who voted
at all voted fol Water;  and our city has been more
attractive, more healthful, less liable to pestilence, less
filthy, less noisome, and every way more fit for humani
habitation, since that water came pouring through our
streets and streaming into our houses.   We obtained it
by voting to mortgage and tax the property alike of
those who assented and those who protested, - by decisively denying and overruling the alleged "right of a
free citizen to have and to hold the fruit of his own
labor at the control of his own will." I cannot doubt
that Dr. Ray has done the same in at least a hundred
different instances, and especially with regard to Coinmon Schools.
But I offer a still more conspicuous proof of the futility of Dr. Ray's proposition: I put in evidence against
him the City of New York, the Commercial Emporium
of the New World. Men carelessly say that her wondrous growth and unrivalled predominance are the results of her great natural advantages: even  a commercial dictionary' lying before me asserts that "New
York is indebted, for her wonderful increase, to her
admirable situation, which has rendered her the greatest emporium of the New World."  Yet such is by no
1 A Cyclopedia of Commerce.  Edited by J. Smith Homans.  Halrper and Brotlhens.  185)8.
6 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
means the fact. New York was more than two centuries old before she could be deemed the commercial
emporium even of this country.  Though settled more
than half a century sooner, New York was long second
to Philadelphia, and was barely abreast of her down  to
a time far within my recollection. The population of
the two cities under each Federal Census was, respectively, as follows: 
New York. Philadelphia.
In 1790....  e 29906            45,250
In 1800.........        60,489         70,287
In 1810....... 96,373            96,287
In 1820...... 120,376        119,325
In 1830......  202,589           167,325
In 1840.........     312,852         258,037
In 1850......    v515,547            408,762
In 1860.......813,668            568,034
But other American seaports long disputed the palm
with  New  York.   Goods  were  formerly shipped to
Charleston, S. C., for New York; Newport once surpassed her in the amount of her shipping; Norfolk long
cherished dreams of commercial ascendency, which she
is just reviving; while the sudden upspringing of Baltimore, consequent on the rapid settlement of western
Virginia and eastern Ohio, and her natural excellence of
position as the point at which the tide-waters of the
Atlantic approached most nearly the valley of the Ohio,
render it probable that, in the absence of artificial channels for transportation, she wiould have risen to the
primacy among American cities.
But, even before we had emerged from Colonial dependence, agitation for an artificial water-way between
the seaboard and the West had commenced. Indeed, a
rude yet practicable passage-way for boats between the
Mohawk and Wood Creek, and thus between Schenectady and Lake Ontario, is said to have been actually ef
122 
THlE STATE - ITS LEGITIMATE SPHERE.    123
fected so early as 1768; in which year Governor Sir Henry
Moore recommended to the Colonial Assembly of New
York a Canal around the rapids in the Mohawk now
known as Little Falls. Before the Revolution, George
Washington in Virginia and Christopher Colles of this
city had severally pondered and agitated the means of
opening a water communication from the seaboard to the
West; and hardly had peace crowned the struggle of
our fathers for Independence when Mr. Colles, in successive memorials to our State Legislature, and General Washington (now likewise a private citizen), were
actively at work.   I ask special attention to Washington's own simple account1 of his action in the premises,
and the views which prompted it:
"I have lately [says he] made a tour through the Lakes
George and Champlain, as far as Crown Point; then, returning to Schenectady, I proceeded up the Mohawk River to
Fort Schuyler, crossed over to Wood Creek, which empties
into the Oneida Lake, and affords the water communication
with Lake Ontario; I then traversed the country to the head
of the eastern branch of the Susquehanna, and viewed the
Lake Otsego, and the portage between that lake and the
Mohawk River at Canajoharie. Prompted by these actual
observations, I could not help taking a more contemplative
and extensive view of the vast inland navigation of the
U,nited States, and could not but be struck with the immense
diffusion and importance of it, and with the goodness of that
Providence vwho has dealt His favors to us with so profuse a
hand.  TVould to God we may halve wisdom enough to IMPROVE
them."
Washington, it is clear, was not a Free-Trader. He
did not believe, with D)r. Ray, that the sole legitimate
end of government is "to maintain law and order," and
that to tax for any other purpose is to outrage "the right
of each citizen of a free country to have and to hold the
1 Letter to the MIarquis of Chastellnx, 1784. 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
fruit of his own labor at the control of his own will."
After taking, in the Autumn of that year, another tour
up the Potomac, and so far westward as Pittsburg, examining the natural facilities for cutting a Canal by that
route to connect the waters of the Atlantic with those
of the Ohio, he wrote to Governor Harrison of Virginia,
urging the importance of early and decided steps to
achieve  such  communication.  He  sought to interest
Maryland also in the work, and urged the moral certainty that iNew York and Pennsylvania would soon strike
out vigorously to secure, each for herself, a control of the
trade of the rapidly growing West; adding, with characteristic breadth of vision:    I ami not for discouraging the exertions of any State to
draw the commerce of the Western country to its seaports.
The more communications we open to it, the closer we find
that rising world (for, indeed, it may be so called) to our interests, and the greater strength we shall secure by it. Those
to whom Nature affords the best communications will, if they
are wise, enjoy the greatest share of the trade.  All I would
be understood to mean, therefore, is, that the gifts of Providence may not be neglected."
W1ill any say that Washington expected private individuals, in our then infantile and impoverished condition,
to furnish the means and take the risk of cutting canals
(then scarcely known out of China) through the wooded
mountains which separated the settled portions of our
seaboard States from the lakes and navigable rivers of
the North and West?  Hear how he urges on Governor
Harrison the grave political reasons for effecting such
communications: -
' I need not remark to you, Sir, that the flanks and rear of
the United States are possessed by other powers -  and formidable ones too - [Great Britain and Spain]; nor need I
press the necessity of applying the cement of interest to bind
all parts of the Union together by indissoluble bonds,- es
124 
THE STATE - ITS POWERS AND DUTIES.   125
pecially of binding that part of it which lies immediately west
of us to the Middle States."
- Mr. Colles again petitioned our Legislature on this sub ject in 1786, and was backed by others of greater prominence and influence.  Yet it was not till 1791 that "The
Western Inland Lock and  Navi(gation Company" was
chartered, whereby a canal with five locks around the
"Little Falls" of the Mlohawk was constructed in the
course of the ensuing six or seven years, with another at
the German Flats, and another conecting Wood Creek
with the Mohawk, - in all, seven miles of Canal, with
nine wooden locks. The whole cost $ 400,000, and were
not worth even that sum; for the facilities for navigation thereby afforded were so meagre and imperfect that
so little commerce'was attracted to this route that it
never paid expenses.  In fact, it was morally impossible
that any adequate and attractive channel of transportation should be created otherwise than by emnploying the
resources and credit of the State.
Here  New  York  paused, as if amazed at her own
temerity, - our State then containing scarcely more
than a quarter of a million inhabitants, hardly five
thousand of whom lived westward of Utica,- and gave
Pennsylvania, with her vastly superior wealth and population, ample opportunity to secure for herself the proud
position of Empire State, and for her chief city the enduring character and prestige of Emporium of American
Commerce.   Ignorance or heedlessness can hardly excuse her failure; for, so early as 1796, Robert Fulton,
then in Europe, wrote to her Governor (Thomas Mifflin),
urging her to open a water transit through her territory
from the seaboard to the Lakes, and adding:  "I hope I sha?l see the time when canals shall pass through
every vale, wind around each hill, and bind the whole country together i;, bonds of social intercourse." 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
He was too sanguine, as great men are apt to be. He
did not live even to see the Erie Canal commenced. But
he did live to see its construction directed and assumed
by the State,1 after years of preparatory discussion, surveying, and estimating, and to be himself chosen one of
the Commissioners to direct the great enterprise; but
War with Great Britain intervened to postpone its actual
commencement, so that his decease 2 preceded, by more
than two years, the actual breaking ground; 3' from which
date eight years wererequired to complete the narrow
and shallow water-ways which first connected the navigable waters of the Hudson with those of Lakes Champlain, Ontario, and Erie. The cost of those rudimentary
canals was about Seven Millions of Dollars; and there
are this day One Thousand Millions' worth of property in this City and State, and thrice that amount in
the Union, more than there would have been had that
work been postponed for even so short a term as twenty
vyears.
Yet it evinced far greater courage in our State to undertake it in 1811 than for the Union, half a century
later, to resolve that it would have a Railroad from the
Missouri to the Pacific.
The commercial ascendency, and consequent rapid
growth in business, industry, and wealth, of the City of
New York, are direct and manifest results of the resolution of the State, under the lead of De Witt Clinton,
to construct, on her own responsibility and credit, the
Erie and Champlain Canals. This resolution was maintained in the face of a formidable and vehement opposition, generally upheld by the very City which those
Canals were to aggrandize beyond the wildest dreams of
enthusiasts or of speculators in corner-lots. The Canal
3 At Rome, Oneida Co., July 4, 1817.
I Ap ril  8, 1811.
2 February 14, 1815.
126 
THE STATE -ITS POWERS AND DUTIES.   127
policy was maintained by the strong arms of our Western
pioneers and small farmers, mainly Yankees, then growing Wheat in the rich valleys of the Genesee and Tioga at
twenty-five to fifty cents per bushel, and intent on having
a cheaper outlet to the seaboard.' They reelected De
Witt Clinton Governor, in 1820, when his defeat was
deemed inevitable, and when the politicians and journals
of the lower end of the State were almost a unit against
him, and when the cry" Fill up the ditch!" was popular
in the bar-rooms and around the polls of the Southern
District. The City of New York owes her present proud
position to the fact that those Western farmers had not
studied political economy in the school of negation and
obstruction, whereof Dr. Ray is a graduate and apostle.
But opposition to the Canal policy was not confined
to the region below the Highlands, though there it was
most  rampant.   Men  who  reasoned  as Dr.  Ray  and
other Free-Traders now do, were heard in every county.
A respectable Dutch farmer, owning and enjoying a
goodly estate on the Mohawk flats, above Schenectady,
hung himself when he found it impossible to prevent the
cutting of the hated ditch right through his rich meadows. Even so late as 1827, I heard an innkeeper of fair
natural powers in Chautauqua County denouncing the
1 Hon. Jabez D. Hammond, in his cautious and able "History of
Political Parties in the State of New York," thus characterizes the
delegation firom this City to the Legislature of 1818, whereof he was a
rnember: -
"The members of Assembly from the City of New York were all
from the hot-bed of Tammany Hall.  All of them, with the single exception of Cadwallader D. Colden, were open and bitter in their denunciations of the Governor [De Witt Clinton], and the system of internal
improvements, at the head of which he stood, and with which he was
identified. They predicted with confidence the entire failure of the
system, and thence the serious embarrassment and disgrace, if not the
tlin, of the State.  They claimed that the reputation of Mr. Clinton
was staked on the fate of this system, and they professed their entire
willingness to abide the result." 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
Erie Canal as an unmitigated curse to Westelin New
York. Nearly t.wenty years later, the able and eminent
Colonel Samuel Young, ill a report to the Senate, pronounced the 4' songs of internal improvement" "libels
-on the laws of God."  The Canal policy of New York
-was fought as recklessly as the Protective policy now is,
upon the same fundamental assumptions and by essentially identical arguments. It was stigmatized as a
device of the speculating, grasping few, to enrich them selves at the cpense of the simple, plodding, credulous
many, by means wholly foreigrn to the legitimate sphere
of government. And, if the premises above laid down
by Dr. Ray are sound, they were clearly right.  If he
knows as mnuch of Political Economy as one should do
who assumes to teach it, then a State has not, and never
had, any right to make canals.  If his fundamental as sumnption is soulnd, then the Erie Canal is the result of
a blundering usurpation, and New York has no business
to be the Commercial Emporium, seeing that she became
so. by reason of our State's flagrant defiance of the natural, inalienable Rights of Man.
I proceed to consider a moderate and plausible affirmative averment  of the doctrine which, in its negative
application, Dr. Ray seems to me to have overstrained
ind run into the ground. I quote it from Adam Smith,1
as- follows
" Every individual is continually exerting himself to find
ouit the most advantageous employment for whatever capital he
can command.  It is his own advantage, indeed, and not that
,of the society, that he has in view, - tbut the study of his own
advantage naturally,, or rather necessarily, leads,im to prefer
-that employment which is most advantageous to the society."
This is the  triue'and  necessary corner-stone  of the
1 Wealth of Nations, Book TV. Ch. III.
128 
FREE TRADE AXIOMS CONSIDERED.
Free Trade structure.  I cannot accept it.  It ignores
the most vital distinctions, and makes him who amasses
most wealth the most usefill citizen, contrary to'every
man's experience and moral perceptions   Here  are
four brothers, who set out resolved to make their way
in the world; one of them patiently hewing a farm
out of the Western wilderness, the second establishing
a plough-factory, the third opening a grog-shop, and the
fourth a gaming-house, and each living by and prospering
in his vocation. Suppose that, as the fruit of thirty years'
effort, the rumseller has made $ 100,000, and the blackleg $ 200,000, while the farmer is worth but $ 10,000,
an,d the plough-maker  $ 20,000, does it follow that
the former have been the better citizens, or that their
manner of life is justified by their thrift  -Each  has
studied his own advantage," - has followed that pursuit to which he was attracted,-and his choice has been
crowned with the success to which he aspired; and, if
"the study of his own advantage naturally, or rather
necessarily, leads him to prefer that employment which
is most advantageous to the society,";(cdmmnunity,) why,
then, the blackleg is the most meritorious of the four,
and has done more good than all the rest. I reject and
repel the philosophy which leads to such revolting conclusions. I insist that the value to the community of a
man's efforts is not indicated or measured by the amount
of his resulting gains, - that one may enrich himself in
a pursuit or calling which impoverishes and curses his'
neighbors and countrymen. In short, I consider the
Free Trade premise fallacious, pestilent, and utterly mistaken.
A later and more skilful presentment of the Free
Trade theory is contained in the celebrated Petition to
Parliament of the Merchants and Traders of the City
6*                                I
129 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
of London, which Mr. Huskisson deemed so conclusive.
I will here quote its more essential propositions:
" That foreign commerce is eminently conducive to the
wealth and prosperity of the country, by enabling it to import the commodities for the production of which the soil,
climate, capital, and industry of other countries are best calculated, and to export in payment those articles for which its
own situation is better adapted;
" That freedom from restraint is calculated to give the utmost extension to foreign trade, and the best direction to the
capital and industry of the country;
" That the prevailing prejudices in favor of the Protective
or restrictive system may be traced to the erroneous supposition that every importation of foreign commodities occasions
a diminution or discouragement of our own productions to
the same extent; whereas, it may be clearly shown that, although the particular description of production that could
not stand against the unrestrained foreign competition would
be discouraged, yet, as no importation could be continued for
any length of time without a corresponding exportation,
direct or indirect, there would be an encouragement, for the
purpose of that exportation, of some other production, to
which our situation might be better suited; thus affording at
least an equal, and probably a greater, and certainly a more
beneficial, employment to our own capital and labor."
I have quoted this petition as the clearest, tersest,
fairest, most forcible, exposition of the Free Trade doctriine within my knowledge.   If there is a better or more
cogent, I will thank any Free-Trader except its author
to point it out to me. I ask for this the consideration
to which its ability, frankness, and calmness so clearly
entitle it. Let the reader ponder along with it these
brief comments:  I. Its fundamental assumption clearly involves the
dictum of Adam Smith above quoted, that every mar,
,f left to do what he deems most advantageous to himself,
w?ill do what is best for the community. Unhappily, our
130 
FREE TRADE AXIOMIS CONSIDERED.
courts, sheriffs, police, prisons, gibbets, are standing
proofs that this cannot be relied on. Nor would the
Erie Canal have been seasonably constructed, if ever,
had every one been left at liberty to contribute or not, as
he'deemed most conducive to his personal interest, and
to sell the right of carrying it across his land at such
price as he should see fit to demand.
II. It is further assumed that, if there be no restriction on trade, we shall import only those commodities
which the soil, climate, &c., of other nations enable them
to produce more advantageously than we can. Abundant experience has demonstrated that we do and will
extensively import many commodities for the production
of which no other country has greater natural advantages
than our own. We have repeatedly imported a large
share of our Breadstuffs; we habitually import largely
of the Fabrics in which we are clothed, as well as Wool,
Iron, Wines, &Ce., &e., for the production of which we
are as favorably situated as any people on earth. That we
ouglt to import a certain article is no more proved by
the fact that we do import it than the rightfulness of
many other practices is proved by our addiction to them.
III. While it is very true that those from whom we
buy abroad expect an equivalent for their wares, and
generally obtain it, it by no means follows that we
thence secure "at least an equal, probably a greater,
and certainly a more beneficial, employment to our own
capital and labor." Throughout the last five or six
years, we have been buying very largely of European
Metals, Wares, and Fabrics, paying therefor in Cotton,
Wheat, Cheese, Bacon, Lard, &-e., so far as these would
go, and eking out a heavy deficiency by sending over
ream after ream of the bonds of our Government to
"comble the deficit." These bonds, having fifteen or
twenty years to run, drawing six per cent. interest, and
131 
POLITICAL ECONOMIY.
payable in coin, we have sold at fifteen to fifty per cent.
discount from their. face, and thereby squared our accounts from time to time, until it is now understood that
Europe holds them to the extent of at least Nine Hundred Millions of Dollars, not to speak of our State bonds,
Railroad bonds, &c., &c., to the amount, probably, of
Five Hundred Millions more. The individuals who remitted these bonds, or exchange drawn by bankers
against them, in payment for the goods we have eaten,
drank, or worn out, may have made a profit on each
transaction,- may very probably have grown rich by
these dealings; but I cannot doubt that our country has
been impoverished by them, - has enjoyed present luxury
and ease at the cost of future hardship and embarrassment, -has played the part of prodigal to that of usurer
enacted by Europe, -and is bountmd to sweat and toil
through many future years to retrieve the fortunes shattered by this brief season of reckless, short-sighted
prodigality. I hold it proved by this ready example
that a nation which increases lavishly her imports does
not (as the London Petition asserts) secure thereby "a
more beneficial employment for her own  capital and
labor,'" but, on the contrary, may thereby doom herself
to a cycle of depression, calamity, and unavailing sorrow.
132 
PROTECTION FOR AGRICULTURE.
X.
PROTECTION FOR AGRICULTURE.
I HAVE hitherto sought to demonstrate that the
founders of this Republic -themselves either farmers
by vocation or the representatives of farmers mainly
deliberately and thoughtfully determined to protect and
develop Home Manufactures, and that they did this in
the conviction that they thereby promoted the interest
and enhanced the gains of American Agriculture. -If
any one chooses to pronounce them idiots, I shall not
here contest the assumption; but the hypothesis of
their ignorance of the vital matter in dispute is at war
with facts mountainous and incontrovertible. Free
Trade had always a strong party in Congress; its dogmas and its arguments were essentially as now; and
they have no living champion able to present them more
forcibly than Mr. Webster did in his speech of 1824,
when John Randolph of Roanoke led the anti-Protectionists of the South 1 as intrepidly as Mr. Webster did
1 Hezekiah Niles, in his Weekly Register of May 1, 1824, thus outlines the division by sections and interests that then pervaded the
Union: -
"The people of the Middle and Western States are anxious for the
establishment of domestic manufactures, that they may have a home
market for their agricultuaralproducts; and those of the South and Southwest are opposed to such establishment, because they apprehend it
will reduce the demand of the foreign market, and so injure their
agriculture. The people of Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts,
are against a Protective Tariff, because it may interfere with a protected navigation; and the small States of Rhode Island and Connecticut are for it, for the reason that it will encourage, if it shall not increase, the products of their industry."
133 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
those of the North,- but in vain   The Middle States,2
from New York to Kentucky inclusive, declared for Protection, upon the grounds so forcibly set forth in General
Jackson's letter (already quoted) of that year to Dr.
Coleman of Virginia.  Those States, - still almost exclusively Agricultural -  decided that to "plant the
manufacturer by the side of the farmer" was (in General Jackson's words) the true and sure way to increase
the recompense of the husbandman's toil - that, even
though his Metals, his Implements, his Wares, his
Fabrics, should cost him more money than under Free
Trade, he would nevertheless pay for them with less
Produce or Labor; which was to him the controlling consideration. Such was their conclusion, after listening for
years to arguments, pro and con, from statesmen at
least as able as their successors now living. I, though a
child in the early stages of their controversy, was an
eager and omnivorous reader of those discussions; my
judgment thereon was held in abeyance until after
years of dispassionate inquiry and consideration; it uiltimately inclined to the conclusions of Hezekiah Niles,
; 2 The Tariff of 1824 was levied avowedly and exclusively with a
view to additional Protection. It passed the House (only two members
absent) by 107 Yeas to 102 Nays, divided locally as follows: -
't
Maryland,.
Virginia,                  1
North Carolina,
South Carolina,
Georgia,
Tennessee,
Mississippi,.
i Alabama,.
I Louisiania,.
I Missouri,.
I  Indiana,
I Illinois,.
134
For the Ag'
bill. it.
.    1 6
. 1    11
.    1     5
. 2 -
.    5      1
. 5    -
. 26 8
. 6 -
. 24 1
. I -
. 14 -
- 11 -
For the
bill.
.. 3
.            1
. 2
. I
.. 2
.             1
Aglt
it.
6
21
13
9
7
7
1
3
3
illaine,.       -
A,Iassachusetts,
New TTainpshire,
Rhode Island,
Connecticut,  -
Vermont; -
New York,
New Jersey, -
Pennsylvania,   -
Delaware, -
Ohio,..
Kentucky,. 
PROTECTION FOR AGRICULTURE.
Henry Clay,'and Rollin C. Mallary;1 and  the convictions then deliberately attained have since remained unclouded and unshaken.
If controversy is to be prosecuted with a sincere purpose of arriving at a common and just conclusion, the
disputants must grapple with and try to comprehend
each other's positions. I seek, then, the latest authentic exposition of the Free Trade view of the point I am
considering, and find it a synopsis of Dr. Francis Lieber's recent lectures on  "Protectionist  Fallacies," as
Professor of Political Economy in Columbia College.
In his summary report thereof for The Evening Post he
comes at length to what he terms the Pauper-Labor
argument, and I read as follows:  "It is mere fallacy; and possibly no [other] argument of
our Protectionists is so fallacious as this, their most popular,
because most insinuating, argument. The errors and inconsistencies involved in it are so numerous that little more
can be done here than barely to enumerate them.
"All that is meant by American labor in this case is the
manufacturing labor and that of the artisans,- the workmen,
as they are styled.  But is the farmer not a workman?
There are far more laborers engaged in farming than in manu —
facturinig and handicrafts,- I believe twice as many.   All
these citizens of our republic are left unprotected against the
protected workmen; for the farmer has to pay a higher
price; that is to say, he must work several days more for what
he stands in need of than he would had not our Legislature
privileged aparticular class called workmen.  The farmer cannot
spend the product of so many days' labor -of which he is
robbed for the supposed benefit of another class - for better
schooling or more respectable dresses for his children, more
comforts for his wife, more books for himself, or the improvement of his farm."
1 Among those who sustained these conclusions by their votes as
Senators, in passing the Tariff of 1824. were Andrew Jackson and
John H. Eaton of Tennessee, Martin Van Buren of New York, and
Thomas H. Benton of Missouri.
135 
POLITICAL ECONOMIY.
Dr. Lieber here quietly assumes the vital matter
in issue, -  namely, that the farmer "must work several
days more for what he stands in need of," under Protection than under Free Trade. I will not doubt that such
is his opinion, which he has a perfect right to propound
and uphold as such; but I know nothing in his position
or achievements which entitles that opinion to pass unchallenged when such respectable authorities as Napoleon I., Henry Clay, Walter Forward, A. Alison, Thiers,
Daniel Webster (from and after 1828), Henry C. Carey,
&c., &c., are arrayed against him. I hold, with them,
that the Professor is mistaken, - that the farmer is not
"robbed" by Protection, even though  Manufactures
only were thereby subjected to duty (which is by no
means the case), -that he is not thereby required to
work " several days more" for the wares and fabrics he
buys, but the contrary. It seems to me self-evident
that Protection tends to shorten the distance between
the farmer and the artisan or manufacturer, hence to
diminish the cost of exchanging their respective products, and thus to secure to the farmer, not only surer
and steadier markets for his produce, but an ampler
recompense for his labor. Such are the conclusions
that long ago made me a Protectionist. Neither Professor Lieher nor any of his school have even tried to
convince me that I am in error. They dogmatically
asstime, 1. That home-made Wares and Fabrics must
cost more money than their imported rivals,- which is
probable, though not always the case; and 2. That, if
they cost more money, they must cost the farmer
more of his produce or labor, which is quite another
matter, and which I most confidently deny. I hold
that the Metals, Wares, and Fabrics, required and
bought by our farmers, would cost them very much more
of their produce if, in the absence of Protection, we oh
136 
PROTECTION FOR AGRICULTURE.
tained them almost wholly from abroad. As this is the
vital point, let me elucidate it more fully:  I. Distant markets are all but inevitably inconstant,
uncertain markets. Europe has deficient harvests one
year, and buys Grain of us quite freely; but next year
her harvests are bounteous, and she requires very little
more food than she produces, no matter how freely we
may be buying of her fabrics.  Hence, our Wheat now
sells very far below the prices which ruled here when
Europe had a meagre harvest.
II. A heavy export of Wheat and other cereals is a
virtual exportation of certain of the best elements of
our soil. It must and will gradually impoverish the
best soils, and soon exhaust those of medium or lower
capacity. Thus, the average product of Wheat in this
country has fallen in the course of the last sixty years
from twenty-five to twelve bushels per acre, while that
of Great Britain has risen in like proportion. She has
drawn away from us much of the best elements of our
soil, and applied this in good part to the improvement
of her own. Sixty years ago, Eastern New York was a
wheat-growing region; forty years ago, that industry
had moved westward to the " Holland Purchase," or
Genesee  country; that, too, in turn gave out, and
wheat-growing took flight to Michigan, Illinois, Iowa,
Wisconsin, Minnesota; these will in turn be exhausted,
if crop after crop of Wheat or Corn is grown and shipped
off, returning little or nothing to the soil. Skilful,
scientific husbandry dictates that more shall annually be
given to the soil than is taken therefrom; but this is
impracticable where crops so exhaustive as the cereals
are grown mainly for exportation and shippel away to
be consumed on another continent.1
1 Mr. George E. Waring, in a paper read before the Geographical
Society of this city, says:- -
" In my opinion, it would be improper to estimate the total annual
1.37 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
III. A remote market virtually restricts the farmer to
two or three great staples; while near markets enable
him to diversify his products, and thus maintain and
increase the productive capacity of his soil.
IV. I will illustrate my general view of the influence
of Protection, as it affects the Farming interest, by a
familiar example:  The old Scotch-Irish settlement of Londonderry, N.
H., is now divided into four townships, all devoted to
Agriculture, as they have been since first settled by
White men a century and a half ago. With our factories
and workshops still in Europe, her farmers must pay
for their Fabrics mainly with Grain and Meat, sold at
somewhat less than their present (gold) prices. But
Protection has built up four great manufacturing centres   Lowell, Nashua, Manchester, and Lawrence - on
three sides of old Londonderry, and but five to fifteen
miles away; and her farmers supply these with Fuel,
Timber, Milk, Apples, Hay, &c., at prices which give
them more than double the return they could realize
with our workshops still in Europe. They sell thousands
of cords of Wood for three to five times as much as it
would be worth (uncut) but for the proximity of manufactures. And their advantage is being steadily diffused,
by the springing up of one or another species of manufacture, all over the country, - in the South and West
more rapidly of late than in the North and East.
Most certainly do I believe that the prices of Home
Manufactures (estimated in Labor or in Farm Products)
waste of the country at less than equal to the mineral constituents of
fifteen lhundred millio? bushels of corn.  To suppose this can continue,
and we can remain prosperous, is simply ridiculous. As yet, we have
much virgin soil, and it will be long ere we reap the full fruits of our
improvidence; but it is merely a question of time. With our earthbutchery and prodigality, we are each year losing the intrinsic essence
of our vitality."
138 
PROTECTION FOR AGRICULTURE.
tend steadily downward, -that a hundred bushels of
Wheat or Corn, a ton of Beef or Pork, a load of Apples
or of Potatoes, will buy far more Iron, or Cloth, or
Hardware, in 1869, than it would have done in any antiProtective era of our country. Though the money
prices of American fabrics should range even fifty per
cent. higher than those of their Foreign-made rivals, I
hold it the true policy of our farmers to encourage and
prefer the home-made, because they thus advance their
own interest by enlarging, quickening, and rendering
constant the demand for their products, while securing
better prices for them.
If such be not the fact, why is it that the farmers of
the British "Dominion" north of us are selling their
lands at low rates, and even (in some cases) deserting
them unsold, to buy and work dearer lands within the
bounds of our Union. They have lower taxes and a
lighter debt in Canada; they have' cheap British fabrics,
imported under low revenue duties; and they have no
serious political grievance or discontent; yet they are
crossing over to us this year as never before; and they
come to stay. If Free Trade is. better for the farmer,
why do they not stay where they can enjoy it. If Protection is not the impulse to this exodus, why have they
not so poured in upon us before.
Benjaniamin Franklin, writing home from London in 1771,
while these States were still British colonies, and their
manufactures systematically discouraged and repressed
by the mother country, thus happily indicates the interdependence of Agriculture and Home Manufactures: -
"Every manufacturer encouraged in our country makes
part of a market for provisions within ourselves, and saves so
much money to the country as must otherwise be exported
to pay for the manufactures he supplies. Here in England it
is well known and understood that wherever a manufacture
139 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
is established which employs a number of hands it raises the
value of land in the neighboring country all around it.  It
seems, therefore, the interest of our farmers and owners of
land to encourage our young manufactures in preference to
foreign ones."
The essential fact here noted is one which any one
may verify by personal observation. Let it be noised
abroad that a "city of spindles " is soon to be erected on
some great waterfall hitherto unimproved and useless,
and how quickly every farmer in the vicinity advances
the price of his land! He may be an ultra Free-Trader,
- he may seem to detest Manufactures as corrupting,
or on some other ground; but he none the less realizes
that his farm is worth far more to-day than it was yesterday. It is so for the same reason that a landlord who
lives on his estates and spends his income in the vicinity
is more popular with his tenants than if he spent his
means in distant cities and foreign capitals. Economists
may seem to demonstrate that the difference is ideal or
sentimental, but the tenants know better.
That the farmer who has an ample market at his door
may and will diversify his products, improve or at least
retain the better qualities of his soil by a rotation of
crops, and return to that soil the elements which cultivation has exhausted, is plain. On this point, Henry
C.           Carey 1 happily says:   Steadiness and regularity in the returns to agricultural labor grow with increase in the variety of commodities to the
production of which the land may be devoted. Disease, too,
tends to disappear as population grows, and a market is created on or near the land. The poor laborer of Ireland sees
his crop of potatoes perish of rot, consequent on the unceasing exhaustion of the soil; and the agriculturist of Portugal
witnesses the destruction of his hopes by the constant recur
1 Carey's Social Science, Chap. XVI. p. 34.
140 
PROTECTION FOR AGRICULTURE.
rence of the vine disease; while the American farmer is
perpetually visited by blight, resulting from the necessity for
constantly withdrawing from the soil the material required
for enabling it fully to supply tlm ever-recurring crop of
wheat. The man who has a market at his door finds both
blight and insects vanish from his land, and is further enabled,
from year to year, more fully to profit by the discoveries of
scientific men, and by their aid to free himself from disturbing
causes that have hitherto brought loss to himself or others;
thus making his pursuit so nearly certain in its results as to
add largely to the value of his labor and his land."
Mir. E. B. Ward, an extensive iron-master in the West,
addressing the farmers of Wisconsin,' correctly says: —
"Protection to home industry is the business of a good
Government, and its advocacy the duty of the intelligent and
enlightened citizen.  Not monopoly for the benefit of any
one class, but Protection to that degree needed to encourage
manufactures and benefit farmers, and keep our balance of
trade healthy. You do not need a tariff on wheat to prevent its import from Europe, for the freight is a tariff; but a
roll of English or German cloth is a car-load of cheap foreign
corn, packed in small compass; and if you buy it you help to
keep down the price of your grain to its level.  Better make
it here, and have your home market govern a price that shall
rule higher than in Liverpool or Hamburg."
To the same effect, substantially, Adam Smith, in his
"Wealth of Nations," says:
"The increase and riches of commercial and manufacturing
towns contribute to the improvement and cultivation of the
countries to which they belong in three different ways: First,
by affording a great and ready market for the rude produce
of the country, they gave encouragement to its cultivation
and further improvement.  This benefit was not even confined to the countries in which they were situated, but extended more or less to all those with which they had any
dealings. To all of them, they afforded a market for some
1 At their State Fair, Madison, October 1, 1868.
141 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
part either of their rude or manufactured produce, and, consequently, gave some encouragement to the industry and improvement of all.  Their own country, however, on account
of its neighborhood, necessarily derived the greatest benefit
from this market. Its rude produce being charged with less
carriage, the traders could pay the growers a better price for
it, and yet afford it as cheap to the consumers as that of more
distant countries."
This view of the importance to Agriculture of the
proximity of Manufactures is strikingly corroborated by
Alderman Mechi,1 one of the foremost practical farmers
and land-improvers in Great Britain, who says:  " It is piecisely because British farmers have their customers - the British manufacturers - almost at their doors, and
that other cornl-producing countries have not any manufacturers, that British Agriculture is rich and thriving."
The Rev. Lyman Beecher,2 preaching to a congregation of farmers, in the infancy of our manufactures,
under the head of " The encouragement and successful
prosecution of Agriculture," says:
"I have mentioned a steady market, and a fair profit, as
among the encouragements to be afforded to agriculture. No
human skill can, indeed, control the elements, or regulate
the seasons, so as to secure the equable fruitfulness of the
earth in this or other climnes, or so control the family of
nations as to prevent the fluctuation of demand and price,
occasioned by the interchange of peace and war.   But much
may be done, by a wise policy, to check these fluctuations of
the market, and especially to withhold them from extremes
which are destructive to national industry.  No calamity is
greater than a capricious market, baffling the sober, extended
calculations of industry, and converting the husbandmen of a
nation into a body of speculators, tempting at one time by
1 How to Farm Profitably; or, The Sayings and Doings of Mr.
Alderman Mechi.  London, 1864.
2 Thanksgiving Sermon on "The Means of National Prosperity ":
Litchfield, Connecticut, December 2, 1819.
142 
PROTECTION FOR AGRICULTURE.
high prices to adventurous purchases and lavish family expenses, and then, by the glut of the market and the fall of
produce, dashing the hopes of thousands of families, and rearing upon their ruins a moneyed aristocracy.  A steady market and a fair profit, for the products of the field, are among
the greatest national blessings and noblest objects of national
policy. Like the steady attraction of the sun, they keep up
the motion of surrounding bodies, and, like his light, diffuse
cheerfulness and activity through all the works of God.
With these remarks in view, I am prepared to say:
"Secondly: Thlat the Protection and encourgagement of our
ranufactures is essential to national prosperity.
" Manufacturing establishments, by the introduction of
machinery and the division of labor, save time, and give us
the consequences, while they save the sustenance and wages,
of increased population. They afford employment also to
classes of the community which would otherwise be idle
or less usefilly employed, call into action the diversity of
talents with which God has endowed men, and lay open to
the active mind of enterprise a greater choice of employment, and more powerful incitements to industry.  But the
vital utility of manufactures consists in their subserviency
to agriculture, by affording to the husbandman a near and
steady home market, and by diminishing the competition of
exported produce in foreign markets, increasing the demand
and the price. It gives him the advantage of two markets
instead of one: the home market a steady one, and the foreign iharket less fluctuating and more productive than if
glutted by the entire surplus product of a great agricultural
nation. In the mean time, instead of quickening the industry
and augmenting the resources of other nations, we stimulate
and augment the capital of our own nation.....
"National industry is national wealth. That policy which
secures productive employment to the greatest portion of the
population of a nation, consuiilts her highest prosperity. But
this can be accomplished so effectually, by no means, as by
making the manufacturers of the nation the customers of the
farmer, and the farmers the customers of tlhe manufacturer.
If we would be independent in reality of other nations, we
143 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
must encourage agriculture, by the steady demand of a home
market, and secure within ourselves the capital which results
from the manufacture of our own raw material.  The foreign
market is always precarious and partial, from the vicissitudes
of peace and war, plenty and want, as well as from restrictions upon imports endlessly varied by nations to protect
from foreign competition the industry of their own subjects.
In this manner, foreign nations exert an efficient legislation
over our own substance, and raise or sink the value of our
property often fiom fifteen to fifty per cent.  Such a state of
uncertainty and subjection to foreign caprice no nation ought
to endure.  In time of war, if we depend on foreign markets, our produce is often excluded from its accustomed
market, and our supply of imports, made necessary by habit,
comes to us at enhanced prices, and finds us with our produce
rotting upon our hands, and without the means of purchase."
President Monroe was inaugurated in 1817, and in
his Inaugural Address, and in every one of his six succeeding Annual Messages, urged upon Congress the duty
and polievcy of affording additional Protection to our struggl ing   Manufactures. I will cite but a single passage,
from his third Annual Message,l wherein he treats of the
occasional shipment to our ports of the surplus products
which accumulate in foreign workshops, and their sale
here at exceptionally low prices, as injurious to our people. Here is the passage, which the disciples of Mill and
Bastiat  may       ponder at their leisure:  " An additional cause of the depression of these establishments may probably be found in the pecuniary embarrassments
which have recently affected those countries with which our
commerce has been principally prosecuted. Their manufactures, for want of a ready and profitable market at home,
have been shipped by the manufacturers to the United States,
and, in many ins tances, sold at a price below their current
valu      e   at th e  place of manufacture.  Although this practice
may, from its nature, be considered temporary or contingent,
i    t is n   ot on that account less injurious in its effects.  Uniform
1 December 7, 1819.
144
i 
PROTECTION FOR AGRICULTURE.
ity in the demand and price of an article is highly desirable
to the domestic manufacturer. It is deemed of great importance to give encouragement to our domestic manufactures.
In what manner the evils adverted to may be remedied, and
how far it may be practicable in other respects to affobrd to
them further encouragement, paying due regard to all the
other great interests of the nation, is submitted to the wisdom
of Congress."
I might continue these citations indefinitely; but my
end is attained if I have clearly exhibited the spirit in
which the foundations of our Protective policy were laid,
the liberal and comprehensive aims of its authors and
champions.  They were mainly farmers, or the representatives of farming constituencies; yet they never sought
to build up Agriculture on the downfall of any other
producing interest. They did not place the industry
wherewith they were most  immediately connected in
antagonism to any other; they realized that the thrift
of each was identified with the well-being of all. THE
AMERICAN SYSTEM-  as they proudly and happily named
it- was a system of enlightened, thoughtful, and generous consideration for every Home interest and industry,- a system which recognized in the prosperity and
growth of Manufactures the assurance of constant,
ample markets a)d fair prices for the products of our
Agriculture, with steady employment at living rates for
our Shipping and healthful activity, with liberal profits
and infrequent bankruptcies, for our Commerce. If they
erred,-  as I am confident they did not,- they erred
not through envy, or meanness, or narrow, sordid coinceptions of National policy, but in obedience to the dictates of a statesmanship broad as our country's horizon.
The principles they enunciated were of universal application, and their sympathies, though more immediately
contemplating our own people, embraced and comprehended all human kind.
7                                 J
145 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
XI.
MANUFACTURES AND THEIR NEEDS.
WE are accustomed to regard all Metals, Wares, and
Fabrics, as Manufactures, which in one sense they are;
yet it is manifest, on reflection, that these divide naturally, in the contemplation of Political Economy, into
two distinct classes,- 1. That wherein nearly twice as
much labor would be required to double the present aggregate product; 2. That which is subject to a different
law. Thus, if we should require twice the amount of
Iron we now buy or use, it would probably cost at least
double what we  now pay  for the smaller quantity;
whereas, there are many fabrics of which (like newspapers) the number or quantity furnished might be doubled
at much less than double the present cost. Half a century ago, when Ploughs and other farming-implements
were mainly made by hand, their fabrication probably
cost more per piece, per dozen, per score, in this country
than in Europe; whereas, apart from the cost of the raw
material, we probably now make, by the help of steampower and costly, complicated machinery, nearly every
farm-implement, edge-tool, screw, cut-nail, &c., as cheap
as they are made abroad - some of them even cheaper,
- and all of them cheaper than we possibly could if we
had not a steady market and a vast demand. That articles of this class have been and are cheapened to the
mass of our consumers by reason of Protection to Home
Industry, is not doubtful; while it is probable that a
majority of our consumers are required to pay more dollars (not days' work, nor products) per pound or per ton
146 
MANUFACTURES AND THEIR NEEDS.
for Iron, Wool, Salt, Steel, and a few other rude, bulky
staples, than if, in the absence of a tariff, we mainly imported them. Wherever Machinery does little, leaving
nearly all to be effected by Manual effort, and 100,000
tons of the product costs one hundred times as much as
1,000 tons, there Cheap Labor tells, and insures a lower
price; but its influence is much less sensibly felt in the
production of most Wares and Fabrics whereon Steam
and Machinery have flill play, and which are cheapened,
not by low wages, but by the extensive demand, and the
signal efficiency of the means whereby that demand is
satisfied. It is probable, indeed, that American ingenuity and invention, applied to the production of Iron and
Steel, may increase the efficiency of the labor or other
force employed therein, rendering each day's work, each
ton of coal, twice, or even thrice, as efficient as they now
are,- and this anticipation rests upon and is justified
by past achievements; but such triumphs are contingent, and not likely to be promptly realized, while the
advantages of larger and steadier markets for most Wares
and Fabrics are instant and palpable. The People must
decide whether we are to surrender either imperilled department of our National Industry to be overwhelmed
by foreign competition, or shall effectually resolve to
protect and preserve them both.
Our Revolutionary fathers were frank as well as sagacious, and realized the wisdom of saying exactly what
you mean. Hence the preamble to the very first Tariff
which passed Congress 1 under the Federal Constitution
declares that such Tariff was required "for the support
of Government, for the discharge of the debts of the
United States, and for the encouragement and protection
of domestic manu2?factures."  The duties thereby imposed
were generally quite low; but there was no equivocation
1 Approved by President Washington, July 4, 1789.
147 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
or concealment as to the objects for which they were
levied.
But why protect especially Man2ufactures?
I answer, For the same reason that we fortify our chief
harbors and our frontier posts rather than the mountains
and prairies in the heart of our country. We defend
the National Industry, like the National territory, at the
points most exposed to assault, or where an enemy could
do us greatest harm. The bulk and weight of most agricultural staples forbid their transportation to remote
markets except at ruinous cost. The abundance and
cheapness of our arable lands, with the intelligence and
efficiency of our labor, and the excellence of our farming
machinery and implements, secure signal advantages to
our grain-growers, and render them impregnable to direct
European competition. If Europe would give us all the
Indian Corn and Hay we want or would consume, we
could not transport them to our inland consumers so as
to afford them as cheaply as they are now supplied. The
transportation of most Vegetables and Edible Roots,Potatoes, Turnips, Carrots, Cabbages, &c., - is rendered
so expensive by their bulk, that few of them would be
brought hither from Europe for sale under any but the
most extraordinary circumstances. Potatoes in moderate
quantities reach us from Bermuda and from Nova Scotia;
the Canadas proffer us cheap Grain and Timber; while
we still send to the farthest East for Tea, because that
article embodies larger value in a given bulk than almost
any other product of the soil; but I am confident that
we should have commenced its production years ago, and
that we shall soon ascertain that we could long have
grown it cheaper than we have imported it. So with
Raw  Silk, Willow (for baskets,  &c.), Sugar, and some
other unmanufactured or easily manufactured products of
the soil, with which we could have supplied ourselves
148 
IANUFACTURES AND THEIR NEEDS.
from domestic sources cheaper (in labor, if not in money)
than we have imported them. We have persisted in
buying abroad from habit, lack of consideration, and because the establishment or naturalization of a new branch
of industry always costs something at the outset, while
Trade glides easily in the grooves worn smooth by customn and oiled by successive realizations of profit. Even
Cotton was made at a loss by our people until Whitney's
Gin - which would never have been invented had not
the culture been previously naturalized on our soil- reduced at once the cost of production by fifty to seventyfive per cent.
We have yet some Agricultural staples to root firmly
in our soil or extend over a far greater area thereof;
yet the general truth, so earnestly and frequently proclaimed by the fathers, abides,- that our Agriculture is
mainly to be benefited and strengthened by bringing
ample and steady markets nearer and nearer to the
doors of our farmers. Give them purchasers at hand
for Vegetables, Edible Roots, Fruits, &c., and they will
cultivate their land better, exhaust it less, and realize
far greater returns and profits per acre, than they could
while, depending on remote markets, they were compelled to grow crop after crop of Grain. They will now
reclaim and cultivate the rich bottom lands, which,
being saturated and sodden with stagnant water, have
hitherto been neglected as worthless or intractable;
and they will realize more from an acre of vegetables or
small fruits than formerly from ten acres of grain; and
thus, mainly, will Protection benefit our farmers,- as
was originally anticipated and sought.
1 In the old County of Westchester, N. Y., which has been farmed
for two hundred to two hundred and fifty years, some thousands of
acres of these richest lands are just beginning to be improved and
cultivated; not one-fourth of them have yet felt the point of a plough.
149 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
"But why do Manufactures need Protection. " is
asked to-day, as though it were a novel question. I
answer: -
I. Because of the relative dearness of our Labor. A
ton of good Bar Iron we may roughly estimate as the
embodiment of thirty days' faithful and in part skilful
human labor. In Belgium or France, this labor costs
twenty-five dollars, and, were Ore and Coal there abundant
and accessible, would cost still less; in Great Britain, Ore
and Coal are far more abundant and cheaper, while
Labor is paid rather higher, so that the Iron costs a
little less; in this country, considerably more, mainly
because Labor is dearer with us. We thus have our
choice,- between importing most of our Iron or protecting the home production. Now, I never made any
Iron, nor had any other than a public, general interest
in making any, while I have bought and used many
thousands of dollars' worth, in the shape of powerpresses, engines, boilers, buildinig-plates, &c. It is my
interest, you say, to have cheap Iron. Certainly: but I
buy Iron, not (ultimately and really) with money, but
with the product of my labor, -that is, with newspapers; and I can better afford to pay seventy dollars
per ton for Iron made by men who can and do buy
American newspapers than take it for fifty dollars of
those who rarely see and never buy one of my products.
The money price of the American Iron may be higher,
but its real cost to me is less than that of the British
Iron. And my case is that of the great body of American farmers and other producers of exchangeable wealth.
We have somewhat cheapened Iron by American inventions and improved processes; we shall doubtless
cheapen it still further if we cherish and uphold its
production among us; yet I apprehend that this (unlike
several other branches of manufacture) is one of the
150 
MANUFACTURES AND THEIR NEEDS.
staples on which Cheap Labor tells so directly and
powerfully that we can never make it for so few dollars
as it may be produced for somewhere else. Still, it
seems to me plain that our true interest as a people
requires that we henceforth produce it far more extensively than we have ever yet done.
II. Because, in a subordinate degree, of the relative
scarcity and dearness of Capital among us. We are still
a young people, and lack the vast accumulations of Capital that Great Britain and France can boast. We have
few or no families that have been engaged in manufacturing for a century or more, and have amassed wealth
therein. In order to obtain the large capital required
to erect and stock a great manufactory, we have to form
joint-stock companies, and drum for subscriptions on
every side. Those who invest want good dividends, regarding the business as hazardous; while our longestablished and well-known foreign rivals can borrow at
five per cent. This gives them a decided advantage,
which they are not slow to improve.
III. They have the advantage of us, moreover, in an
abundance of artisans of eminent experience and skill.
We have rapidly gained on them since the enactment of
the Tariff of 1861; still, we have much to learn,- or
rather, we need to teach and perfect a good many of our
people in arts wherein Europe has yet the advantage of
us.
IV. Our Railroad system, though extensive and rapidly
extending, is still far less perfect, as a handmaid to
Manufactures, than the British, which connects almost
every ore-bed with almost every coal-mine on the island.
It was but a few years since, that the great Sterling
iron-mines of our State and New Jersey were connected
by rail with tide-water in the Hudson; the first railroad
from a Champlain ore-bed to the Lake was opened this
151 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
Summer; the connection of our Copake (Columbia
County) iron-mines with the Hudson by rail is not yet
complete. Only last Winter, I saw a long string of
teams drawing on sleds Iron Ore from the beds in
Amenia (Dutchess County) to the furnaces in Connecticut, six or eight miles away. In England, a railroad
would have been doing the work at less than half the
cost at least ten years ago. In Missouri, Illinois, and
even in Indiana, large sums are being this year expended to bring together Ore, Coal, and Limestone, far
cheaper than  hitherto.   At  Pittsburg,  I saw Steel
extensively made, eighteen months since, from ores
freighted thither from Lake Champlain, New Jersey,
and Lake Superior respectively,- none of them brought
less than three hundred, and most of them over five
hundred miles. We shall shorten and cheapen these
routes, or we shall find the requisite ores at points much
nearer each other. Every year of successful production
wears smoother the ways over which our raw materials
glide to meet each other. Give us time!
V. As to Textile Fabrics, France has a great advantage over us as the dictator of fashions, the arbiter of
taste; while Great Britain has still greater in the fact
that her goods obtained possession of the world's markets during the great wars which followed the French
Revolution, when her flag had nearly swept the seas,
and her forces held at least temporary possession of nearly all the isles of the main. To this day, the invisible
threads of Commerce centre at London: if Calicoes or
De Laines, Flannels or Hosiery, are wanted in Australia
or China, Venezuela or Peru, the dealer looks to England
as the natural source of supply, and is but dimly conscious that there is any other. Facility of quick distribution over a vast area is one of the vital elements of
cheap and profitable production for all fancy fabrics in
152 
MANUFACTURES AND THEIR NEEDS.
our day, when a wide and eager demand is indispensable
to cheap and profitable production.
VI. Foreign fabrics have great advantages over ours,
even in our own markets, because of the popular presumption that their colors are more durable or their
styles more attractive. We have no such pride in wearing our own fabrics as has been patriotically and beneficently evinced by other people. Too many of our
merchants and merchant tailors habitually disparage
American fabrics and exalt those of our European rivals,
which they sell at higher prices and larger profits because they are foreign.   Some jobbers, having sold a
foreign fabric at fifty cents per yard till it has lost the
gloss of novelty, will order an American imitation of it
at a far lower price; and, when it is seen to be an imitation, will say, "Of  course, it is inferior in style and
texture: what do you expect of American fabrics  "when in fact it is exactly what they ordered and paid for.
VII. The clews of trade, right here in New York, are
in foreign hands and wielded in subordination to foreign
interests.  Let me give an example:  Dr. Crosby, of New Haven, Conn., recently invented
most ingenious machinery for the manufacture of FishHooks, by which they are automatically fashioned from
a coil of wire nearly as fast as cut-nails are made,-  are
bent, pointed, barbed, flattened at the head, &c., more
perfectly than could be done by manipulation. Every
size, from pin to cod, is made with equal facility and perfection. Having finished a quantity, he sent a sample
consignment of them down to a New York house which
led the trade; but they were rejected, as not of standard
excellence. Again he sent a consignment, with a similar
result. A third time he tried, accompanying his wares,
and expressing a hope that these would answer,- but
no; they were not up to the mark.   "Why, gentlemen,"
7*
153 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
he remonstrated, "these ought to suit you; for they are
British hooks, bought from your own store, and packed in
my boxes to test you."  Of course, that did not signify;
the jobbers were resolved to keep the market for their
British friends; and they had the power.
VIII. Our American manufacturers have not, as a
class, made the proper and requisite efforts to cause the
quality and cheapness of their Wares and Fabrics to be
generally known. They have confined their efforts to
the.Trade, - that is, the jobbers of our gTeat cities,
when they should have appealed directly and earnestly
to the People. If consumers generally knew how much
De Laines (for example) have been cheapened since we
began to make them here, - how much this home manufacture has done to cheapen them,- that knowledge
would exert a most salutary influence. So of Merrimac
Prints, and other of our standard fabrics. No people
who wholly import their manufactures are or can be so
cheaply and amply supplied with them as ours are at this
moment.   "Dear-bought and far-fetched" is a trite old
saw, drawn from the heart of universal human experience. I am assured that Bessemer Steel Rails (British)
were selling here at $150 per ton till the first American
furnace commenced turning them out, when they dropped
suddenly to $110 per ton.
The history of the Watch-manufacture in this country
is full of instruction and encouragement. Though we
had made our own Clocks, and some to sell, for a halfcentury, we had depended entirely on Europe for our
Watches, down nearly or quite to 1860, when the manufactory at Waltham, Mass., after one or two failures, fell
into the hands of its present managers. They soon appealed directly to the masses for judgment and patronage; sold every Watch distinctly and proudly as American, and challenged the world to surpass their products
154 
MANUFACTURES AND THEIR NEEDS.
either in excellence or cheapness; and, by the disbursement of many thousands per annum in advertising, as
well as by making a good article and selling it cheap,
gradually imprinted on the public mind a conviction of
the truth of their claims. Their Watches sold more
and more extensively month after month, as they were
enabled, by extending their works, perfecting their processes, and increasing the number of their workmen, to
improve the production; until we are this day making
most of the Watches we require,   making more than we
ever imported in the years happily past. For not only
does the original Watch-manufactory at Waltham continue to prosper, and enlarge its borders, but several
rivals have recently spruing into existence in different
parts of our country, under the stimulus afforded by the
emphatic success of the pioneer enterprise. I confidently predict that the day is not distant when we shall export Watches as regularly and as extensively as we have
long exported Clocks,- sending them even to China,and I believe this triumph is due not more to the ability
evinced at Waltham to make good Watches cheaply than
to the judicious energy and enterprise exhibited by
Messrs. Robbins & Appleton in making their excellence
universally known.   What has been done by them is important mainly as showing what may, to like profit, National as well as personal, be done in many other departments of manufacturing industry.
IX. The dishonest practice of labelling or stamping
American manufactures as though of foreign origin has
exerted a most baleful influence over our industrial progress. All know that the fluid sold as Champagne in
this country is mainly a home-made concoction of cider
and drugs; and, whether this be or be not more hurtful
than the French liquor it personates, it is reprehensible
as a counterfeit and a fraud.  A leading American pro
155 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
ducer of pure wines from grapes of his own growing re.
cently assured me that he had been shown through a
great establishment in this city, whence thousands of
bottles of wines of various kinds and brands were sent
forth daily, yet into which no drop of grape-juice ever
entered. I was once sitting with some two hundred
others, at a public dinner-table, when my left-hand neigh-.
bor (a total stranger), seeing that I drank no wine, ab-.
ruptly remarked: "You do not know that this Champagne was not imported from France." I now looked at
his bottle for the first time, and replied:" No; I can
say nothing as to the origin of the liquor, for I know
nothing; but that inscription on the cork,'Champagne
au Rheims,' is made by Yankee type,-  I could swear to
it in Egypt,- no Frenchman ever cut type like that."
I am told, but do not credit, that the latest achievement
in this department of home manufacture is the production of Champagne from Petroleum, and that the new
fabric has large currency and popularity in those metropolitan haunts whither rural greenhorns eagerly flock,
under cover of darkness, to "see life."  I trust that a
moderate quantity of the beverage suffices to assuage
their thirst.
This whole business of fabricating on our own soil
imitations of foreign products, to be palmed off as genuine, is not merely dishonest and fearfully demoralizing;
it tends to discredit and degrade American manufactures
generally. A counterfeit can hardly fail to be inferior in
serviceable qualities to the thing counterfeited; he who
will affix a fraudulent label or trade-mark to his product,
in the expectation that he may thereby sell it more readily or for a higher price, will rarely hesitate to cheat in
the substance as well as the show; while the talent he
devotes to making his product pass for that which it is
not will inevitably be subtracted from that which he
156 
MANUFACTURES AND THEIR NEEDS.
should apply to perfecting that product. And, besides,
the true workman has an honest pride in his work; he
wishes its excellence to be seen and honored as his: make
him conceal his name behind a false label, and he is no
longer impelled to do his best. He is tempted to rest
content with perfection in the label or trade-mark, and
neglect the fabric or product it knavishly commends.
The consuming public, thus defrauded, is led to associate
conceptions of inferiority and dishonesty with that of
domestic production, - to consider  "home-made" and
"worthless "all but synonymous terms.  Vigilant search
for, public exposure and condign punishment of, every
instance wherein a home-made article is ticketed or in
any way sought to be palmed off as of foreign origin, are
demanded by the interests alike of public morality, justice to those whose trade-mark is thus counterfeited, protection to consumers, and the prosperity, progress, and
good name, of legitimate American manufactures.
I have thus glanced at some of the more formidable
impediments to the growth, stability, and complete success, of American manufacturing industry.  Some  of
them are incident to its comparative infancy, -there
being scarcely a market, our own included, where European fabrics have not preceded and forestalled ours; and
all must realize that it is far less difficult to retain a
market than to wrest it from its established possessors.
Others are the fruits of mistakes and shortcomings on
the part of our manufacturers; and these they must be
admonished to correct, or abide the consequences. But
there remain a large and important class deeply grounded
in the relative dearness of American Labor; and these
I hold it the Nation's interest and duty to counteract
and overcome, by the imposition or retention of such
rates of duty on the foreign rivals of our products as
157 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
will enable our producers, with reasonable skill and efficiency on their part, to retain the control of our own
markets, and not be driven therefrom by a foreign competition rendered overwhelming by the far cheaper Labor
and more abundant as well as cheaper Capital of Europe.
Suppose the markets of the world divisible into one
hundred equal parts, seventy-five of which are now possessed exclusively by the manufacturers of Europe, while
but twenty-five are shared by them with those of this
country, I hold it neither fair, just, nor beneficent, that
our artisans and artificers should compete for these
twenty-five on the same terms with those who already
exclusively hold by preemption the larger number. To
secure, by discriminating imposts, our own markets to
our own fabricants seems to me just to them, beneficent
to our country and all her people, and conducive to the
steady progress and diffusion of industrial art throughout the world.
158 
THE LABORING CLASS   ITS RIGHTS.
XII.
THE LABORING CLASS - ITS RIGHTS, INTER          ESTS, DUTIES, AND NEEDS.
IF there be those who would array Labor against
Capital, I am not of them, nor with them. If there be
those who regard the interests of Labor and of Capital
as naturally or properly antagonistic,  I do not agree
with them. In using the term "Laboring Class" or
"Working Men," I conform to a usage which has the
recommendation of convenience, and hardly another.
In my view, there should be none other than laborers,
save the infantile, the disabled, and the dead; and
there are not nearly so many non-laborers as is
vulgarly  supposed.    The  rum-seller  is  a  worker,
though to no good end; even the gambler evinces industry, though to very bad purpose. If I had the
ordering of human affairs, I would have every one an
apprentice of some sort in youth, a worker for wages (or
something equivalent thereto) in early manhood (or
womanhood), and every one his or her own employer at
a later stage; so that the class of hired workers should
be constantly receiving recruits on one side and dismissing skilled, experienced persons to enter upon graver
responsibilities on the other. I would have every journeyman realize that he will soon be an employer, every
employer remember that he was once a journeyman, as
his son (if son he have) soon will be; and I believe the
influence of these contemplations would be salutary on
all alike. I do not like to hear a man boast that he has
been a hireling these twenty or thirty years, and expects
159
L== 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
to remain such till death; for, though it be true that no
man should be ashamed of a humble position, I qualify
the statement by the proviso that he has had no fair
opportunity to rise above it. A true man will much
prefer to shoulder a hod or sweep streets rather than eat
the bread of idleness and dependence; but, either our
political institutions are mistakes, or a hale, two-handed
person, who has not been pulled down by unavoidable
misfortune, should be ashamed that, having had twenty
years' control of his own time and faculties, he still finds
hod-carrying or street-sweeping the best thing he is asked
or enabled to do. If I had had a fair chance to do for
myself for even twenty years, and could now find no
better employment than the rudest and coarsest daylabor, I should accept the situation, but not be inclined
to brag of it.
Yet Political Economy recognizes and deals with facts
as they are; and one most important fact is the existence
of a very large class in this and a still larger in most
other countries, who are distinguished (however inaccurately) as the Laboring Class, in that they live by selling their labor for wages, instead of applying it to production on their own account. True, the lawyer, the
doctor, and even the clergyman, may be said to work
for wages; but these are not included in the popular
conception of the Laboring Class, and I take things as
I find them.
The Laboring Class, living from hand to mouth, on
the earnings or recompense of their daily efforts, want
steady work and good wages,- the wages anyhow; the
work for the sake of the wages.  They have a keen eye
to their generic social or class interest; wherein they
evince their kinship to the entire race sprung from Adam.
They do not, as a class, believe it the chief end of man
to render Shirtings or Sugar inordinately cheap; they
160 
THE LABORING CLASS - ITS INTEREST.    161
believe it more important that the maker shall be well
fed, well clad, well lodged, well developed, and well
taught. Every spontaneous, instinctive movement of
this class looks to fair payment for honest, useful effort
first; cheapness of product —if such cheapness be compatible with the primary requisite - afterward. And,
while narrow views, selfish greed, and short-sighted rapacity, are manifest in some of the organized movements
of this as of other classes, I believe the general result of
its organizations and its efforts has been conducive to the
permanent moral elevation and physical well-being of
the race.
The Laboring Class, previously voiceless and powerless, has risen to political importance by reason of the
American and French Revolutions and their legitimate
consequences, and now finds itself appealed to by rival
parties, pretensions, policies, philosophies, to arbitrate
between them, with special reference to its own class
interest. The Economic controversy, with others, thus
appeals, through the rival disputants, to this rising
power, as follows:  " Laborers! " say in substance the Free-Traders, "we
propose to benefit you by reducing the cost of everything
everywhere to the lowest sum for which it can possibly
be afforded. This involves the reduction in general of
your money wages; but the lesser sum will buy more
than the larger which it supersedes, because of the resulting cheapness of whatever you may buy or need. It
involves further your deprivation, in some cases, of the
employment you now possess and live by; but its natural effect being to increase consumption by cheapening
cost, it must, in its general operation, create more work
than it supersedes; so that you will, on the whole,
have more work than now, while your wages, even if reduced in nominal amount, will buy more than those you
EI 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
at present receive will now do: hence, you will be gainers on both sides: so regard your own interest, and vote
with us."
That it may be certainly known that I do not misapprehend or misstate the argument I here condense, I cite
the words of J. R. McCulloch, 1 one of the most renowned
doctors of the Free Trade school, who says: -
"Admitting, however, that the total abolition of the prohibitive system might force a few thousand workmen to
abandon their present occupations, it is material to observe
that equivalent new ones would in consequence be opened to
receive them; and that the total aggregate demand for their
services would not in any degree be diminished.  Suppose that,
under a system of Free Trade, we imported a part of the silks
and linens we now manufacture at home, it is quite clear, inasmuch as neither the French nor Germans  would send us
their commodities gratis, that we should have to give them
an equal amount of British commodities in exchange; so that
such of our artificers as had been engaged in the silk and
linen manufactures, and were thrown out of them, would in
future obtain employment in the production of the articles
that must be exported as equivalents to the foreigner. We
may, by giving additional freedom to commerce, change the
species of labor in demand, but we cannot lessen its quantity."
This view, in substance, is taken by all the Free Trade
economists who consider the case of the Laboring Class
at all. Its radical vice, in my conception, is its confounding a man with a mere machine, like a steam-engine
or spinning-jenny, which does with equal and indifferent
facility whatever work is adapted to its capacities, and
is simply set aside when no longer wanted, to await a
fresh demand for its services, neither consuming nor suffering in the interim. But a man -even the rudest
and humblest- is quite other and more than a machine.
He has daily wants, needs, that cannot be postponed nor
1 Principles of Political Economy, Chap. V. p. 155.
162 
THE LABORING CLASS -ITS INTEREST.
ignored; he is deteriorated by idleness, as a mere machine is not; he has often a wife and children to be subsisted, and a home to be broken up and abandoned when
the failure of employment compels a change of vocation.
The coolness with which McCulloch and his school speak
of depriving a man of the work which he has devoted
years to mastering and has now at his fingers' ends, and
setting him adrift, to pick up something else whereof he
knows nothing, and in which he must naturally prove
clumsy and inefficient, proves them singularly ill informed
in the premises, or callous to the moans of wide-spread
human misery.
But I dispute the assumption that the multitudes
thus thrown out of employment by the prostration and
ruin of one pursuit or department of industry would, as
a necessary consequence, even "in future," as McCulloch
vaguely asserts, find work in the new or greatly expanded
pursuits, with whose products payment must be made
for the imported fabrics whereby that domestic pursuit
or vocation was crushed out. And, on this point, I cite,
in refutation of McCulloch's theory, the testimony of an
equally thorough Free-Trader, the late Dr. Bowring, who,
in setting before Parliament the misery of the hand-loom
weavers of India, whose industry had been crushed out
by the spinning-jennies and power-looms of Great Britain,
says:
"I hold, Sir, in my hand the correspondence which has
taken place between the Governor-General of India and the
East India Company on the subject of the Dacca hand-loom
weavers. It is a melancholy story of misery, so far as they
are concerned, and as striking an evidence of the wonderful
progress of manufacturing industry in this country. Some
years ago, the East India Company annually received of the
produce of the looms of India to the amount of from six to
eight millions of pieces of cotton goods. The demand gradually fell to somewhat more than one million, and has now
163
I.
I! 
POLITICAL ECONOMIY.
nearly ceased altogether. In 1800, the United States took
from India nearly eight hundred thousand pieces of cottons;
in 1830, not four thousand. In 1800, one million of pieces
were shipped to Portugal; in 1830, only twenty thousand.
Terrible are the accounts of the wretchedness of the poor
India weavers, reduced to absolute starvation. And what
was the sole cause? The presence of the cheaper English
manufacture, - the production by the power-loom of the
article which these unhappy Hindoos had been used for ages
to make by their unimproved and hand-directed shuttles.
Sir, it was impossible that they should go on weaving what
no one would wear or buy. Numbers of them died of hunger; the remainder were, for the most part, transferred to
other occupations, principally agricultural.   Not to have
changed their trade was inevitable starvation. And at this
moment, Sir, that Dacca district is supplied with yarn and
cotton cloth from the power-looms of England.  The language of the Governor-General  is:'European skill and
machinery have superseded the produce of India. The Court
declare that they are at last obliged to abandon the only remaining portion of the trade in cotton manufacture, in both
Bengal and Madras, because, through the intervention of
power-looms, the British goods have a decided advantage in
quality and price. Cotton piece-goods, for so many ages the
staple manufacture of India, seem thus forever lost. The
Dacca muslins, celebrated over the whole world for their
beauty and fineness, are also annihilated from the same cause.
And the present suffering to numerous classes in India is
scarcely to be paralleled in the history of commerce."'
Here you see McCulloch's conditions of recompense in
full activity: the British power-loom fabrics unquestionably cheaper than those they supplanted; the lapse of
years to give time for Labor to adapt itself to the new
conditions; while a patient, docile, diligent people, never
striking, nor rioting, nor rebelling, ask only opportunity
of earning somehow, by some kind of industry, the few
cents per day that insure the satisfaction of their humble wants.  What do they experience I Death by hun
164 
THE LABORING CLASS -ITS INTEREST.   165
ger, "numbers" of them, though willing to work at any thing that will give them daily bread. And even the
poor satisfaction of suffering for the good of others is
denied them; for the calamity is by no means confined
to the class directly affected, the hand-loom weavers, but
"the present suffering, to numerous classes in India, is
scarcely to be paralleled in the history of commerce."
Is not this demonstration?  Where was a dictum ever
brought to the test of practical experiment if not here.
II. Manufactures requiring greater intelligence, rarer
skill, more delicate manipulation, than Agriculture, it is
inevitable that the recompense of Labor therein should
be proportionally higher.   Even though an equality
should be maintained in the lowest grades of service, the
comparative value of skill, experience, ability, is far
greater in Manufactures, and must be paid for accordingly.  Suppose one hundred young men, just of age,
engage to-day in Agriculture, and a like number in Manufactures, at the rate of one dollar each per day, and all
persist with energy, diligence, sobriety, and average ability,
for the next tenl years. You will now find that a large
portion of the artisans have risen to responsible positions,
yielding them from $ 500 to $ 2,500 each per annum;
while the farm-hands, though also paid according to their
increased efficiency, will not be earning nor receiving so
much. I know no civilized country wherein the average
wages of mechanics and manufacturers is not considerably higher than that of agricultural laborers; and I insist
that my countrymen should have their fair proportion
of the better paid work.
That Labor is a commodity, like Cheese or Chocolate,
and, like them, must be sold for what it will fetch, if sold
at all, is constantly insisted on by the economists I combat, as though it were an axiom of indisputable soundness and pertinence; but I do not thus regard it. That,
F — 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
within narrow limits, and for certain restricted uses, it
affirms a fact, I readily admit. The man who has labor
to sell, and little else, while he needs food, c16othing,
shelter, and other comforts, which he cannot seasonably
create by:his own direct efforts, must sell that labor for
the most it will bring, even though that should be far
less than he considers it worth. But, in the contemplation of a generous, far-seeing statesmanship, the laborer
is not a mere implement or machine, but a citizen, a
pillar of the State, the present or prospective head of a
family, the parent of future citizens and voters. A grave
public interest demands that the recompense of his daily
toil should be sufficient not merely to keep the breath of
life in his body and to maintain his capacity to work, but
that it should enable him, with diligence and frugality,
to keep his children about him during the years of their
immaturity, clothe them decently, and educate them for
usefulness and for the intelligent and conscientious discharge of the duties of citizens and electors.   So much,
the State needs; so much, it should, for its own sake,
endeavor to secure. If we could undersell the world in
Iron or Cloth by means which kept their producers ignorant, ill fed, socially depressed, and morally degraded, we
could not afford to accept a commercial or industrial advantage on such terms. Cheap Shoes and Hats are desirable; but not at the cost of generations of shivering,
famishing, illiterate shoemakers and hatters.
Hence, I regard with apprehension the problem now
challenging our attention of Chinese and Japanese Labor.
That I profoundly dissent from the line of argument by
which its prohibition is usually upheld, need hardly be
stated.  But, if millions of "coolies" are to be thrust
upon us merely because their labor is cheap,-  are to
remain among us uneducated, unenfranchised, unassimilated foreigners and strangers, to whom our responsibility
166 
THE LABORING CLASS - ITS INTEREST.
ends with the payment' of their stipulated wages, - then
I hold that their cheap labor will prove illn.the end dearer
than any other, because obtained by the sacrifice of those
vital principles on which this republic was founded, and
lacking which it must cease to be a beacon and a blessing to mankind.
III. Manufactures, by proffering a diversity of employments, and by bringing markets to the doors of the
farmers, increase the average recompense of agricultural
labor. This proposition, intrinsically probable, is slstained by myriads of facts.
In the years of my earliest distinct recollections (1816 -
20), there were a very few cotton-mills in Massachusetts
and Rhode Island, but not enough to affect the general
recompense of labor, and none at all within a day's ride
of my home in southern New Hampshire. What is now
Lowell was then a sterile, partially wooded tract, where
a few fishermen had their cabins and dried their nets;
there was one store, but no factory, where now is Nashua,
N. H.; while a rickety, old, lop-sided bridge over the
Merrimac, closely approached by a pitch-pine forest, occupied the site of what is now the manufacturing city of
Manchester, N. H.  Lawrence, Mass., was not even conceived till at least twenty years afterward; but Lowell,
the pioneer, was laid out soon after 1820. In 1818, I
knew an efficient, faithfuil, capable man to hire out to
work through the haying and harvest season in Bedford,
N. H., for half a bushel of corn per day; lodging in his
own house, but boarding with his employer.  An Amnerican young woman, vigorous, capable, and respected, did
housework for that year for fifty cents per week and her
board; whereas just such labor would now command there
three dollars per week and board, from twenty eager competitors. I am confident that, though British goods were
then sold remarkably cheap, most fabrics required for
female apparel were dearer then than they now are.
167
11 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
In Vermont, for the five years 1821 - 25 inclusive, the
price of a man's labor, except during the Summer har  vest, was regularly fifty cents per day, and even that very
seldom payable in money.  Food was then much cheaper
than now, so that the fifty cents bought nearly as much
bread and meat as the price of a day's work now does;
but of cloth, sugar, and store-goods generally, it would
hardly buy half so much.    I state these facts, not to prove labor ill paid then, or
too well paid now, but to show that the greater diversifi cation of our industry secured by Protection has decided ly improved the average condition of our Laboring Class,
whose wages will be found lowest wherever agriculture
is most exclusively pursued. If the Cotton grown in
Georgia or Alabama were henceforth to be spun and
woven on her soil, it would not be possible to resist a
general and very decided enhancement of the average
recompense of her labor. The manufacturers would be
no more generous than the farmers or planters now are:
they would pay higher wages because they must; and
the farmers, with more remunerative markets brought to
their doors, could not help doing likewise.
IV. All over the civilized world, Hired Labor, finding
its food grow dearer by reason of the recent deluge of
gold from California and Australia, is struggling to
achieve or to maintain a corresponding augmentation of
wages. This movement is naturally resisted by those
who must pay the wages; and their most potent argument runs thus: "I cannot pay four shillings per day
for labor in England, when I must sell my product in
free competition with that of French rivals who pay hut
three, and Belgian who pay but two shillings." Thus
the reduction or abrogation of Duties on Imports is
made to justify resistance to reasonable alike with unreasonable demands for an increase of wages; every em
.168 
THE LABORING CLASS - ITS INTEREST., 169
ployer looking to the lowest sum anywhere paid as the
standard which he cannot afford to exceed, and making
a reduction anywhere his ground for demanding a corresponding reduction in his concern. The helplessness of
the Laboring Class in one country compelling them to
submit to a reduction in deference to the master's plea,
" I cannot else retain this or that foreign market," that
reduction is made the excuse for a corresponding demand in another country, and that in another, till the
vicious circle is complete. Free Trade in effect sets the
Laboring Class of different countries to bidding against
and underworkinlg each other for each other's markets,
as well as for those of other countries wherein they meet
as competitors on equal terms.   Contemplating this
ruinous struggle, Carlyle 1 forcibly, manfully says:  " The Continental people, it would seem, are importing our
machinery, beginning to spin cotton, and manufacture for
themselves, to cut us out of this market, and then out of
that. Sad news, indeed; but irremediable: by no means the
saddest news.  The saddest news is that we should find our
National Existence, as I sornetimes hear it said, depend on
selling manufactured cotton at a farthing an ell cheaper
than any other People. A most narrow stand for a great
nation to base itself on!  A stand which, with all the CornLaw Abrogations conceivable, I do not think will be capable
of enduring."
That the existence of a nation should never be permitted to depend on its ability to sell Sheeting or Calico
a farthing an ell cheaper than other nations can make it,
seems          as clear to me as to Carlyle; but I do not rest
there. I insist that a nation whose resources are fully
developed, and its industry brought to the highest state
of efficiency, ought to be in better business than that
of underworking and underselling the comparatively im                    1 Past and Present.
8 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
nmature, feeble, struggling industries of younger and less
civilized peoples; that it should rather seek to teach, to
encourage, and to develop the arts of peace among those
peoples, than by ruthless and unequal competition to
strike them down and crush them out. I cannot regard
the antagonist theory and policy commended by the FreeTraders as in full accord wvith the requirements of the
Golden Rule.
In my conception, the true and ultimate relation cf
the Laboring Class of one country to that of anotherof all others - is not that of underworking rivals, seeking to take the bread from the mouths of each other's
children, but that of generous, fraternal cooperators for
the attainment of the highest good for each and all. If
it were practicable, at my discretion, through invention,
machinery, the aggregation of capital, talent, experience,
and skill, for the artisans of my country to undersell
and run out the artisans of all other countries, so that
all manufactures should be gradually transferred to and
thenceforth prosecuted only on our soil, I would not
speak the word that would insure such transfer. I believe that the true interest of all peoples requires the
successful, enduring prosecution of the various useful
arts by each; so that the genius, talent, capacity, of
the entire race shall be constantly incited to invent machinery and improve processes which shall enure to the
substantial and permanent benefit of the entire family
of Man.
170
.1 
THE INTEREST OF CONSUMIERS -IRON.   171
XIII.
THE INTEREST OF CONSUMERS -IRON.
IN my contemplation of our general theme, I do not,
with many others, divide the community into two diverse, sharply discriminated classes, antagonized as Pro(l?ucers and Consumers respectively.  In my conception,
all who are of any account are both Producers and Consumers, with substantially identical interests, suffering
by each other's misfortunes and prospering through each
other's prosperity. I was once a laborer for wages; I
now pay wages rather than receive them; yet I cannot
realize that it is less my interest now than it formerly
was that a fair day's work should command a fair day's
wages.   For, since I live by making newspapers, for
which a wide, capacious market is indispensable, I know
that a reduction of the great body of our people to a
pecuniary condition akin to that of the coolies of eastern Asia, or even that of the peasantry of Europe,
would preclude their buying, to any considerable extent,
newspapers, or books, or any literary wares whatever; so
that my loss, by the extensive cheapening of Hired Labor, would decidedly overbalance my gain. I can better
afford to pay fair, living wages for the labor I need than
to obtain it far cheaper at the cost of restricting the
market for my products to the comparatively small class
who are able to live on their inherited or accumulated
wealth. And my case is substantially that of all who
live by selling the products of their industry to satisfy
the wants of others, and thus to minister to their own.
It may seem, indeed, that those who grow food, or who 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
produce any other of the first necessaries of life, are exempt from the operation of this law; but in fact they are
not. Their market is enlarged, the prices they receive are
signally enhanced, by the diversion of multitudes, who
woiuld naturally have been their competitors, into pursuits
which render  them lifelong customers instead.   The
inevitable enhancement of the price commanded by
farms in a township or county, consequent upon the
establishment and vigorous prosecution of manufactures
or mining therein, is a familiar exemplification of this
law.  A  new industry *ill often give value even to
boulders or rugged ledges of granite, which had previously been not merely worthless, but a positive drawback, subtracting from the value of the lands on. which
they were found. Thus, a forest, which the owner was
slowly, patiently destroying by axe and fire, at a cost of
twenty to thirty dollars per acre, has been suddenly
transformed into a considerable property, by the erection
of a furnace or factory, the construction of a railroad,
in its vicinity. Thus, many substances,. once deemed
worthless, have become valuable through the mere progress of industry, knowledge, civilization; as many more,
doubtless, will do as mankind gTows wiser. Thus, mines
of Coal and of Minerals, over which savages have
roamed heedlessly for centuries, are discovered and
worked by their civilized successors, proving almost inexhaustible sources of comfort, power, and wealth.
There be those who say: ".Let us continue to draw our
Metals, as well as our Wares and Fabrics, mainly from
Europe, because Labor and Capital are so cheap there
that the products of British mines can be laid as rails
across our richest beds of Coal and Iron Ore far cheaper
than we can make thence the rails we need." It seems
to me that the cheapness here asserted is fallacious, mistaken, illusory.  Admit that fewer dollars will buy from
172
I 
THE INTEREST OF CONSUMERS -IRON.   173
Great Britain the rails required, they will cost, in my
view, far more of our Labor than would similar rails
made from our own ore on our own soil.  For every ton
of rails made here tends to increase the capacity, skill,
experience, whereby our people are enabled to make
better and cheaper rails through all future time, and to
grade the ways over which our diverse materials ap proach and mingle with each other. The cheapness of
British Iron is in good part the result of British skill
and knowledge evinced in the commingling of diverse
ores so as to produce a metal of far greater value than
could have been obtained from either of those ores
smelted by itself. Great Britain has for years been so
thoroughly gridironed and checkered by railroads and
canals that such commingling is far more easily and
cheaply effected on her soil than elsewhere; but we are
profiting by her example and following swiftly in her
footsteps. It is but a few years since the vast deposits
of choice Iron Ore on the eastern shore of Lake Superior
were reached by a railroad; and already they are extensively drawn upon to produce Iron not only in Michigan
(near Detroit), but in Illinois (at Chicago), and for steelmaking at Pittsburg, until at length, Indiana-  which
boasts the possession of 7,500 square miles of better
Coal for Iron-making than is found elsewhere- has
been prompted to erect great furnaces near Greencastle,
at Indianapolis, and perhaps in other localities, where
her numerous railroads may cheaply concentrate the
Coal of her southwestern counties and the Ore of Lake
Superior, beside the Limestone which extensively underlies her soil, and thus produce (she calculates) a very
superior Pig Iron at a very moderate cost, though the
Ore has travelled hundreds of miles to meet her Coal
rather more than half-way. So St. Louis is making considerable Pig Iron; drawing by rail to herself the Coal 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
of southern Illinois from the southeast, to smelt the Ore
of the Iron Mountain from the southwest; and she expects to make much more, and to better advantage, when
she shall have completed her bridge over the Mississippi,
so that the Coal may be run by rail from the mines directly to her furnaces. Thus, on every side we are perfecting the conditions whereby Iron can be cheapened,
as we could not perfect them in the absence of a market
for American Iron. The railroad whereby Ore is brought
from Lake Superior would not have been built in the
absence of a demand for that Ore; and so with that
which is destined to bring the Iron Mountain piecemeal
to  St. Louis.   We  shall thus erelong have cheaper
American Iron without reducing our makers to European
wages, if we have but the foresight and patience to seek
it aright, and not repeat the blunder of 1846, when a
Protective Tariff was broken down under which we were
supplying ourselves with American Bar at less than $ 60
per ton, while, after a few years of Revenue Tariff, we
were buying British bars at $80 per ton.1
Yet I would not induce a belief that Iron will ever be
made in this country for so few dollars per ton in the average as will buy it from Europe while the disparity in the
ordinary wages of labor shall remain so great as at present.
A ton of Iron embodies so many days' labor in quarrying or digging, smelting, puddling, &c., &C., and very
little else than Labor directly applied to its production;
and all know that this labor is very much cheaper in
Europe than here. Take all the work done in producing a
thousand tons of Iron in this country, and its average cost
will fall little short of two dollars in gold for each day's
faithful labor; while Mr. Abram S. Hewitt 2 gives statis
1 Address of John L. Hayes to the National Association of Knit
Goods' Manufacturers, New York, May 1, 1867.
2 U. S.- Commissioner to the last Universal Exposition of the Products of the World's Industry, at Paris, 1867.
174 
THE INTEREST OF CONSUMERS - IRON.   175
tics of the wages of Labor employed in Iron-making in
Europe, showing that in England its average cost ranges
from 3s. 6d. to 4s., or 872 cents to $1 (gold) per day: in
France at about 70 cents, and in Belgium at less than 60
cents per day. But England has the advantage of her
Continental rivals in the greater abundance and accessibility of her Ores and Coal; so that she makes Iron, in
the main, cheaper than they can; the average cost of
merchant bars being stated by Mr. Hewitt as follows:       In England, ~ 6 10 s. or $ 322 (gold) per ton.
In Belgium, ~ 7      or $ 35  (gold) per ton.
In France,  ~ 8      or $40  (gold) per ton.
[It should be noted that women and children are extensively employed in mining operations in Great Britain, at prices far below the cost of similar labor performed by men, and
that the product is thereby considerably cheapened.]
Now, I believe that improvements and economies are
soon to be realized which will considerably reduce the
cost and price of Iron; but, as these will be universally
diffused, I do not suppose we shall make Iron so cheaply
here as it can be made in Europe, so long as labor there
costs less than half the price of similar labor here. A
ton of Pig Iron embodying a good fortnight's work,part of it skilled, or high-priced labor,- on either continent, I judge that it must continue to cost more where
such labor is worth two dollars per day than where it
averages from sixty cents to one dollar per day.
Better authorities dissent from this conclusion. The
Hol. Daniel J. Morrell, M. C.,' in his testimony before
the U. S. Revenue Commission, 1866, says:  "If British cheap labor were out of the way for twentyfive years, we could so attract their skilled labor, and so
nearly rival them in the advantages of capital, that we should
1 Superintendent of the great rail-producing "Cambria Iron Company "; Johnstown, Penn. 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
need no Protection. Indeed, I would engage to export rails
to the British dominions at a profit, if we could have our own
market for that time. I feel certain that such a measure
would not impair, but would greatly increase, the revenue.
The fully employed and well-rewarded labor of the land
would, in a thousand ways, be able to contribute to the income of the Government, and more than make up for the loss
of duties on imported Iron.....
"Any branch of American manufacture that has received
Protection, adequate to secure it the home market, in the
past, has soon demonstrated its superiority of product, and
has been enabled to compete, on equal terms, with foreign
manufactures."
This seems to me too sweeping, though the rule indicated will generally hold good. A recent British report
(from Birmingham) seems more discriminating and accurate, inll maintaining that, wherever ingenuity and the
substitution of machinery or steam-power for manual
labor can be made to tell decisively, there American intelligence and capacity assert their preeminence; but
where (as in Iron) a product costs so many blows with
sledge or hammer, -  in other words, so much muscular
exertion, - there, the relative cheapness of European
labor makes itself decisively felt. I incline, therefore,
to concur generally in the reasoning on this point of Mr.
Hewitt,' who says:
"It is obvious that the abnormal rates for labor which we
have been considering cannot prevail in any one branch of
industry alone, but must extend to ll; as labor, like water,
must seek a general level in each community governed by the
same laws, and subjected to the same influences.  All articles
of commerce are, therefore, produced below their normal
cost, - that is, the cost which would be possible if the fundamental laws of humanity were not violated in the employment
1 Paris Universal Exposition, 1867. Reports of the United States
Commissioners.  The Production of Iron and Steel in its Economic
and Social Relations, by Abram S. Hewitt, United States Commissioner.
176 
THE INTEREST OF CONSUMERS -IRON.   177
of women and children, and the payment of a rate of wages
to the common laborer inadequate for the proper support and
culture of the family. In those commodities which require
in the United States more human labor for their production
than is necessary in Europe, where labor is so inadequately
paid, we have perhaps no other interest than a general concern in the welfare of the human race; but, so far as Iron is
concerned, from thie fact that we can produce it with as little
consumption of human labor as any other nation in the world,
the case is different, because there is no absolute loss of wealth,
and no misapplied power in its production; and the only
question to be discussed is, whether it shall be taken out of
the general category of manufactures not so favorably placed
as to the cost of production, and by positive legislation placed
in the same condition as it would have occupied with reference to foreign competition, if the rate of wages in other
countries had never been reduced below their normal standard.   WVe have seen that the cost of making Iron in England, Belgium, and France, at the present time, varies from
~ 6 10 s. to ~ 8 per ton, and ~ 1 additional suffices to pay its
cost of transportation to the seaboard of the' United States.
At these ports, American Iron cannot possibly be delivered
at a less cost than $ 60 in gold, against $ 40 in gold for the
foreign article, and the entire difference consists in the higher
tcages, and not the larger quantity of labor, required for its production in the United States, where the physical, mental, and
moral condition of the working classes occupy a totally different standard from their European confreres, and where the
wages cannot be reduced without violating our sense of the
just demands of human nature.  At the same time, it is to be
observed that the business is so far overdone in Europe that
no profit can be realized by the capitalist except in special
cases, for which adequate reasons can be given. The actual
remedy for this over-production would be to withdraw the
women and children, as we do, from this class of industry,
whereby the production must be reduced, the rate of wages
raised, the cost and the selling price increased, capital become
remunerative, and the ability to procure iron, made cheap
by its adulteration with the violated laws of humanity, be
8*                                  L
t 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
forever extinguished. To what result the general discussion
which this subject is now receiving in Europe will lead, it is
not easy to decide; but it is a curious phenomenon to listen
in France to the loud complaints, which are made against the
competition of Belgium in the manufacture of iron, and,
stranger still, in England to the same complaint, and the broad
declaration that it will not be possible to do anything for the
education and elevation of the working classes without exposing their manufacturers to ruin in consequence of the competition with the worse-paid and worse-fed labor of Belgium.
The truth is that the whole system is false, and now, when
pressed by the energy, enterprise, and competition, of the age
to its legitimate results, Humanity is in rebellion, and there is
a general cry from all classes -laborers, employers, philanthropists, philosophers, and statesmen, alike - for relief.  The
necessity for this relief becomes painfully apparent when the
poor-law returns made in England are carefully examined,
from which it is evident that there is an army of paupers
pressing upon the occupations of the common laborer, and
striving to push him over the almost insensible line which
divides these two classes from each other. It is not possible
that the laborer should receive more than bare subsistencewages, and there can be no relief for his patient suffering, so
long as there are thousands who, unable to earn any wages at
all, stand ready to fill up every gap in the ranks of industry;
and to the honest laborer himself, standing on the edge of
this line, over which he is liable at any moment to be forced
into the ranks of pauperism, the anxiety and miserable state
of uncertainty for himself and his family must be fatal to all
rational happiness, and is well calculated to drive him into
vicious indulgences and temporary excesses whenever a transient opportunity is afforded, as a momentary relief from a
condition of hopeless misery."
If there be those who hold that American Labor
should be reduced to compete on equal terms with such
as Mr. Hewitt here depicts, I decidedly disagree with
them. But I do not less emphatically differ from the
conclusion of those who say, "Since European Labor
178
i 
TIHE INTEREST OF CONSUMERS - IRON.
is so much cheaper than ours, let us profit by that cheapness to obtain our Metals, Wares and Fabrics, of Europe
at lower prices than we must pay for them if made on
our own soil." I hold those low prices to be: -
1. Illusory (as I have hitherto shown), in that the
Foreign products cost more in our labor or its fruits,
though less in money, than the home-made. If we
analyze the process of paying for a quantity of Home
Manufactures, we find that a large part of the payment
is made in articles which would have no value, or
very little, if our workshops were still mainly in
Europe.
2. Capricious, in that the prices we pay for European
products which we rival here are far less than they
would be in the absence of such rivalry.
3. Periticiouts, in that our preferring the products of
underpaid to those of fairly recompensed Labor tends to
reduce the compensation of Labor and the status of the
Laboring Class in our country and throughout the
world; and
4. U?patriotic, in that the inventions and labor-saving
processes which the ingenuity, capacity and intelligence,
of our countrymen are constantly making in every
field of useful effort they occupy, will be lost to our
country and to mankind, if we surrender that field to
the unfair rivalry of cheap European Labor.
"But you Protectionists," we are told, "are continually crying' More! More!' You are like the horseleech's daughters stigmatized by the prophet, who cry'
'Give! Give!' and are never satisfied."  Let us see:  I have before me a tabular exhibit of the duties
levied on the most important articles by the several
Tariffs passed by the friends of Protection from 1816
inclusive.  Here are the rates levied by them respectively on Iron:
179 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
Tariff of    Do.
1816.      1824.
$ 9   $121 
30    37
3 cts.   5 cts.
Hence it will be seen that not only are the average
duties on Iron lower this day than they were fixed by
the Lowndes-Calhoun Tariff of 1816, but Pig Iron -
the lowest and rudest condition of the metal -that
which is simply rugged Human Labor in a concrete
form - is admitted at as low a duty under the present
Tariff as under that of 1816, or under any of those since
passed by the friends of Protection. The effort of the
Free-Traders to confuse the public mind with regard to
these facts by diluting the present duty into its Greenback equivalent, so as to call it twelve dollars or over
per ton, is contemptible. The duty is levied and computed in precisely the same currency (coin) to-day as
under all former Tariffs; the nine-dollar duty per ton
paid to-day on imported Pig Iron is exactly the same
per ton as that imposed by Mr. Lowndes's Tariff of
1816; while other duties on Iron are lower. No other
item in the present Tariff has been more fiercely or
frequently assailed than the duty on Pig Iron; and
there is a wide-spread impression that it is higher now
than ever before; yet above are the facts. And, while
the duty is lower to-day than under our former Tariffs,
such has been the progress and improvement of our
Iron industry that we now import but one ton of Pig
Iron for every dozen to twenty tons that we make at
home, -proving that American Pig is very decidedly
cheaper than British with the duty added.  And Commissioner Wells's last Report, in which the duty on Pig
Iron is assailed as exorbitant, pernicious, destructive,
shows that our annual product of Pig Iron is largely
180
Do.
1828.
$ 12-1
2
30
5 cts.
Do.
1832.
$ 121
-ff
30
5 cts.
Do. De.
1842. 1861.
$ 9 $ 9
25 25
4 cts. 21 cts.
-ff
Pig, per ton,
Rolled Bar,
Nails, per lb. 
THE INTEREST OF CONSUMERS - IRON.    181
and constantly increasing, while that of our European
rivals is stationary or declining. I quote his tabular
exhibit entire, though it is obvious that his estimate of
our production for 18681 is far below the truth:
ANNUAL PRODUCT OF AMERICAN PIG IRON FROM'63 TO'68.
Years.
1863...
1864..
1866...
1867
1868  (estimated)
For the seven years from 1860 (when the production
was 913,770 tons) to 1867, the average annual increase
has been 8.35 per cent. This increase is in excess of
the present average annual increase of the Pig Iron
product of Great Britain, which, since 1863, has been as
follows:
1863... 4,510,040
4,767,951          5.71 per cent.
4,819,254          1.08      "
Decrease.
4,523,897          6.50 per cent.
In France, the annual product of Pig Iron was, in
1866, 1,253,100 tolls, and in 1867, 1,142,800 tons:
showing a decline of 110,300 tons.
In Austria, the official returns of the Iron trade show
a diminution of 42 per cent. in 1866 as compared with
1860, and of 60 per cent. as compared with 1862.
I will now add some statistics of our Iron Imports,
compiled from the last Annual Report of Francis A.
1 " We find that the grand total production of Iron from the ore in
1868 was 1,640,600 tons." - Annual Report of the American Iron and
Steel Association for 1868.
Tons.
94,-,604
1,135,497
1,351,143
1,447,771
1,550,,OOO
Annual Inereace.
19.82 per cent.
9.50 i 4
7.16 It
7.06 it
1866 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
Walker,1 showing the amount and character of those
Imports for the last calendar year (1868) inclusive: -
Description.              Duty.                 Declared Value.
Pig Iron,..    $ 9 per ton,..        $1,740,124
Castings,.. part 30 per ct. and part specific,       28,801
Bar Iron,..    1 cent per lb...    2,766,067
Boiler Iron,..  11 cts. per lb...           72,097
Band,;Hoop and Scroll, 1+ @  14- cts. per lb..         341,765
Railroad bars or rails,   $ 14 per ton,...5,348,352
Sheet Iron, polished, 3 ts. lb.                            764,391
Sheet Iron,     *    plain, 11     1I cts. lb.     764,391
Old and Scrap,.    $ 8 per ton,...2,039,293
Hardware,.. 31 cts. per lb...      201,894
Anchors,  cables,  and 
chains of all kinds,       24 cts. per lb..        259,181
Machinery,..  3 cts. per lb..            304,126
Muskets,  pistols, rifles,  35 per ct.                     229,550
and sporting guns,
Steel ingots, sheets, bars,        4 cts. per lb.        2,695,700
and wire,..
and wir,..  t22 G 4 cts. per lb..   2,695,700
Cutlery,..    45 per ct.............. 1,530,550
Files,...  30 p. c., and 6 C lOc. pr. lb.  635,916
Saws and tools,.    av. 45 per ct...        92,247
Jfanufactures  of  Iron       5 per cent.                4757892
and Steel not specified,  35 per et..
Total,..........$23,807,451
[NOTE. - I should have given the quantities imported as well as the
value, but the official returns are avowedly imperfect.]
I have made out the above table stating the duties
on the several descriptions as accurately as I may (since
Mr. Walker's classification is different from that followed
in the Tariff)- in order to elucidate the ingenuity and
facility wherewith importers thread their way through
the most stringent and carefully devised schedule of
duties. We have been over forty years trying to frame
1 Deputy Special Commissioner of Revenue.
182 
THE INTEREST OF CONSUMERS -IRON.   183
Tariff provisions that would protect our struggling industries, and have given more attention to Iron manufactures than to any other; yet note how enormous is the
importation of Old or Scrap Iron, because the duty on
that is comparatively low; while "Manufactures not
specified," being charged an Ad Valorem duty, are swelled
to the most ungainly proportions.  Railroad Iron being
admitted at a comparatively low rate, everything that
can be made to look like a rail seeks admission under
this head: so the three descriptions specified reach these
staggering dimensions:
Railroad Bars or Rails,......    $ 5,348,352
Old or Scrap Iron,........        2,039,293
Manufactures not specified,...    4,757,892
Total,......            $12,145,537
All other Iron and Steel and Manufactures
thereof,...........$11,651,914
The three kinds above specified exceeding
all the rest, by the sum of...  $ 493,623
The careless public, looking at the high rates levied
on Hardware, Machinery, &c., says, " Surely, these must
be sufficient"; but the importer avoids these, so far as
possible, by changing the character or disguising the appearance of his wares, so that they may pass under some
designation which is subjected to a lower impost; and
thus the Protection afforded is not what Congress designed, but far less than that. The longer a tariff continues, the more weak spots are found, the more holes
are picked in it, until at last, through the influence of
successive evasions, constructions, decisions, its very
father could not discern its original features in the transformed bantling that has quietly taken its place. Every
decision, whether by a functionary or a jury, that makes
in favor of cheap importation, affords a footing for new
exertions of mercantile ingenuity and legal subtlety to 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
undermine and subvert the hated barrier, -thousands
holding (or, at least, asserting) that all tariffs are at war
with natural right and public interest, and so should be
nullified so far as possible.  Doubtless, the duties on
Iron, Steel, and their Manufactures, being so largely
specific, are more fully collected than those on Textile
Fabrics, &c., are or could be; but they still fall in fact far
below what a simple perusal of the Tariff would indicate.
That ours is destined to be a great Iron-producing as
well as Iron-working country, every American instinctively believes. He cannot admit that God has filled our
soil with such enormous deposits of Ore, Coal, and Limestone, to be forever left there useless and unvalued,
while British rails are laid across them in every direction, and British engines career thereon, drawing cargoes
of British bars and British manufactures for the use of
the dwellers on the tributaries of the Mississippi, the
Colorado, and the San Joaquin. Thus, when Mr. Hodgskin, an intelligent and candid Englishman residing in
this city, recently made an address to a Free Trade meeting in Brooklyn, wherein he argued that we should buy
our Iron from Europe because her low-priced labor enabled her to produce it much cheaper than we could, our
Free Trade journals at once shrank from that position;
choosing to insist that American Iron was dear only because the present Tariff enabled our Iron-masters to
charge an exorbitant price for it!
Such unworthy shifts cannot abide the test of time
and discussion. The price of Iron, as of anything else,
is measured with general accuracy by the cost of producing it; whenever the profit of such production is large,
thousands are incited thereby to embark in it; and this
tendency cannot be checked until the profit falls to (or
below) the average of that realized in other investments.
184 
THE INTEREST OF CONSUMERS - IRON.    185
WVe shall ultimately produce Iron much cheaper than
now, through the improvement and perfection of the
processes by which we make it; and to such improvement it is indispensable that our Iron industry shall be
not dead but alive. The unsteadiness of our policy in
the past has sadly retarded our progress. Capitalists
hesitate to invest the vast sums required to produce
steel rails (for instance) at a moderate cost, with the
sword of Damocles suspended over their heads by a
formidable party intent on the overthrow of Protection;
but let the public voice be unmistakably heard on the
right side, and millions of capital will flow into the various departments of our Iron industry, insuring economies unattainable while our policy shall remain unstable,
precarious, capricious. Were it this day fixed and proclaimed that no reduction of our Ironl imposts would be
made during the next ten years, mines would be opened
and furnaces erected wherever Ore and Coal exist in
proximity or may be cheaply brought together; rollingmills and forges would speedily follow in their train;
invention would be stimulated and improvements perfected, until we should soon have cheaper Iron through
the cheapening of the processes, the increased efficiency
of the labor, employed to produce it. That cheapening
would not be fully indicated by the prices ruling in New
York; for that is the point where, while imported Iron
is cheapest, American Iron is necessarily dearer than at
the points of production, hundreds of miles inland, where
it is nearer and worth more to the great body of our
consumers than it would be in this city. A genuine
cheapness is only attained by means consistent with the
just recompense, intellectual enlightenment, and moral
elevation, of the Laboring Class: we shall secure the former without sacrificing the latter through the judicious,
ample, steadfast Protection of American Industry. 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
XIV.
PROTECTION ILLUSTRATED - SUGAR.
SUGAR has become the commonest and most indispensable luxury of civilized man. Consumed and enjoyed
at almost every meal by the rich and great, the poor are
rarely too poor to buy and use it: in some crude, low
form, it forms a part of the daily diet even of public
paupers and imprisoned felons. The wildest, rudest
savage, who never heard of its existence till yesterday,
finds it delicious, and gorges it with avidity; he will give
a buffalo-robe or a beaver-skin for a cupful of it rather
than forego its enjoyment. The liking for Tobacco is
artificial, acquired, partial; but that which finds its gratification in saccharine flavor is natural, spontaneous, and
almost, if not quite, universal.
Yet such gratification was obtained by our European
ancestors, down to a comparatively recent period, only
through the use of Honey. The Sugar Maple was unknown to them prior to the discovery of America, its
native land; the Cane was still confined to China, Japan,
India, and their adjuncts; whence it was brought westward by the conquering Saracens, and planted, not far
from the era of the Norman Conquest, in the isles of the
Mediterranean when subjected to their sway; whence it
was afterward diffused by them into Southern Italy and
even Spain; yet it was not till after the discovery of
America by Columbus that Sugar - whether the Cane
was found already growing in the tropical isles we call
West Indies, or soon carried thither by the Spaniards,
and there found a most congenial soil- became one of
186 
PROTECTION ILLUSTRATED-  SUGAR.
the great staples of International Commerce, and was
welcomed to the tables of the merchant and banker as
well as to those of the noble and king.
And, though the fact that Sugar existed in and was
chemically extractable from the Beet, Carrot, and other
edible roots, was discovered by the German chemist
Margraff in 1747, no practical benefit was realized from
that discovery until after the close of the last century.
Dr. Johnson, in his great Dictionary of the English language [1755], defines as follows:
SUGAR: 1. The native salt of the Sugar Cane, obtained by
the expression and evaporation of its juice; 2. Anything
proverbially sweet; 3. A chymical dry crystallization.
It is plain that, broad and even loose as are the secondary definitions, the great lexicographer had no clear conception of the extent to which Sugar exists in the vegetable products of the Temperate as well as in those of
the Tropical Zone. Ere Noah Webster completed the
compilation of his still greater Dictionary, three-fourths
of a century later, the progress of human knowledge had
been such as enabled him to give this far more accurate
definition: -
SUGAR: 1. A  sweet, crystalline substance, obtained from
certain vegetable products, as the Sugar-Cane, Mfaple, Beet,
Sorghum, and the like; 2. That which resembles Sugar in taste,
appearance, or the like, as Sugar of Lead [that is, acetate of
Lead], so called because it has a close resemblance to Sugar in
appearance, and tastes sweet; 3. Figuratively, compliment or
flattery employed to disguise or render acceptable something
obnoxious.
The advance in human knowledge and efficiency indicated by a comparison of Webster's with Johnson's primary definition of SuLgar, is the fruit of half a century
of determined, stringent Protection.
187
I 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
"Margraff, an eminent Prussian chemist, gave to the
world his discovery of Sugar in the Beet and kindred
roots, in a paper read before the Berlin Academy of Sci ence in 1747, as aforesaid, wherein he claimed for it great
importance as the basis of a new and beneficent expan sion of European industry. No practical results were
thence deduced, however, for a generation.   Margraff
was in 1773 succeeded in his efforts by Achard, another
Prussian chemist, who patiently prosecuted his experi ments until he was ready to engage in practical Beet
culture and manufacture, which he did in 1789, at Cauls dorff, near Berlin; he having ere this attracted the attention and patronage of that determined Protectionist,
Frederick the Great, by whose aid he commenced operations looking to the production of Beet Sugar. Had
Frederick lived twenty years longer, the successful production of Beet Sugar would probably have been achieved
earlier than it was by nearly a quarter of a century; but
he died in 1786, when "another king arose, who knew
not Joseph "; and Achard was constrained by lack of
means to suspend his operations for several years.
He resumed them, however, before the close of the
century, and with such success that he was encouraged
to publish an account of his operations in 1797, followed
by a letter describing his processes, which appeared in
the A4nnales de Chimie (Paris) in 1799; wherein he insisted that Sugar might be produced from the Beet to
any desired extent, with present advantage and ultimate
profit.
The seed fell on good ground. The victories of Rodney, Hood, Nelson, and their compeers had nearly conv,erted the high seas into British lakes. In the great
wars which followed the French Revolution of 1789, the
flag of France, triumphant on land, had already been
nearly driven from the oceans, and was soon to be wholly
iss 
PROTECTION ILLUSTRATED- SUGAR.
excluded therefrom. Tropical produce was already scarce
and dear in the French Republic; Trafalgar and British
"Orders in Council" were soon to render them still more
so. France, while giving law to the Continent, revolted
at the thought of sweetening her coffee only by the gracious permission of the British oligarchy. The famous
Institute was incited to scrutinize the representations
of Achard, and a commission of its most capable members, appointed by it to examine his processes, verify his
statements, and report upon his discoveries'and their
merits.
The experiments thus impelled did not justify the
sanguine expectations which Achard's letter had excited.
Though the juice of the Beet contains, on the average,
ten per cent. of Sugar, but one or two per cent. could
(on a large scale) be extracted by the best machinery
and processes yet invented. The Commission reported
that Beet Sugar, (crude,) which Achard had reported as
costing but sixty centimes per kilogramme (about five
and a half cents per pound), could not be produced for
less than one franc eighty centimes per kilogramme
(equal to sixteen cents per pound). Two Beet Sugar
factories, established near Paris, soon failed, entailing
heavy loss on the proprietors, and casting deep discredit
on the new industry. Dark days succeeded; for the
Sugar business prospered no better in Germany, its
cradle, than in France. For a time, France, rigorously
excluded by British cruisers from her own colonies, and
from all places beyond the seas, either did without
Sugar or paid over fifty cents per pound for it. Resolute
attempts were made to extract Sugar, or a semi-liquid
equivalent, from the Grape; and chemists experimented
and sought for Sugar in every direction, without achieving any noteworthy success.
But France had by this time a ruler not easily dis
189 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
couraged, an embodiment of energy and forecast, whom
our modern Free-Traders have not yet mustered the
hardihood to claim as of their school; though they will
probably attain to it by degrees, as they have already
done in the case of Henry Clay. This man- Napoleon
Bonaparte by name- had resolved that the production
of Beet Sugar should not be given up as a failure. He
encouraged chemists, agriculturists, and manufacturers,
to resume their efforts and persist in them; and he was
heeded. In 1 810, M. Deyeux submitted to the Academy
of Sciences a report, in which he insisted that the Beet
was France's best hope for deliverance from the prevailing scarcity and dearness of Sugar; and that report produced an effect still held in grateful remembrance.
Two loaves of excellent home-made Beet Sugar having been presented to the Emperor, he gave the subject
of its production as much thought and study as he
could, amid his incessant and gigantic cares, and decreed1 that 32,000 hectares (nearly 80,000 acres) of
land should be devoted to the culture of the Beet, and
a considerable sum was confided to the Minister of
Agriculture expressly to encourage the production of
Beet Sugar. Coincident instructions were despatched to
the prefects of the several departments into which
France is divided, and a subsequent decree2 established
five schools of Chemistry in aid of the manufacture of
Beet Sugar; while four imperial factories were provided,
calculated to produce, from the crop of 1812, 2,000,000
kilogrammes (nearly 5,000,000 pounds) of Beet Sugar.
The tremendous struggle inaugurated by Napoleon's
ill-starred expedition to Moscow necessarily distracted
attention from industrial problems, and threatened to
engulf the new manufacture entirely. "At the moment,"
says M. de Dombasle, one of the pioneers in this in
2 January 15, 1812.
190
1 larch 25, 1811. 
PROTECTION ILLUSTRATED - SUGAR.
dustry, "when I was preparing my ground for the production of Beets, our armies were in Moscow; when I
was engaged in making Sugar from those Beets, our
factory served as the quarters of a pulk of Cossacks."
Others had similar experiences: and the efforts, alarms,
and disasters, attending Napoleonl's final struggles for
power on the soil of France, gave a succession of shocks
to the new industry which a vigorous constitution was
needed to withstand.
Napoleon fell; but not till he had afforded a fresh
demonstration  of the  truth that  "Peace  hath her
victories not less renowned than War," or, if less renowned, certainly more substantial and enduring. He
found time before his overthrow to visit the refinery at
Passy near Paris, where the best Sugar was in process
of preparation for table use; and next day's i[oniteur
announced that "A  great revolution in the Commerce
of France  has  been  accomplished," -an  averment
possibly premature, but essentially true. The fields of
Marengo, Austerlitz, Wagram, and Borodino, no longer
acknowledge the sway of France; the name of Napoleon naturally recalls memories of the Berezina, of
Leipsic, Waterloo, and St. Helena, rather than of
his brilliant but barren victories; even the imposing
Arch of Triumph  and the lofty column in the Place
Vendome awaken thoughts of the vanity of ambition
and the fleeting illusions of power and fame; but a
million of French acres devoted in ever-widening area
to the profitable cultivation of Beets, and hundreds of
factories annually producing more than Six Hundred
Millions of pounds of cheap and excellent Beet Sugar,
remain to attest to the present and to future generations the genius and true glory of Napoleon I.
Beet Sugar is no longer an experiment. Its success
is now beyond question or cavil. In France, as in
191 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
Germany, it no longer needs nor seeks Protection.
Lands worth four hundred dollars per acre can be no
otherwise so profitably employed as in the production
of Beets for Sugar, though that Sugar is now afforded
in Paris and throughout France cheaper than Cane
Sugar of equal excellence ever was The expediency
of the home production of Sugar has passed out of the
region of controversy so far as France is concerned.
But there was a time- there are those living who well
remember it -when nothing was represented and re garded as more preposterous than the notion that Sugar
might be profitably made from Beets, when Providence
(so it was urged) had decreed that the Cane alone should
supply it. Growing pine-apples in Greenland, naturalizing the reindeer in Cuba, extracting sunbeams from
cucumbers, and all the kindred similes which FreeTraders deem so apt and conclusive, were hurled at the
heads of Frenchmen in pursuit of Sugar under difficulties; the British press fairly frothed over with lampoons and libels aimed at the frog-eaters and their wildgoose chase for sweets; and epigram was piled on epigram, whereof the point was ever substantially this:        "Says John Bull to Bony,'While I use the Cane,
You are welcome each year to get Beet.'"
Even down to the comparatively recent period (1837)
at which Dr. Wayland gave to the public his "Elements
of Political Economy," Free-Traders still pointed to the
French Protection of her Sugar-makers as an illustrative
example of the folly of Protection. As casting a strong
side-light on the whole subject, I quote all that the
Doctor (condensing from The Edinburgh Review) has to
say 1 on this subject, viz.: -
THE SUGAR TRADE. - To encourage her colonies, France
lays a duty of fifty francs per quintal on all foreign sugars.
1 Elements of Political Economyn, by Dri. Wayland, p. 159.
192 
PROTECTION ILLUSTRATED -  SUGAR.
This has increased the quantity made at home and at her
islands. So far, it has succeeded; but,
2. The difference between the duty on foreign and the duty
on her own sugars amounts to 32,945,000 francs. This is
the bounty paid to the sugar-growers of Martinique and at
home.
3. The quantity of sugar consumed is probably less by onethird than it otherwise would be. England, with half the
number of inhabitants, consumes two and a half times as
much sugar as France.
4. But it is said that by this means beet-root sugar will yet
supply France at the ordinary price.  It must, however, take
twenty years under the present system in order to do this.
The present Protection costs ~ 1,400,000 per annum. Suppose this to continue for twenty years, it will amount to
~258,000,000 sterling; the interest of which at five per
cent. will buy, at two and a half pence per pound,' 126,000,000
pounds of sugar per annum, or nearly the whole annual
amount of sugar now consumed in France.
Here is the familiar Free Trade assumption, that all
1 Dr. Wayland is all wrong in his facts. The actual average price
of Sugar in bond (that is, duty unpaid) in London in that year, 1837, was
not 2i d. per pound, as he asserts, but ~ 1 14 s. 7 d. per cwt., equal to
3-'~ d. per pound. Then, in regard to the consumption of Sugar in
France and England, I find that, in 1837, the quantity consumed in
France was 249,058,832 pounds. and in England 442,838,720 pounds
which is not double, —not 75 per cent. greater. The duty in France
on Sugar from her own colonies was 37 s. 6 d.; in England, the average
duty was 24 s. In reference to the price, the present Emperor of the
French, writing in 1842 on the Sugar Question, said: -
"The price of Sugar, which, under the Empire, was 9 francs per kilogramme, has since fallen to 1 franc 10 centimes; and though then protected and encouraged, it has now to support a tax of 27 francs per 100
kilogrammes; or, together, a difference, to the detriment of the manufacturers, of 817 francs per 100 kilogrammes."
Deducting from 110 francs, the price of 100 kilogrammes of Sugar at
1 franc 10 centimes per pound, the duty of 27 francs, leaves 83 francs as
the price of the Sugar exclusive of duty. According to Reed's Historv
of Sugar, the price of Sugar in bond in London was then 36 s. 11 d. per
cwt., or 86 francs 9 centimes per 100 kilogrammes.  So that, onlyfive
years later than when Dr. Wayland wrote, Beet Sugar was cheaper in
France than Cane Sugar in its cheapest European market!
193
9
m 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
the Sugar, foreign and domestic, consumed in France,
was enhanced in price by the full amount of the duty
charged on the importation of foreign Sugar,- an assumption refuted by a million facts. Because there was
a duty of fifty francs per quintal charged on Sugar
imported from other than French colonies, it is assumed
that all the Sugar consumed in France is enhanced in
price to that extent; and not merely is, but will continue to be, up to the moment when the steady growth
of Home production shall have entirely excluded foreign
Sugar! The French are thus figured as taxing themselves, during the ensuing twenty years, no less than
~ 28,000,000, or nearly $ 140,000,000, - very nearly
what their supply of Sugar would cost them under Free
Trade! Such is the Free Trade calculation; now let us
look at the facts.
The Sugar Industry of France- which (like our own
equally immature Manufactures) had received a serious
set-back from the sudden cessation of hostilities consequent on the downfall of Napoleon, opening our markets
to the products of British fabrication and the French to
a corresponding influx of tropical or Cane Sugar - soon
recovered from the blow, and, under the guardianship of
steadfast Protection, had attained such development and
strength that, in the very year (1837) of Dr. Wayland's
publication of his " Elements," it was, for the first time,
subjected to an impost or excise of fifteen francs per one
hundred kilogrammes, or a little over a cent and a half
per pound. (We presume that even Free-Traders will
not contend that this impost was designed to favor the
domestic  beet-growers or sugar-manufacturers.)   The
first effect of this impost was to close one hundred and
sixty-six sugar factories, extirpating the Beet Industry
from seventeen of the forty or fifty Departments in
which. it had taken root. But the Sugar industry had
194 
PROTECTION ILLUSTRATED -  SUGAR.
ere this acquired a vitality and vigor which enabled it to
recover from this shock, and soon resume its onward
march. The impost was raised from time to time, as
the growth and prosperity of the business were judged
so decided as to enable it to bear them, until all
the Protection afforded by duties on Imports was
fully countervailed by the excise on home production;
and, since 1860, it may be fairly claimed that Beet Sugar
has been produced in France more cheaply than it could
be imported in the absence of any tariff. The present
rates of duty collected in France on Sugar are as follows:
Raw  Sugar, under No. 13 Dutch
Standard.
From  French West Indies and Island
of R6union and settlements in Mada  gascar......
From other French Colonies
From other countries out of Europe 
From Europe or European entrepots,
Colonial sugar...
Raw  Sugar, above No. 13 to - No. 20,
inclusive.
From French West Indies and Island
of Reunion, and settlements in Mad  agascar....
From other French Colonies
From other countries out of Europe
From Europe or European entrepots,
Colonial sugar...
White Sugar, powdered, above No. 20
Dutch Standard.
From French West Indies and Island
of Reunion    ~      o    o. 
From other French colonies prohibited.
White Powdered Sugar from all other
countries is prohibited.
Equivalent in
Per 1O0 American gold
kilo. net.  per 100 lbs.
37 fr.      $ 3.36
37            3.36
42            3.82
195
44 4.00
39
44
44
46
3.54
4.00
4.00
4.18
40 3.63 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
Refined Sugar.
From French West Indies and Island
of Reunion
From other French colonies prohibited.
From England and Belgium, with cer  tificate of origin...
Refined Sugar from elsewhere, not
above mentioned, prohibited.
Beet-Root Sugar.
Grown and manufactured in France,
below No. 13 Dutch Standard.
Grown and manufactured in France,
from No. 13 to No. 20
Powdered, white, above No. 20                 
Refined.......
The production, meantime, has steadily increased, until there was made from the excellent Beet crop of 1865
no less than 274,000,000 kilogrammes (or nearly 678,
287,040 pounds) of Sugar, or more than five times the
quantity which Dr. Wayland estimated, less than thirty
years before, as equivalent to the total consumption
of France; and, though the yield has since been less
abundant than in that exceptionally bounteous year, yet
the product of the ensuing year (1866 - 67) was officially
returned at 216,000,000 kilogrammes, or 533,191,280
pounds, which is equal to about fourteen pounds per annum for each man, woman, and child, living in the country, not including the quantity of Cane Sugar still imported from the French tropical colonies, and disregarding also the large product of Molasses in the Beet-Sugar
factories, which considerably exceeds 100,000 tons per
annum.  It may be confidently asserted that no Continental people who mainly procure their Sugar from the
tropics, under no matter how low duties, ever consumed
half so much Sugar, though the means of the French
peasantry are limited and their habits notoriously frugal.
196
42 fr. $ 3.82
55       5.00
42 3.82
44
45
47
4.00
4.09
4.2 i' 
PROTECTION ILLUSTRATED -  SUGAR.
We have seen that Sugar, in the days when Protection
was inaugurated, sold in Paris at fifty cents per pound,
- a consequence, not of Protective duties, but of British
blockades and captures. That price was of course temporary, and the fall after the return of peace was signal
and rapid.  The following are the wholesale prices of No.
12 raw Sugar in Paris, exclusive of the impost levied
thereon by the Government, so far as I have been able
to obtain them:1 __
Year.         Price per lb.        Year.         Price per lb.
1816..  12T6  cts.           1854..  5?- cts.
1817..  11    "               1855..  6    "
1818..  12       "   1         856..  6    A
1819.       11- "              1857..  7- "
1820..  10-,8                 1858..  56f,"
1821..  1018"                 1859..  6~"
1822..   7- "                 1860..  61 "
1823...  86                   1861..  5
1824..  103   "              1862..  52"
1825.   9      "            1863..  57
1826..  1013                 1864..  5?"
1827..    9    "             1865..  5    "
1828..    9-  "              1866..  5 
[NOTE. - There was a gradual fall from 1828 to 1854; but
I have no precise data.2]
Here we see that Protection, pure and simple, created
on the soil of France a perfectly novel industry, so far
as that country or its material is regarded, and reduced
the price of its product, by gradual and persistent approaches, to a point below that at which tropical sugar
1 From "Beet-Root Sugar and the Cultivation of the Beet."  By
E. B. Grant.  Boston: Lee and Shepard.  1866.
2 The following extract from a letter quoted by Mr. W. Digby Seymour gives the relative prices of Beet and Colonial Sugars in Paris in
1851, which shows that Beet Sugar commanded the highest price of
each quality: -
"In order to enable you to determine the commercial value of in
197 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
had ever been or could now be afforded in France, were
all tariffs abolished and trade rendered absolutely free.
The Protection afforded to home-grown or Beet Sugar
over Colonial or Cane Sugar ranged from about eight
cents per pound in 1816 down to one to three cents from
1840 to 1860. Since 1860, the duty (as will be seen) is
rather lower on Colonial- than on Beet Sugar., In other
words, Protection, having done its perfect work, is superseded, as no longer necessary.
digenous (beet) sugar, I copy the price-current of sugars last week.
Porto Rico sugars, which bring a higher price in the London market
than sugars from the Antilles, shall serve as a base.
PRICE PER 100 KILOGRAMMES (220 LBS.) DUTY PAID.
Nov. 7, 1851.
Paris.    Equivalent per
SUGAR.                                Francs.    100 lbs. Am. gold.
Porto Rico, good Fourths,... 118 t& 119  $ 10.72 5 $ 10.81
Martinique and Guadaloupe, good Fourths, 120" 121    10.90"   11.00
Beet, good Fourths,.... 131"          11.90"
Martinique and Guadaloupe, fair Fourths, 123" 124    11.18"  11.27
Beet, fair Fourths,..... 133"         11.27
Martinique and Guadaloupe, fine Fourths,  125" 126    11.18"  11.27
Beet, fine Fourths,........ 125"                  11.18"
Beet, refined, first quality,..   140" 144    12.72"  13.09
Beet, refined, second quality,... 146" 178    13.27"  16.18
"How to Employ Capital in Western Ireland. By William Digby
Seymour." p. 282.
198 
THE BEET SUGAR INDUSTRY OF FRANCE. 199
XV.
THE HARMONY OF INTERESTS - THE SUGAR
INDUSTRY OF FRANCE INVIGORATING
OTHER INDUSTRIES - BEET SUGAR ON
ITS TRIUMPHAL MARCH.
AN important question remains to be considered:
What has been the effect of this remarkable development of Sugar industry upon other departments of the
industry of France, more especially upon Agriculture,
and upon the recompense of Labor?. As this is a vital
point, I choose to quote at length the official Report on
the Condition of the Sugar Industry of France, made
by M.  B. Dureau at the last great Exposition of the
World's Industry (Paris, 1867), as follows:1   The extent of the Beet Culture, which was not, ten
years since, more than 128,440 acres, may to-day be estimated
at about 271,700 acres, or about one-twentieth of the arable soil of France, which exceeds 54,249,640 acres. These
figures confront impressions and statements which imply that
the development of Beet culture had been effected at the
expense of that of cereals, and that to make Sugar exposed
us to a scarcity of Wheat. But facts have demonstrated that
the lands devoted to Beet may be doubled or trebled, and still
sufficient remain in cereals for the sustenance of man. It has
been demonstrated, even, by incontestable facts, that, instead
of tending to reduce the space devoted to cereals, it remarkably augments it.  One example will suffice to prove it: -
"In 1854, the area devoted to Wheat in the arrondissement of Valenciennes was 36,582 acres; in 1867, it attained
1 Universal Exposition, Paris, 1867. Report on the Condition of the
Sugar Industry. 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
the figure of 39,537 acres, although the cultivation of the
Beet, which had previously an extent of 17,205 acres, increased to 22,326 acres. What, then, are the products which
the Beet supplants? They are barley, the colza, the natural
and artificial grasses, the woods, and at other times the fallow
ground, which it long since entirely superseded in the Ndrth,
and which it causes to disappear in all districts where it is introduced.  In addition, the product per acre of Wheat is
nowhere greater than in the Sugar districts. We can judge,
from that same arrondissement of Valenciennes, which had
yielded 302 bushels per acre of wheat in 1861, -already
out of proportion with the rest of France, - gave in 1866 a
return as high as 34 bushels per acre.
" The number of cows and sheep has likewise signally increased. Thus, the districts which most extensively cultivate
Beet are those which furnish the most Wheat and Meat, and
are therefore the largest contributors to the public alimentation. The arrondissements of Lille and Valenciennes, with
their excellent culture, sometimes attain the figure of 31 to
35 tons per acre of Beets. Other regions return a much
lower figure; and we believe that we cannot possibly estimate it, on the whole, in France, at higher than 15 to 18 tons
per acre. This return, it will be understood, is susceptible of
great variations, according to the circumstances, more or less
favorable, of the weather.
" The yield of Beet [at first hardly two per cent.] is now
from five to six per cent. of Sugar, and the average product
of Beet Sugar is estimated at about 1,800 pounds per acre.
"Beet, after its juice is expressed, gives a residuum of
great value as a nutritive substance. It may be estimated
that 660 pounds of this residuum, fermented by being left for
some time in pits, is equivalent in nutrition to 220 pounds of
Hay. A working ox is well fed with a daily ration of 88 of
pulp and 4 to 621 pounds of hay. If we calculate that the
pulpy residuum is one-fifth in weight of the Beet, and that it
will consequently furnish a total quantity of 990,000 tons,
we shall find that it can support (exclusive of all other
forage) during a year 55,000 beeves of from 1,202 to 1,322
pounds, or 555,000 sheep, and thus produce 1,322,400 pounds
200 
THE BEET SUGAR INDUSTRY OF FRANCE. 201
of meat. Moreover, these cattle, fed with pulp, will furnish
sufficient manure to fertilize each year about 30,000 acres.
"Beet is, we see, a plant that improves the soil when its culture is accompanied, as it should be, by the feeding of cattle,
which its residuum will so largely contribute to sustain.
"The good effect is, however, not limited to this; for,
with this plant, nothing need be lost.  The leaves and stalks
which are left on the soil are likewise fertilizing; which one
soon perceives on noting the vigor of the Wheat growing
where these leaves, rich in potash, have been more abundantly left to decay.
"If eaten by sheep, the result is the same. The Beetroots coming to the factory carry with them from five to six
per cent. of earth, often a great deal more: this earth, collected at the washing of the roots, along with the debris of
filaments and roots, makes a fertilizing matter, which is applied as a compost by mixing it with muck from the yard,
cinders from the boilers, and other residuum.
"The working of the juice requires a great deal of chalk,
which forms, with the abundant scums thrown off during
clarification, a mineral and nitrogenous fertilizer of the first
order, highly prized by growers: for the scums retain part of
the albumen of the Beet and some salts in combination.
We  make of this fertilizer perhaps about 220,000 tons per
season.
" The fabrication of Sugar employs some animal black, the
residuum of which (we can scarcely estimate it at less than
495,600 to 660,800 bushels per year) goes to fertilize the granite
lands of Brittany and furnish the calcareous element which they
require. This is not all. The manufacture of the Sugar leaves
an uncrystallizable residuum, namely, Molasses, which may be
estimated at from two and a half to three per cent. of the
weight of the Beet.  This Molasses, the total quantity of
which amounts to 132,240 tons per annum, is worked up in
special establishments, and, after giving off, by distillation, a
volume equal to one-fourth of its weight of pure Alcohol,
leaves, in the proportion of ten to twelve per cent., a coarse
residuum known as Beet Saline, which contains all the salts
borrowed from the soil by the plant; none of the elements
9 * 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
of which escape being utilized, owing to the marvellous
system adopted in its treatment. The season of 1865 - 66, according to official figures, has produced 6,765,962 gallons of
Molasses Alcohol.
"As to the Salines, - composed of carbonate of potash
and of soda, of chloride of potassium, and foreign matters, -
their production ought to amount to from 13,224 tons to
16,530 tons.
LABOR.
" It is useful to know what part Labor plays in the fabrication of Sugar. This part is considerable. Let us, therefore,
state it briefly. Ten years since, it was estimated that the
manufacture of Beet Sugar (we do not speak of the agricultural branch) employed 40,000 persons, of both sexes and all
ages.  This number has not augmented in proportion to the
production, because the application of machinery, and notably
of some special machinery, has permitted the realization of a
certain economy of hands. We may, nevertheless, estimate
that each factory employs from 180 to 200 persons, of whom
three-fifths are men, one-fifth women, and one-fifth children
of both sexes. The average wages of the men is 60 cents
(gold) per day; that of the women, 25 cents; and that of the
children, 20 cents. We can estimate at about $10,000 per
factory, the wages of each season of 120 days. This gives,
for the 441 factories in France, a sum exceeding $ 4,400,000,
to be divided among about 85,000 workers.
" As to the cultivation of the Beet itself, we may calculate
for all the hand-labor required from $ 6.80 to $7.20 per
acre, which forms another sum of from $2,000,000 to
$ 2,200,000.'
"This employment, created by the Beet Sugar industry,
is as such the more interesting because it is purely rural, and
takes place in the Winter,- that is to say, at the time when
agricultural labor is least required. It is thus that this useful
industry comes to the aid of Agriculture, favoring it in all
its branches, and unquestionably, by the influence which the
extra wages we have mentioned have in counteracting,
among the rural population, the false attractions of the cities.
In this view, it renders incomparable service."
202 
THE BEET SUGAR INDUSTRY OF FRANCE. 203
I do not suppose that any corroboration of the testimony above given is needed; but the following note on
the Beet industry of Belgium by an English observerthe correspondent of The London Morning Chronicle,as quoted in Mr. W. Digby Seymour's work entitled,
"How to employ capital in Western Ireland" (1851)
affords a striking confirmation of the accuracy of Mr.
Dureau's conclusion.  "When Beet-root forms a prominent part of the cultivation, the proportion devoted to it is about one-third of the
whole farm.  Take a farm of ninety hectares (222-i8,9 acres),
and there would be thirty hectares (74 1 3 acres) of Beet-root,
forty (958-o4T acres) of Wheat, five or six (123o5 or 14?,-2
acres) of Rye, and the rest in clover, carrots, potatoes, &c.
It is a remarkable fact that, since this plant has been so largely cultivated here (Belgium), the yield of Wheat has been as
great as when the whole was devoted to the latter,- so excellent a preparation of the soil is Beet-root." 
I have made these long extracts, because, while throwing much light on the general subject of Sugar production,
they undesignedly illustrate and commend the beneficence
of diversifying the pursuits and productions of a people.
France has at length cheaper and more abundant Sugar
than she could have had, had she not long since entered
resolutely on the work of protecting its production on
her own soil, and persevered therein to the end, in spite
of the sneers and jeers of economists like Bastiat, who
have determined not to see in Protection aught but a
device or scheme for enriching one man or class at the
expense of another. In their view, Protection being but
a cloak for rapacity, the more you protect the more Protection is needed; yet here is France abundantly supplied with a cheap article, naturalized on her soil by
Protection, and thus rendered so strong and prosperous
1 Seymour, p. 95. 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
and remunerative, that it no longer needs Protection, but
goes ahead, fearless and flourishing, without. And, so
far from having impoverished other interests during its
long struggle, it has aided and enriched them. The soil,
mellowed and fertilized by the Beet, produces more
Wheat than ever before, and the farmers are incited to
devote more acres to that noble grain; the residuum of
the sugar-mills feeds more cattle than the same lands
ever before subsisted, so that there is more meat as well
as more bread; while Labor finds in the sugar-factories
employment and wages at the very season when, in their
absence, it must go idle and often hungry, and be tempted to drift away to the already overcrowded cities. Such
are the obvious results of efficient, successful Protection.
But the substantial and enduring benefits resulting
from the early and persistent efforts of France to supply
herself with home-made Sugar have not been restricted
to her own people.  Germany,   which preceded her in
the outset and vied with her later exertions,- though
for a time less conspicuous in the prosecution of this
good work, is now nearly abreast of her. In 1840, Prussia and the States united with her in the "Zoll Verein,"
or Customs Union, had 145 Beet-Sugar factories, consuming 241,486 tons of Beets per annum, and producing
therefrom 13,445 tons of raw Sugar and 8,955 tons of
Molasses. In 1865, her factories had increased to 300,
consuming 2,106,000 tons of Beets, and producing therefrom 180,000 tons of Sugar and 50,544 tons of Molasses.
And whereas it originally required fifty tons of Beets,
and in 1840 eighteen tons, to produce a ton of Sugar,
successive improvements had, by 1865, enabled the
manufacturers to obtain a ton of Sugar from less than
twelve tons of Beets,1 with more than a quarter of a ton
1 Beet-Root Sugar and Cultivation of the Beet. By E. B. Grant.
Boston. 1866.
..
I -
204 
THE BEET SUGAR INDUSTRY OF FRANCE.   205
of Molasses. And the ultimate limit of improvement is
not yet reached.
The Government, which, in 1840, was content with a
tax of 10~-f  cents per ton on the Beets consumed  in
Sugar-making, had increased this impost to $1.23A  in
1850, and this to $3.09 in 1858,-equal to $ 36 up to
$43 per ton on the Sugar produced. Under this impost,
the wholesale price of Sugar was about seven cents per
pound.
A recent Handels-Archive (Prussian, 1867) gives the
following account of the progress of Beet Sugar industry
since 1836 in North Germany, or rather the sphere of
the Zoll Verein:
"For the first four years, no tax was laid on the article, in
order to encourage the production; in the fifth year, a small
financial duty of 103 cents (gold) per ton of beet-roots was
levied; during the next three years, it was doubled and made
20-6o- cents per ton: in the following six years, it was trebled,
and made 61,18 cents; then came three years that it was
doubled and raised to $ 1.23T-f6; after which it was again
doubled for a period of five years, when $ 2.47-2o was levied;
and finally, for the last nine years, it was raised twenty-five
per cent., and now pays $3.09 per ton. In the first four
years, it produced no revenue; but in 1867 it yielded no less
than $ 8,748,942.
"During the thirty-one years, the production of beet-root
rose from 558,882 cwt. to 55,910,761 cwt. in 1867, and the
quantity of raw sugar made from it had increased from 31,048
cwt. to 4,437,361 cwt.
" In 1831, there were 122 manufactories, and at the end of
1867 they had increased to 296, which, however, is not in
proportion to the rise of the production; but during the above
period the improvements in the machinery and apparatus
must have been very great; for whereas in 1831 eighteen hundreds of beet-root were required to yield a hundred of sugar,
twelve hundred were sufficient in 1867. From a calculation
made of the percentage as compared with the population, it 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
appears that the production of sugar at first was'less than two
ounces per head, but amounted last year to 9.79 lbs. per head
of the population.
"The statistics of the exports and imports of sugar for each
year of the above-named periods, show that, while the imports of sugar in 1831 were 1,202,319 cwt., they had dwindled
down to the insignificant quantity of 39,954 cwt. in 1867.
At the same time, the exports had increased very nearly in
the same though reversed ratio, as in 1831 they amounted to
49,179, and in 1867 had risen gradually to 947,603 cwt."
The Hon. Horace Capron, U. S. Commissioner of Agriculture, upon a call moved by the Hon. S. M. Cullom in
the House of Representatives, reported to Congress facts
illustrating the production of Beet Sugar, whereof apart
have heretofore been given from other sources, but there
are others of decided interest which I state on the Commissioner's authority. He says: -
"Without Government encouragement at the outset, it
might not now be numbered among the industries which
bless the world.  When the first Bonaparte fostered the art
of extracting Sugar from this garden vegetable as a practical
matter, the possibility of obtaining a good article had long
previously been demonstrated by chemists; it only remained
to be shown that the manufacture could be conducted with
profit on a large scale. His object was to exclude from his
empire the sugar of British colonies, the price of which was
then four or five francs per pound. A prize of 1,000,000
francs was offered by the French Government for the most
successful method of obtaining a supply of indigenous Sugar.
It was soon evident that such a supply must be furnished
from the Beet.
"In Poland, also, in 1812, government loans and exemption
from conscription, in aid of the enterprise, were freely offered. In fact, the principal governments of continental
Europe vied with each other in perfecting and extending the
new business.
"A manufactory of Beet Sugar was in successful operation
in Silesia as early as 1805; and in France repeated experi
206 
THE BEET SUGAR INDUSTRY OF FRANCE.  207
ments were undertaken a few years later. - Up to 1818, no
very marked or rapid progress was made, though the business
was constantly extending.
"In 1839, the manufacture, already established upon a
solid footing, embraced the operations of 268 factories in
France, Germany, Sweden, and Russia. In 1848, France
alone had 294; Prussia 346, and Russia 425. The present
number of factories in France (according to De Neumann) is
449; many of them are far more extensive than those of
former days, and fourteen of the number have been established during the past year. At the first of January, 1868,
3,173 refineries of Beet Sugar were reported as in operation
in Europe.
" The total product in 1828 is stated to have been 7,000
tons;  in 1851, 180,0o0 tons; and in 1867, the enormous
quantity of 663,000 tons, or 1,485,120,000 pounds, worth
$100,000,000, or about seven cents per pound.
" Sixteen years ago, France was able to manufacture half
of her total consumption of Sugar, or 60,000 tons; and
Belgium, consuming 14,000 tons, imported, in 1851, but
4,000 tons. Germany, at the same date, produced 43,000
tons, Austria 15,000, and Russia 35,000 tons; the latter country also importing, at that time, 50,000 tons of Sugar in
addition to the home product The total manufacture of
Europe, as stated above, has been almost quadrupled since
that date, and cane sugar in several of those states is now
scarcely known.
"The amount manufactured in France during the three
months ending November 30, 1867, was 120,553 tons, -
18,613 more than was made in the same period of the previous year.....
" The product of Beets per acre is from fourteen to fifteen
tons in France and Belgium. Enormous crops have occasionally been reported. The English Gardener's Chronicle contains the statement of M. de Gasparin, of 27 tons 700 pounds
grown upon 39 perches 16 square yards, or nearly 110 tons
per acre. Hie sowed the seed under glass, transplanted the
plants in April, hoed repeatedly, and irrigated every two
weeks..... 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
" The large and increasing quantities of Sugar and Molasses required for consumption in this country and the amount
of money paid for foreign labor in its production, can be appreciated by a glance at the following statement of imports
for five years, which is in addition to a small domestic product of cane, maple, and other sugars, and large quantities of
sorghum syrups; a small amount, also, by indirect trade, is
not included, on account of incompleteness in the official
statement of imports.
SYRUP AND MOLASSES.
Gallons.      Dollars.
25,157,280   3,427,813
31,206,986   4,732,378
.571,230   7,256,064
1 309,003   7,471,467
47,768,348   7,227,351
SUGAR.
Pounds.      D)ollarG
557,137,529  20,357,090
518,594,861  19,082,017
632,230,247  29,660,076
608,855,989  25,248,299
977,885,449  39,595,677
" Iere is a total of $ 133,943,159, gold value, paid for foreign Sugar in five years, and $ 30,115,073 for the Molasses,
-an average of about $ 33,000,000 per year, and more than
$ 50,000,000 in currency; the most of which, if not all,
should be retained at home. In view of the great success
of the business in Europe, the American people owe to the
world's estimate of American enterprise a determined and
persistent effort for its establishment here. I see no reason
to despair of its complete accomplishment."
A French periodical,' with evident satisfaction,
says:
" One of the most remarkable and interesting facts of the
past year is the export of considerable quantities of Beet
Sugar from France to England, -a country that, not many
years ago, tried to stifle the Beet Sugar industry in its
cradle."
It is not the aim of these essays to commend new
branches of industry to favor, nor to insist that these
may be pursued to greater profit than others. Our close
proximity to the tropical isles in which the Cane grows
1 Journal des Fabricants de Sucre, January 4, 1866.
208
Year.
1862
1863
1864
1865
1866 
THE BEET SUGAR INDUSTRY OF FRANCE.  209
with greatest luxuriance, seldom needing to be replanted,
and the strong probability that some, if not all, of those
islands may soon choose to unite their destinies with
our own, may seem to render questionable the wisdom
of invigorating the prosecution of Beet culture on our
soil with an eye to the production therefrom of Sugar.
My end is attained if I have shown that one important
product has been, through the aid of Protection, naturalized on a continent to which it was supposed utterly unsuited, and in a climate under which its prosecution was
deemed wholly impracticable, and that the results are
signally conducive to the advantage, not merely of those
engaged in that industry, but of the great body also of
their countrymen, and to the substantial and permanent
well-being of mankind.
Having thus traced, by the aid of official documents,
the history and fortunes of the Beet Sugar industry of
France, from its origin down to our own day, I propose
to place in contrast with the facts a Free Trade travesty of their substance and moral.   I quote in fill the version of the matter given in The Free-Trader of July,
1868, viz.: -
"The origin of the Beet culture in France was this:
During the Napoleonic wars, the ports of France were rigorously blockaded, and foreign trade almost annihilated, so that
Sugar went up to $1.20 per pound. The French people
were thus compelled to raise Sugar or go without it, and
hence resorted to the Beet culture. On the restoration of
peace, in 1814, Sugar fell to 14 cents per pound. The protection was gone, and the consumers could get for 14 cents
what had cost them $ 1.20. The Beet Sugar manufacturers
began, of course, to clamor loudly for Governmental assistance. France had Sugar colonies of her own,- Martinique,
Guadaloupe, Cayenne, &c.; but, to satisfy the home Sugargrowers, a duty was laid by Louis XVIII. of $ 80 per ton on
N 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
colonial and $ 200 per ton on foreign Sugar.   Under this
heavy protection, the cultivation of the Beet was immensely
extended. A powerful opposition was raised to this policy,
and much conflicting legislation took place; but the culture
has continued to the present time, and the French people
have paid so much in the extra cost of their Sugar that the
sum total which they have lost would form a fund, the annual interest of which would supply them gratis with all the
Sugar they will consume to the end of time!
Such is the example of France, as wve understand the
matter, which Protectionists would have us imitate. To do
this, the Government must increase the present onerous
duties vastly beyond what they now are, and, if not found
sufficient to protect such an unnatural branch of industry,
they must be increased until they are. Such are the only
conditions on which the culture can be sustained As in the
case of the Cotton manufactures to protect which we laid at
first duties of 25 per cent., but increased them every four
years till they reached 50 to 100 per cent., so it must be with
Sugar, only worse in degree, as the business is more abnormal.
But, if the Government will only begin the work, and persevere sufficiently long, there is no doubt an immense branch
of business may be established, and at an enormous loss to
the nation. Once begun, there can be no stopping-place.
We have taxed the people'to protect our' infant manufactures' for over half a century, and where are wve  to-day?
Hiave  the infants arrived at maturity?   Can they stand
alone?  Have they ceased to cry for Protection?  When
the people of the West shall have invested millions in sugarhouses, mills, and apparatus, and yet find the business unprofitable as compared with wheat-growing, as they certainly
must the clamor for higher duties will be louder and more
irresistible than the first demand for Protection.   Once start
any kind of business under Government assistance, and that
assistance can never be withdrawn."
Compare this final assertion with the facts heretofore given, including the prices at which Sugar has been
and is sold in France, and determine on which side is
beneficent statesmanship, and on which selfish, narrow,
210 
THE BEET SUGAR INDUSTRY OF FRANCE.  211
short-sighted indifference to National growth and general
well-being.
I have thus, in tracing the history of Beet Sugar, and
the industries conducive to its production, shown what
Protection is, what it purposes, and what it does. In
divesting that production of an exclusively tropical
character, diffusing it over a great portion also of the
Temperate Zone, and demonstrating its adaptation to
every part of that zone, Protection has signally cheapened for the masses their most essential luxury, enabling
millions to enjoy it daily who would else have rarely
tasted it, and thus increasing the comfort and physical
well-being of mankind. Labor more amply and uniformly employed, as well as better paid, lands rendered
more productive and therefore increased in value, a substantial and permanent improvement in the character of
th      e    soil an d  t he condition of those who cultivate it, -
such is Protection, as demonstrated in the creation of
the Beet Sugar industry and its firm establishment in
Central Europe. In other words: the planting of the
Sugar-producer by the side of the Sugar-consumer, from
whom he was formerly separated by a distance of three
or four thousand miles, has reduced to a tenth the cost
at which their products were formerly exchanged, thereby increasing the rewards of industry and the comforts
and enjoyments of the poor. Such being Protection as
it is, I ask the reader to contrast it with the caricature
which its enemies present, and which I find in one of
the fly-sheets sown broadcast by the importers' Free
Trade League, which has its American head-quarters in
our City. I quote it verbatim, as follows: —
He PROTECTION.
"  Protect me!' is the imploring cry of a comfortable, wellfed, well-clad personage whom, at first sight, one would hardly 
POLITICAL ECONO.IY.
take for a beggar.'Protect me! I own but ten thousand
acres of land in the world. It is my all. It is full of coal;
but the Englishmen and Nova Scotians have got coal too, and
they offer to sell it cheaper than the price I want. Shut out
this foreign coal, and protect me, an American laborer.' lie
looks even less like a laborer than a beggar.
"' What makes coal so dear when the weather is so dreadful cold?  God help us poor!' comqs from between the chattering teeth of a toil-worn, care-worn, shivering woman, as
she measures with stingy eye a scanty fresh supply of fuel to
her waning fire. No cry from her to Government for Protection. No Protection to her from the greed of the strong,
the cunning, the avaricious.'Work for yourself.  Work or
starve.  Self-help.  Every one for himself.  If Government
gave bread, or clothes, or fuel, to the poor, it would demoralize them.  Take better care of the pennies you earn.  Lay
them up in Summer for a wintry day.' Such are the answers she would get if she asked for Protection,- if she
turned beggar. No chance for her to put in a replication.
The voices of the coal-owners are mighty to drown hers.
If she could be heard, she would say:'Hlow can I lay up
my pennies when the strong arm of Government takes them
from me, day by day, as fast as I earn them, and hands
them over to my richer neighbors? On every spool of
thread I buy, Government takes from me a penny or two to
pay over to the Woonsocket Factory Company, so that they
may make dear thread and big dividends. On every garment
I wear, it takes pennies and shillings from me, wherewith to
fill the purses of the rich men who make cloth, and stockings,
and shawls, and who cannot be content with less than fifty
or one hundred per cent. increase of their wealth every year,
to pay them for making dear clothes for the American laborer.
WThen I buy a stove or a pair of scissors, I must pay some of
my hard-earned pennies to support the wealthy iron-maker
of Pennsylvania. I get no Protection to my labor, and I ask
none. Let us both alone, -me and the manufacturer. As
you let me work my humble way along as best I can, leave
him to do the same. Give him no part of my earnings, and
I am content with my little share of this world's goods.' If
212 
THE BEET SUGAR INDUSTRY OF FRANCE. 213
it demoralizes society for Government to give the poor food
and clothes and fuel, is it not equally demoralizing for Government to give to the rich and the strong? And, when it
gives to the rich by taking from the comforts of the poor, is
it not demoralizing society at both ends? "- Round Table.
Reader! the gentlemen who contribute their thousands of dollars each to circulate such appeals as the
above to popular ignorance and envy, expecting to make
their tens of thousands therefrom by the sale of more
foreign products and at higher prices, tell you that their
views are liberal, enlightened, comprehensive, far-seeing,
while mine are narrow, rapacious, short-sighted, partial,
and selfish. Compare their statement just given with
the facts concerning Sugar set forth in this and the preceding essay, and judge impartially between us.
If you believe that the natural relation of one man to
another is that of antagonism, - that the prosperity of
A involves or necessitates the bankruptcy of B, - that
Agriculture and Manufactures are natural foes, whereof
one must perish that the other may flourish,- then your
proper place awaits you in the Free Trade ranks. But
if you have a true and generous conception of the essential Harmony of Interests, - of the natural and mutual
interdependence of diverse pursuits and industries, -
such as Jackson afforded in his letter to Dr. Coleman,
-and Henry Clay maintained and elucidated throughout
his long and illustrious public career, then you are in
substantial accord with us who uphold Protection, and
should not hesitate to march under our flag.
i 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
XVI.
AMERICAN SHIP-BUILDING, SHIPPING, AND
FOREIGN COMMERCE.
IN the later months of 1862, a scarcity of Printing
Paper was proclaimed in this market and throughout
our country. The protraction and desperation of our
Civil War, whereof the close seemed indefinitely postponed; the consequent dilution, expansion, and depreciation, of our Paper Currency; the interruption (more
complete then than months later, when our armies had
perforated the cotton-growing region) of commercial intercourse between the planting and the manufacturing
districts of our country; the scarcity and dearness of
Paper-makers' stock, whether of domestic or of foreign
origin, - conspired to induce a concerted, sudden, and
enormous, enhancement of the price of Paper. Many
manufacturers, who were under contract to supply certain newspaper establishments at specified prices for
months, if not years, in prospect, repudiated their engagements, pleading inability to fulfil them.   Publishers, who had been for years printing paper that cost an
average of ten cents per pound, found themselves suddenly required to pay eighteen, twenty, and even so
high as twenty-six cents per pound. THE TRIBUNE paid
this latter price for large consignments, inferior in quality to thousands of reams for which it had recently paid
but nine cents; and it sold much of this dear paper,
after printing it, for considerably less than its prime cost.
At a time when Business was stagnant and Advertising
consequently slack, this sudden, unprecedented advance
214 
HOW TO SECURE CHEAP PAPER.
in what was (and is) by far their heaviest item of weekly
outlay, threatened the cheap dailies with absolute ruin.
At once, a concerted outcry was raised for cheapening
Paper through the repeal of all duties on its importation.  Congress was promptly memorialized, in behalf of
most of the leading journals, to cheapen Paper by allowing it to be imported duty-free.
I did not concur in this representation, nor in the
view which prompted it. That Paper might be somewhat cheapened, for the moment, by putting it on the
free-list, I could not doubt; but I believed that such
instant cheapening would be purchased at too great a
cost to the country, and even to the newspapers themselves. I believed that the true road to cheaper Paper
lay through the encouragement of its Home production;
that cheapness thus secured would be real, beneficent,
enduring, as that secured by a policy which widened the
average distance between producer and consumer could
not be. I stood forth, therefore, almost solitary in my
resistance to the repeal of the duty (twenty per cent.)
on the importation of Printing Paper. I held it better,
even for the publishers, that they should pay this duty
on the paper they might be impelled to import, than to
have it temporarily cheapened by abolishing the impost,
at the cost of discouraging the investment of capital and
capacity in the discovery or adaptation of new material,
the erection of new paper-mills, and the consequent
cheapening of paper by means consistent with the fullest development of American Industry.
These views prevailed. The duty on imported paper
was not taken off, though considerable quantities were
imported under it, some of which was purchased for and
used on THE TRIBUNE. Meantime, the high price of
Paper incited the erection of new mills and the enlargement of old ones, the improvement of processes, and the
215 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
extensive use thereby of fibrous substances previously
deemed intractable; and thus Printing Paper was rendered permanently abundant and reasonably cheap for
the last two or three years, as it still remains. I believe its average (gold) price has been as low throughout
the last two years as in any former two, and lower than
the corresponding prices of food, shelter, and clothing.
In short, I believe that Paper has been cheapened to its
consumers by holding on to the duty, and thus encouraging its production at home rather than abroad.
The same question, essentially, is now to be decided
with regard to Iron, more especially its lowest and
crudest manufactured form, that of Pig Iron. It is
plausibly asserted that Pig Iron is now exorbitantly
high, as Paper was in 1862 - 64,- that its producers are
rapidly amassing fortunes,- that the only effect of the
duty is to enhance the price without increasing the product,- and that a repeal or material reduction of the
duty would simply reduce the price without affecting
the production, - and that this would enable our rollingmills, puddling furnaces, &c., to cheapen their product
and thus extend their sales, and would hence give a
new spring to our entire manufacturing industry, and
especially to the department of Ship-Building, which is
represented as at its last gasp.
I do not believe that the road to real, permanent
cheapness lies this way, nor can I realize that one department of our manufacturing industry is to be benefited by the sacrifice of another.   I see it stated, by
those who have iron-mines or coal-fields to sell, or a
manufacturing city to build, that Pig Iron has been, is,
or may be, turned out from their choice materials, in
their favored localities, at $ 30, $ 25, $ 23, and perhaps
even for $ 20 per ton; and I give due credit to their assertions. That is to say: I presume that, under the
216 
HOW TO CHEAPEN IPON.
most favorable circumstances, and taking no account of
disappointments and failures, the results thus vaunted
have been attained; just as I know that some great
farmers at the West have filled their bounteous cribs
with Corn at a cost not exceeding twenty-five cents per
bushel, that could be sold there at fifty cents per bushel:
and so with Wheat and other staple products of the soil;
while I know that Corn, Wheat, and everything else,
cost in the average as much as they bring, else they would
be sold for less. I note that those who so loudly inveigh
against the enormous profits of making Pig Iron are very
careful not to make any, and not to allow any of their
means to be used in making any. There are, ill Virginia
alone, not less than One Million acres of first-rate Iron
and Coal lands, mainly covered with choice timber for
building and for coaling, that are this hour awaiting pur
chasers at fifty dollars per acre or less,- all of them
within a few miles of railroad or water communication,
and some of them directly on the great thoroughfares of:
the State, which is nevertheless buying abroad most of
the (far too little) Iron she uses. I vant to see a radical
change in all this,- want to see those great forests in
good degree turned into buildings and into charcoal;
the mines opened and worked; a full Million promptly
added by immigration to the Mining and Manufacturing
population of the State.; and an annual efflux of millions of tons of Iron and Steel instead of the present
inlflux of those metals  and I do not believe that the
short way to these results lies through the abolition or
essential reduction of the duty on Pig Iron. That duty
is exactly nine dollars per ton, which is exactly the same
as it was by the Calhoun-Lowndes Tariff of 1816, -
is the lowest specific duty ever imposed on Pig Iron in
any tariff enacted from 1815 to 1861 inclusive. I believe
it is doing good,- nay, I kniow it.  Under this duty,
10
217' 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
our annual product of Pig Iron has steadily increased,
and is now increasing more rapidly than ever before.
Throughout the South, the West and the Southwest,
wherever Ore and Fuel are found, there the production
of Pig Iron has been undertaken or is now eagerly contemplated: let it be settled and understood that the
duty will be maintained, and we shall have a thousand
more furnaces in operation within the next two years.
If there be a profit of even $5 per ton on the production
of Pig Iron, that profit will draw more and more capital
and labor into the business, until its product shall so
abound that the price must fall and the profit average
no more than that realized in other pursuits. If this
be not the law of the case, then there is no such science
as Political Economy, and no truth in the assumption
that water, left free to do so, will run down hill.
But it is said that we have been protecting the home
production of Iron for half a century, and that we have
not yet cheapened it a fraction; so that it is high time
we gave up the thriftless experiment.
There are just two grave mistakes in this assumption:
first, we have not protected the production of Iron for
fifty years, nor even (steadily) for any twenty of them;
secondly, we have cheapened Iron to our consumers quite
materially.  On this point, let me state a few facts:  "The Merchants and Bankers' Almanac for 1869"
gives the monthly price in this city of various leading
articles of commerce for the forty years from 1825 to
1864 inclusive, whence I compile the following statistics:
Average price of Pig Iron per ton in 1825,     $ 59.90 gold.
Average price of Indian Corn per ton (40 bush.) 22.10 "
Average price of Wheat per ton (37~ bushels)   34.41   "
Average price of Upland Cotton per bale of 400
pounds.......... 73.66  "
218 
AMERICAN SHIP-BU1LDING AND SHIPPING.    219
Cotton was exceptionally high that year,- very considerably higher than throughout the next, and still
further above the prices that ruled in several succeeding
years; yet whoever will comnpare the above with the
prices recently or now ruling will find that Iron now
costs our farmers considerably less in money than it did
forty-odd years ago, and not half so much in their labor
or its products as it then did. Our Agricultural staples
have decidedly improved in price, while Iron costs fewer
Greenback dollars per ton now than it did Gold dollars
in the infancy of Protection.
I know that some hold that Iron would be still cheaper
if we had never protected its home production. They
argue that, since some foreign Iron sells here at the
prices now ruling, our entire supply might be obtained
at those prices, less the duty, if that duty were abolished.
But reason, analogy, statistics, alike testify that, if we
were calling on Europe for nearly Two Millions of tons
of Pig Iron, in addition to what she now supplies us,
the prices charged for it would be much higher than
they are; just as the present-rtiling prices of Cotton are
much higher, because of the large and eager foreign demand, than they would be if no such demand existed.
Put out our furnace-fires, or the larger portion of them,
by compelling our iron-masters to pay double the current British prices for their labor, yet sell their product
in even competition with their British rivals, and it is
inevitable that the latter would first crush out the
former by underselling, and then, having obtained control of the market, reimburse their outlay by charging
prices that would make up their losses.
But I had proposed in this essay to consider the state
and prospects of American Ship-building and Shipping,
with especial reference to the complaints of their decline
and prostration through the influence (as is alleged) of
our Protective legislation. 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
These complaints are nowise novel. No approach,
however timnid, toward the Protection of our Home Industry, was ever made without provoking an outcry that
our Navigation and Foreign Commerce were brought by
it to the very brink of ruin. So long ago as 1824, Mr.
Webster, - then a Free-Trader,- addressing the House
in opposition to the Tariff of that year, touched this
point as follows:
"And first, Sir, as to our foreign trade. Mr. Speaker
[Clay] has stated that there has been a considerable falling off
in the tonnage employed in that trade. This is true, lamentably true. In my opinion, it is one of those occurrences
which ought to arrest our immediate, our deep, our most
earnest attention.
"What does this bill propose for its relief?  It proposes
nothing but new burdens.  It proposes to diminish its employment, and it proposes, at the same time, to augment its
expense, by subjecting it to heavier taxation. Sir, there is
no interest in regard to which a stronger case for Protection
can be made out than the Navigating interest.  Whether we
look at its present condition, which is admitted to be depressed, the number of persons connected with it and dependent upon it for their daily bread, or its importance to the
country in a political point of view, it has claims upon our attention which cannot be surpassed. But what do we propose
to do for it? I repeat, Sir, simply to burden and to tax it.
By a statement which I have already submitted to the Committee, it appears that the shipping interest pays, annually,
more than half a million of dollars in duties on articles used
\      n %kw  exthstnciw o(f Bhips.  ~re propose to add nearly or
=~mo~ E +ig
220 
AMERICAN SHIP-BUILDING AND SHIPPING.   221'
nary aid of government, but by patience, vigilance, and toil.
This right arm of the nation's safety strengthens its ownv
muscle by its own efforts, and, by unwearied exertion in its
own defence, becomes strong for the defence of the country.
"No one acquainted with this interest can deny that its
situation at this moment is extremely critical. We have left
it hitherto to maintain itself or perish; to swim if it can, and
to sink if it must. But, at this moment of its apparent struggle, can we as men, can we as patriots, add another stone to
the weight that threatens to carry it down?
" Sir, there is a limit to human power, and to human effort.
I know the commercial marine of this country can do almost
everything, and bear almost everything. Yet some things
are impossible to be done, and some burdens may be impossible to be borne; and, as it was the last ounce that broke
the back of the camrel, so the last tax, although it were even
a small one, may be decisive as to the power of our marine
to sustain the conflict in which it is now engaged with all the
commercial nations of the globe."
All this was, no doubt, sincerely, honestly, as well as
forcibly, impressively, said. Mr. Webster, representing a
mercantile, navigating constituency, believed and held
that Protection to Home Industry was necessarily, implacably, hostile to Navigation and Foreign Commerce.
But the Tariff so deprecated by Mr. Webster passed,
notwithstanding his efforts; and the official returns of
our Commerce and Navigation exhibit the following re
suits: -
Enrolled
and
Licen sed
Steam Tonnage.
....
....
....
24,879
21,610
23,061
34,059
40,198
39,418
U.S. Tonnage.
Registered.
Sail Tonnage.
619.048
619,896
628,150
639,921
669,973
700,788
737.978
747,170
812,619
Enrolled
and
Licensed
Sail Tonnage.
661,119
679 7 062
696,549
671,766
697,580
699.263
762,154
833 240
889,355
Total
Tonnage.
1,280,167
1,298,958
1,324,699
1,336,5661,389.163
1,423,112
1,534,191
1,620,608
1,741,392
Years.
1820
1821
1822
1823
1824
1825
1826
1827
1828 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
I have here given the official returns of our National
tonnage for the year 1824 (wherein Mr. Webster talked
as above), also for the four years preceding, and the
four succeeding respectively, so as to show how far the
facts corresponded to or differed from Free Trade anticipations. Mr. Webster assumed as inevitable that our
Tonnage must be reduced and our Navigation dwindle
if the Tariff bill then pending should pass; but it did
pass, nevertheless; and the four years following showed
an aggregate of 6,319,303 tons, against 5,240,390 tons in
the four years preceding, -  an iicrease of over twenty per
cent. And the official returns further show that, whereas
2,285 vessels in all, aggregating 253,994 tons, were built
in the United States in the four years prior to 1824, no
less than 3,841 vessels, with an aggregate capacity of
439,153 tons, were built during the four years succeeding the passage of that bill.1
In the light of these facts, I ask attention to the following extract from the memorial2 of our City's Chamber of Commerce, protesting against the passage of that
same bill:
"Besides the diminution of the revenue which would arise
from smuggling, there would be a still greater reduction in consequence of the enormous duties contemplated by the proposed
bill.  All the lower-priced cotton goods, flannels, and other
coarse woollens, hemp, alum, copperas, gums, most of the
enumerated articles of hardware, and many other articles
which now pay to the Treasury large sums in duties, would
either cease to be lawfully imported, or would be brought into
the country in small quantities; and the Government would
have to resort to some [other] mode of taxation bearing upon
1 Annual Report of the Director of the Bureau of Statistics of the
Commerce and Navigation of the United States for the Fiscal Year
ending June 30, 1867, p. 332.
2 Signed William Bayard, President, John Pintard, Secretary; dated
January 23, and published in The Evening Post of February 9 1824.
222 
AMERICAN SHIP-BUILDING AND SHIPPING. 223
every part of the community, in order to supply the deficiency
caused by extensive encouragement to a particular interest.
"The Revenue would also decrease from a general decline
of Commerce and Navigation.  If we prohibit or extravagantly tax foreign products, they cannot be imported into
our country; and, if we do not buy from other nations what
they have to sell, and what we want, can it be expected that
they will take from us our commodities? If we do not
buy, we cannot sell; for on the supply of mutual wants
is founded all the intercourse and all the Commerce of Nations, and, when they cease to be mutual, they cease to exist.
Restrictive systems first operate on Commerce, then on Navigation and Agriculture; and, when those great interests are
prostrated, they necessarily bring down with them the Revenues of the Government."
The Treasury returns 1 show that the receipts of our
Government fromn Duties on Imports, for the four years
preceding and the four succeeding 1824, were respectively as follows:
1S25   $ 20,098,713
1S26      23,241,331
1S27      19,712,283
1S2S      23,205,523
Total, 4 yrs. $ 86,357,850
Aggregate excess in the four years under the Tariff of
1824 over the four years preceding, $ 21,669,597.
How many such discomfitures as this should be re  quired to make Free-Traders distrustful of the theories
* which doom them to such exposure.
We are not now building vessels extensively, save for
our domestic trade, and are not likely soon to be. One
reason for this is the great falling off since our Civil
War in the volume of our Cotton and other Southern
1 Appleton's Cyclopsedia, Vol. XV. p. 816.
is2o
IS21
ls22
IS23
Total, 4 yrs.
$ 15,005,612
13,004,447
17,589,761
19,088,433
$ 64,688,253 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
staples which formed the bulk of our exports We
made Five Millions of bales, or One Million tons, of Cotton, in 1860; whereas, we have since the War made but
Two Millions of bales to Two and a Half per annum;
and of this we require a full third for our home consumption, which is quite as much as we ever did.
Consequently, we have less than Two Millions for export; whereas we  formerly had  over  Four Millions.
Our production of Rice, Sugar, and Tobacco, has likewise fallen off, though now slowly recovering. Of course,
we do not need so many ships as we once did; and the
great gaps in our Commercial Marine caused by the exploits 1 of the Confederate Alabamas, Shenandoahs, &c.,
or by transfers (nominal or actual) of American vessels
to foreigners, have not been filled; for, if we had had
the vessels, we lacked employment for them. And the
'reduction of our seaboard tonnage occurred simultaneously with a great, though quiet, marine revolution,
through the rapid displacement of sailing by steam vessels,- such, at least, as have steam for an ultimate resource, in the absence of propitious winds.
Sir Morton Peto, in his notes2 on his visit to this
country, judiciously observes  -
"In this question of construction will, probably, be found
one main difficulty attending American steam intercourse
1 The sales of American vessels to foreigners during the forty years
closing with 1867 amounted to 1,387,752 tons; whereof no less than
774,654 tons - considerably more than half - were made during 
the four years 1862-65.  And, though a considerable proportion of
these sales were merely nominal, intended only to give the vessels
thereby transferred protection from Confederate corsairs under a neutral
flag, Congress has thus far rejected all petitions to allow any of them
to be again registered as American. (See U. S. Annual Report of
Commerce and Navigation for 1867, p. xxix.)
2 The Resources and Prospects of America, ascertained during a
visit to the States in the Autumn of 1865. By Sir S. Morton Peto,
Bart. London. 1866.
224 
AMERICAN SHIP-BUILDING AND SHIPPING. 225
with Europe.  They cannot construct steamships in the United States to the same advantage that we can in Great Britain.
Not only are our rates of wages less, but our steamship-building yards on the Clyde, the Tyne, and the Mersey, are situated close to the raw materials   the Iron and the Coal
required for the purpose of steamship construction.  This
circumstance must always give Great Britain an advantage
over the United States in respect to navigation conducted by
steamers. The first cost of our steamships always will be
less; and, the capital invested in them being less, of course
they can be worked to advantage at lower rates. In addition
to this, we derive, at present, a considerable advantage from
the superior quality of the steam coal with which our ships
can be supplied."
Here, you see, are reasons for our backwardness in
building and running ocean steamers which no policy
could surmount. Our Labor is dearer, our facilities for
the cheap production of Steamships less ample, than
those of Great Britain. While the ocean was navigated by sail-vessels almost exclusively, the abundance and
cheapness of our Timber gave 11us advantages which
counteracted the cheap Labor and Metals of our European rivals; but we lost this when steam was substituted for wind as a motive power. And not we only, but
our Colonial neighbors lost it as well. They have cheap
Labor and Metals; but Ship-building has nevertheless
deserted the St. Lawrence, as well as the Hudson and
the Delaware, for the Clyde, - has abandoned Nova
Scotia as well as Maine. But a small part of it could
be coaxed back to our shores by the repeal of our Tariff.
Even though that should reduce our Labor to European
prices, we should still encounter obstacles in the capital,
the machinery, the experience, the location, and the
prestige, of our British rivals, which we could not hope
to overcome.
The complaints of stagnation in Ship-building are not
10o*                           o 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
confined even to our continent. They are (except as to
the construction of iron steamships on the Clyde and at
a few other favored localities in Europe) universal. A
popular British annual 1 for 1869, in its "Commercial
Summary for 1868- 69," says:
"In both wood and iron ship-building, general and great
depression existed in 1867.  On  the Thames, this almost
amnounted to a suspension of the latter, causing the greatest
distress in the eastern parts of the metropolis: at least
40,000 persons being rendered destitute of employ.   The
relative totals of ship-building in 1866 and 1867 were as
follows for all parts of the kingdom: -
Tons.
736,499
465,899
270,600
Facts and figures that require no further remarks to impress
the discouraging character of the trade for the year. Shipbuilding on the Clyde- in respect to iron vessels- suffered
less than at other ports, owing to the material being on the
spot, and abundance of skilled labor at hand.  The same
may be remarked in reference to the ports in the north of
England; while the Mersey suffered similar depression to
that of the Thames district, owing to many foreign vessels
having passed into British hands. The total registered vessels show an increase for thie year 1867 over that of 1866.
The registered tonnage, &c., were for
Vessels.      Tons.         Men.
1867..    40,942        7,277,098      346,606
1866.. 40,912        7,297,984      346,799
The chief source of the increase of vessels was due to the
sale of many belonging to the United States to British owners. In the first eleven months of 1867, British shipping decreased to the extent of 378 vessels, but increased to the
1 An Almanack for the Year of Our Lord 1869. By Joseph Whittaker. London. p. 867.
226 
AMERICAN SHIP-BUILDING AND SHIPPING. 227
extent of 29,116 tons, entered inward. It increased by 1,309
vessels,  registering 673,910 tons, cleared outward; while
Foreign tonnage decreased in comparison with 1866 to the
extent of 1,034 vessels, registering 120,543 tons entered inward; and increased 573 vessels, registering 160,990 tons,
clearing outward with cargo. In respect to the value of
British shipping, an improvement arose with a return of confidence in thie money market."
That this stagnation of the ship-building industry of
the Thames continues, and is complete and final, is attested by the London correspondent of the New York
Times, who, in a recent letter,' says:  " From the earliest dawn of British commerce down to 1860
the ship-yards on the banks of the Thames were preeminent
in the Old World for the number and excellence of the vessels which were built upon their ways. All this is changed.
Since 1860, their business has fallen off; and now a mournful
scene of desolation greets a visitor to the once famous yards
of Green, Wigram, Somes, and Young, all celebrated in their
day as builders of the renowned Indiamen of the olden time.
A few of their old frigate-built ships still live, and make their
annual voyages to Calcutta; but, like the New York packetships, they are veterans, and are the last of their race. The
great works and factories at Millwall, once occupied by Scott
Russell, are dismantled and closed, the machinery sold, the
factories tenantless, and the building-yard-the birthplace
of the Great Eastern -a grass-grown waste.  The adjoining
yards and foundry of Mare & Co., and the London Engineering Company, are in the same condition as Scott Russell's yard.
Samuda Brothers, builders of some eighty steamers, some of
them the fastest vessels that plough the seas, are idle; and on
all the Isle of Dogs, where a few years ago one could count
sixteen to twenty large steamers, there are now four vessels
only. One of the four is the double-screw monitor Abyssinia,
for the British Government. The other three are fast steamers for the opium-trade on the coast of China; and these three
opium smugglers are the only merchant vessels now building
1 Dated Sept. 3; printed Oct. 11, 1869. 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
upon the once prolific Thames.  At the Thames Iron Works,
below Blackwall, - one of the most complete and extensive
ship-buildling works in the kingdom, - I saw the double-screw
monitor Magdala, which, with the Abyssinia, is to go out to
Bombay, and remain there to defend that harbor, and two
casemrate iron-clads for the Sultan of Turkey, but not one
merchant steamer. The Thames Company built most of the
steamers in the Peninsula and Oriental Company's fleet, and
have also built several steamers for the Royal Mail Company;
but both companies have deserted the Thames for the cheaper
yards on the Clyde, and this establishment, like those higher
up the river, seems to be doomed.
"The prosperity of London as a ship-building port is at an
end, and no one here looks for a revival of the business.  All
admit that they cannot compete with the cheaper iron, cheaper
coal, and cheaper labor, of the Tyne and the Clyde. Henceforth, the ships and steamers required to carry on the vast
sea-borne commerce of London will be built in the North.
Even the old London ship-builders, who are also ship-owners,
are now ordering vessels from their northern rivals, and a
very large proportion of the tonnage now on the stocks on
the Clyde and Tyne is for Londonl owners, who  long held to
the belief that London was the only place in the world where
a good ship could be built. In the principal docks, the changed
character of the ships which now carry on the trade of London with distant ports is very marked. Twelve years ago,
the East India trade with London was carried in Londonbuilt and American-built ships. More than one hundred of
the latter arrived in London, from India, in one year;  and it
was no unusual thing to see a dozen or fifteen large American
clippers discharging cargo in the East India docks. Alas!
the East India docks know them no more! They have disappeared, and their places are filled by the iron and composite
clippers of the Clyde and the Tyne. The downfall of the vast
ship-building industry of London has been attended with
wide-spread and bitter distress; many thousands of workmen
have been thrown out of their accustomed employment,'not
for a day, but for all time.' Vigorous efforts have been made
to obtain work for some of the yards for the sole purpose of
228 
AMERICAN SHIP-BUILDING AND SHIPPING.  229
relieving the operatives; but it is now settled that nothing
can be done, and many of the poor have been assisted to emigrate to the north and to the Colonies.  The eastern builders,
with only two or three exceptions, have abandoned the businless of building, and only wait an opportunity to let out their
premises to some more profitable industry."
The same correspondent, writing from Liverpool, at a
later day,I says:  " The fact that ships built of wood have greatly depreciated
in value within the past ten years is amply confirmed by the
present condition of the ship-building business of New Brunswick and the other British American provinces. Before iron
ships came into general use, a large and thriving ship-building
business was carried on at St. John's and other provincial
towns.  The new ships were sent over here, and sold at prices
which paid their builders a satisfactory profit. Scores of such
ships were sold in a single season at about ~ 9 sterling per
ton; but now a good new St. John's ship will not sell here
for ~ 5 sterling per ton: for there is no demand for them here,
and thie business of building large ships in British America is
destroyed. The builders there are no longer able to compete
with the British builders of iron ships, and they can no longer
sell a new ship for a price which will cover the cost of construction.  The destruction of ship-building in New  Brunswick cannot be charged upon a high tariff or disordered currency, nor upon advanced rates for labor or other charges connected with ship-building. Materials and labor are cheaper
there than they were ten years ago: and contracts to build
ships are now offered at much cheaper rates than those which
obtained when ship-building was a profitable pursuit.  Ships
entitled to a seven years' class at Lloyd's can now be contracted for at St. Tohn's at ~ 5 sterling per ton; but no one
on this side of the water will take them, even at that low
figure. The only business left to the New Brunswick and
Nova Scotia ship-builder is the building of vessels of small
tonnage to trade between the Provinces and  the United
States, and between the United States and the West Indies.
1 Sept. 30; printed Oct. 30. 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
In both those trades, they compete only with the wooden
vessels of the United States, and not with the iron ships and
steamers of Europe."
Perhaps I ought not to close this chapter without alluding to the spirited and measurably successful attempt to
naturalize the building of iron steamers at Wilmington,
Delaware, by the Harlan and Hollingsworth Compahy.
The Iron Age, lately constructed by them (and this is
by no means their first vessel), is commended by good
judges as a strong, swift, and every way serviceable, seagoing steamship of 650 tons, built at a cost of $ 85 per
ton for the hull, and $ 15 per ton for the rigging; while
the aggregate British cost of similar steamers is $ 94
per ton. The builders say that the Pennsylvania iron,
which they use exclusively, is of better quality than its
British rival; so that our plates are one-eighth thinner,
while the Oak and Ash exclusively used for the wood-work
are cheaper here than in England, and the aggregate cost
of hull not $1 per ton higher than that of an equally good
vessel built on the Clyde. The cost of rigging here is,
however, forty per cent. greater than in Great Britain.
I give these statistics as I received them, without inferring therefrom that the building of iron ships is soon
to become an important and prosperous department of
our National Industry.
The Hon. George Opdyke, an eminent Free-Trader,
touched the corner of anl important truth when he observed 1 
" It is a universal truth that the more populous a country
becomes, the less of agricultural products will be exported
from it, because it will require a larger part of them for home
consumption. Increasing density of population always tends
to develop the manufacturing, mining, and mechanic arts;
1 Proceedings and Debates in the Constitutional Convention of the
State of New York, p. 1443.
230 
AMERICAN SHIP-BUILDING AND SHIPPING.   231
and, when the population grows so dense that it consumes
more agricultural products than it produces, -like England,
for example,- it necessarily becomes an importer of agricultural products and an exporter of manufactures. During the
period of transition, the foreign commerce of a nation must
gradually diminish."
We entered largely into the Ocean Steamship business
some fifteen years ago, and persisted in it till our energies were absorbed in our great Civil War; but it proved
a costly undertaking to our Treasury (by means of heavy
subsidies for Mail service), and not very profitable to
those engaged in it: so we have almost wholly ceased to
run steamers to Europe; contenting ourselves with subsidized lines to China and Japan, also to Brazil, with smaller packets to Havana, the Isthmus of Darien, and a few
points of minor importance. While we did run steamers
to European ports, they encountered this obstacle to
success: Most of the freight that could afford to pay
steamship charges consisted of British, French, and German manufactures, shipped by the makers and their
agents, who, very naturally, gave a preference over our
vessels to those of their own countrymen, leaving our
ships to run empty or to fill up with freight that did not
pay their running expenses. This competition was so
manifestly one-sided that our merchants were glad to
abandon it.
What would exactly serve and suit our shippers and
ship-builders would he Protection for our Navigating interest, and for nothing else.  Give them foreign Iron
and Copper, Hemp and Cordage, Anchors and Cables,
free of duty, with a monopoly of our Coasting Trade,
and a favoring discrimination in our Navigation laws
and port-charges, and they might experience an instant
enlargement of activity and revival of prosperity; but,
if we had no National Debt, and no Tariff at all, but 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
the most absolute Free Trade, with our Labor far
cheaper than now, as it naturally would be, the advantage would still (as Sir Morton Peto shows) be on the
side of their British rivals, who have, through years of
prosperous activity in the construction and use of seagoing steamers, accumulated a thousand facilities and
labor-saving devices, which, along with experience, eminent skill, and aggregated capital, we have still to acquire and concentrate. Ocean steamers are still rapidly
superseding sailing vessels; and those steamers are and
will be mainly built and run by nations that produce a
surplus of manufactures, and are constantly exploring
the out-of-the-way corners of the earth for new markets
wherein to sell them. For our country to rush into the
establishment of lines of ocean steamships before largely
protecting and extending her manufactures, would be
like beginning to construct a house at the attic, and
thence building downward to the foundations.
Our Ship-building and Navigation will revive, not before, but in consequence of, the firm establishment and
prosperity of our Home Industry. Let us thoroughly
develop our Mining and Manufacturing capacities, and
their command of machinery and power will enable us to
produce cheaply Wares and Fabrics now exported only
by European nations, whose cheap labor and ripe experience give them advantages over us, but whom, under a
wise policy, we shall yet overtake and pass, as we have
already done in the production of Edge Tools, Ploughs
and most AgTicultural Implements, Nails, Pins, and a
hundred articles of general utility and great value, but
which- simply because they are made by ourselves, or
at our own doors- do not figure in our Treasury Reports, and are not regarded as elements of our National
Commerce and Wealth.
232 
CREDIT -ITS USES AND ABUSES.
XVII.
CREDIT - ITS USES AND ABUSES - FOREIGN
INDEBTEDNESS -OUR NATIONAL DEBT.
WE are a young people, largely employed in the slow
and rugged process of clearing away the primitive forest,
breaking up natural prairie, building, fencing, draining,
and in every way subduing and adapting the earth to
the uses of civilized man. We are a sanguine people,
with unbounded faith in our own capacity, and in the
rapid growth of our country in population, wealth, and
power.   We  are an aspiring, audacious people, and
choose to direct rather than be directed.  Our boys are
eager to be men; our young men want to "get into
business" forthwith. Being a people of yesterday, we
-have less accumulated wealth than we probably shall
have centuries hence, or than the peoples of Europe
have generally acquired.  And, young as we are, intelligence and enterprise are quite generally diffused among
us, so that we seek to achieve our industrial ends by the
use of machinery, animals, steam, where ruder and more
ignorant workers rely wholly or mainly on human muscle.
We are epicurean, sumptuous, profuse, prone to ostentation, and reckless of expense. Too many of us shun
productive industry, and seek subsistence, success, wealth,
eminence, through Trade, Speculation, or one of the
Professions. Hence, we require capital much faster than
we create it, and are prone to run into debt. We ran
into debt as colonists; we borrowed from France and
Holland to sustain our War for Independence; and
Shays's Rebellion and kindred disturbances were incited
233
i 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
by a general and agonizing pressure of debt. The Federal Constitution and Government, insuring greater
stability and prosperity than we had previously enjoyed,
enabled us to extend the sphere of our borrowing, and
to incur mercantile and corporate as well as National
obligations in Europe; to which State debts were soon
added.  When we had low tariffs, we incurred debts
abroad; when the duties were raised, we left those debts
unpaid, and sometimes incurred new. Thus we had
gone on, until, at the outbreak of our Secession troubles,
we were owing Europe, mainly in the shape of State,
Railroad, and other corporate bonds, not less than Four
Hundred Millions of Dollars.
In the first two years of the War we added little to
this aggregate; for the first year, nothing.   We  continued to export Grain, Lard, and some Meats; we
soon began to export Petroleum; our export of Cheese
steadily increased; and we bought Fabrics less freely
than we had previously done, partly because a novel
and absorbing sensation had dwarfed the passion for
dress and display; partly because our internal credit
system had broken down, and rural traders, no longer
able to replenish their stocks on credit, bought little or
nothing. But, long before the close of our four years'
struggle, we had established new credits, mainly through
the sale abroad of the bonds representing our rapidly
expanding War Debt, ha(l suddenly enriched a large
class through contracts and other operations, popularly
grouped under the designation of " Shoddy," and had
run heavily into debt for Army Blankets, Nitre, &c., &c.,
which we paid for mainly in bonds. Thus the last two
years of the WVar saw our Foreign indebtedness largely
increased, while its close found the shelves of our inland
stores nearly bare of Fabrics, and their supply of Groceries very limited.  Throughout the States lately domi
234 
CREDIT - ITS USES AND ABUSES.
nated by the Rebellion there was an absolute dearth of
merchandise; while Cattle had been swept off and Implements destroyed or worn out during the progress of
the contest. To fill up our stores with an average assortmnent, at least Two Hundred Millions' worth of Goods
were imperatively required; while evidences of National
indebtedness, diffused through purchases of supplies and
the paying off of our armies, were cheap, abundant,
and very widely sown. Our National credit, which had
ruled low abroad throughout 1863 and 1864, was naturally much improved by the completeness of the National
triumph, so that our bonds temporarily sold for more in
Europe than they were worth (in gold) at home. Hence,
in spite of the restraining influence of our Tariff, which
had been once more rendered Protective in 1861, and
was somewhat increased on sundry articles in 1864 and
1865, we imported heavily during the three years following the close of our struggle, though our crops (at
the South especially) of exportable produce were quite
light, and their prices much reduced by the return of
peace. During the last year or two our National Industry has been more efficient, while the price of Cotton has been more remunerative to the grower; but we
are in debt to Europe not less than One Thousand Millions of Dollars, about three-fourths of it in the form of
National bonds or obligations; the residue almost wholly
composed of State bonds and those of Railroads and
other corporations. The annual interest on this vast
burden cannot fall below Sixty Millions of Dollars in
gold; and our Exports (including Specie) should over balance our Imports by at least this amount.
But they do not; they rarely or never did; and it
were bold to predict that, so long as Europe will trust
us further, they ever will. Thus far, we pay our quar terly accruing coupons of interest by exporting and sell
235 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
ing more bonds. About every fourth year, Europe has a
short crop of Grain, and then we supply her needs large ly at fair prices; but our great grain-growing districts
are too remnote and too far inland to enable us to com pete on equal terms with the wheat-growers of Poland
and of Southern Russia for the capricious markets of
Great Britain and of France. Of Sugar, Rice, Wool,
Metals, and nearly every Textile Fabric, we need all we
produce and more too; our Exports are nearly restricted
to a few bulky staples, - Cotton, Cheese, Lard, Bacon,
Petroleum,  &c., &c.   We  are constructing Railroads
more rapidly and generally than we ever did prior to
1868; we are opening mines, building factories and fur naces, erecting houses, and converting forest and prairie
into farms; and all these involve heavy present outlay
to achieve prospective benefits. These all strongly tend
to keep up the prices of every commodity, stimulate Imports, diminish Exports, and so to increase the sum
total of our indebtedness abroad. We are adding not
less than Two Billions per annum to our aggregate
wealth; but we do this at the cost of increasing, by
perhaps One Hundred Millions annually, the sum of our
foreign debt.
We have an Irredeemable Currency,- that is, a Cutrrency which is not exchangeable for the specie dollars it
would seem to represent, unless at a heavy and capricious discount. By consequence, the nominal price of
every commodity is from twenty to fifty per cent. higher
than its real price, regarding coin as a standard. A barrel of Flour or a ton of Coal sold for $ 10 really brings
but $ 7 to $ 8; so with all prices of Produce; so with
the wages of Labor. Nothing is currently estimated at
its real or specie value but Duties on Imports and the
bonded National Debt.
There are those who fancy these illusory prices and
236 
FOREIGN INDEBTEDNESS.
valuations advantageous to our Home Manufactures; I
never could accept their premises nor comprehend their
logic. A ton of Pig Iron that sells for $ 40 in currency
really brings less than $ 30 when Gold is 135; the consumer who buys Iron rarely considers that whatever he
produces or sells is estimated or priced by the same delusive standard, but fancies that Iron is dearer than formerly. The duties on Iron are considerably lower than
those levied by the Tariff of 1828, of 1824, or even of
1816; but a Free-Trader adds 35 or 40 per cent. for difference in currency, and tells the farmer that Pig Iron
now enjoys a Protection of $ 13 ~ $ 14; whereas, it
used to have but $ 10. Every little trickster who manipulates figures in the Importing interest will tell you
that a certain duty is 20, 30, or 40 per cent. ii gold; as
though it were the least fraction more than exactly 20,
30, or 40 per cent. as the case may be: the value being
given in gold as well as the duty; so that 20 per cent.
is exactly one-fifth of the invoice value, and neither
more nor less than if it were computed in currency. If
an inflated, factitious, irredeemable Currency were favorable to the prosperity of Manufactures, then Hayti
ought to be able to beat the world in manufacturing;
for her Government paper currency is at a discount of
900 or over for one.
I firmly believe that our inflated Currency is injurious
to Manufactures, as to every other producing interest,
that it were better for all who eschew speculation and
try to live by honest industry if we were down on rock
bottom this moment. I am not warring upon those who
hold and teach that there might and should be a Paper
Currency devised and adopted which should be irredeemable in coin, yet more beneficent than any we have yet
had: I only insist that a Paper Currency should express
on its face its true character,- should declare precisely
237 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
where, when, and in what medium it is payable, or, if
not payable at all, should make manifest that fact. I
am quite impressed with the arguments in favor of issu ing $10,000, $5,000, $1,000, $500, and even $100
bills, drawing interest at the rate of 3-B5  per annum
(or one cent per day on each $ 100): so that a man who
travelled with $ 50,000 in his pocket or trunk, at an average cost of $ 5 per day, might defray his expenses from
the interest of his cash in hand. I believe we can and
must ultimately devise the means of making our National Debt more fluid than it is, and that this would
help us to reduce the rate of interest, and thus render
the burden far less serious.
I am of that old-fashioned school which can see in a
National Debt no National blessing, but the contrary,
though some of its incidents may seem beneficent. We
are paying about $125,000,000 per annum in gold as interest onr our great National Debt,- more than Great
Britain pays, though the pri)cipal of her Debt is to ours
as 40 is to 25. If we could reduce the interest of our
Five-Twenties alone from six to four per cent., the saving
to the Federal Treasury would exceed Thirty Millions per
annum,- a sum that, invested in a Sinking Fund, would
pay off the last dollar of our Debt within the next forty
years. In my view, a cardinal object of our National
policy should be the funding of our redeemable debt at
a low rate of interest at the earliest possible day.
To effect this, we must have an ample current Revenue, so as to be constantly buying up and cancelling evidences of National Debt. So long as we, in addition to
paying our interest promptly and honestly, buy up Five
to Ten Millions per month of the principal of our Debt,
its market value must continue to appreciate, unless the
holders be rendered apprehensive that Repudiation is
likely to gain the ascendency in our Government and give
238 
OUR NATIONAL DEBT.
effect to some scheme for cheating the creditors of the
Republic. This peril being dissipated or reduced to a
minimum, our bonds should steadily appreciate, until we
can easily fund the Five-Twenties at a far lower rate of
interest than the six per cent. we now pay, and thus
signally reduce the weight of our Debt. By that time,
the difference between our Greenbacks and Coin should
be wholly effaced, so that the former should be redeemed
with coin when presented for payment at the Treasury,
and our Currency be uniform in value with the number
of dollars expressed on its face.
But this involves lower prices for Produce and for
Goods, and will be strenuously resisted by multitudes,
who find or fancy that they profit by inflation.  Some
of these are deeply in debt; others have property which
they wish to sell at higher prices; many are involved in
speculations which require an easy money market to
insure an advantageous result. By all these and by
others, Resumption will be fought step by step; and I
shall be agreeably disappointed if Congress is not agitated, at an early period of the ensuing session, by a strenuous effort to arrest the purchases of Debt which Secretary Boutwell has so successfully inaugurated, and
return to the hoarding practice -it were to dignify it
overmuch to term it a policy of Secretary McCulloch.
And one ready mode of assault on the National Credit
is afforded by an effort to cut down the Tariff to what is
called a Revenue standard. Though no Tariff framed
avowedly for Revenue ever yielded nearly so much money
as we are now realizing from a Tariff avowedly Protective,
we shall be told that we may obtain as large an income
from low duties on a few articles as from high duties on
many, and a desperate struggle will be made to recast the
Tariff on this assumption as an economic truth. This
will be backed by every avowed or secret champion of
239 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
National dishonesty; for, while there are many FreeTraders who abhor Repudiation, there are not a dozen
Repudiators in the country who are not vehement FreeTraders. Should this formidable combination triumph,
the payment of the principal of our National Debt will
be arrested, the funding of the Five-Twenties at a lower
rate of interest, with consequent reduction of the public
burden, will be rendered impossible, the resumption of
Specie Payments will be indefinitely postponed, and the
country will be doomed to flounder in an abyss of insolvency and discredit, until an aroused and enlightened
public sentiment shall hurl from power the authors of
these wanton, pervading disasters.
There is an opposite course, infinitely wiser and safer,
which I trust will be taken or persisted in; whereof the
outlines are as follows:  1. Sternly resolve that we will persist in paying our
National Debt, and every fraction of it, precisely as we
agreed to pay it, - as we were understood to stipulate at
the time of contracting it, -and thus establish our
credit so firmly that capitalists will be eager to lend us
the means of redeeming at a far lower rate of interest
the obligations on which we are now paying six per cent.,
and on which the right of redemption has already accrued or will soon be unquestionable.
2. Resolutely set apart and consecrate every dollar we
thus save, to be devoted to the payment or purchase of
principal of our National Debt, in addition to the "one
per cent. per annum" which we are already pledged to
pay by the Legal Tender act of 1862.
3. Make no changes in the essential provisions of our
existing Tariff; correct from time to time any discrepancies or errors of detail that may be discovered; but
leave it so that it will yield about the amount of revenue
we are now receiving from it, and appropriate the sur
240 
OUR NATIONAL DEBT.
plus inflexibly to paying interest and principal of the
Debt.
4. Reduce our internal imposts or excise on Whiskey,
Tobacco, and other articles heavily charged, whenever it
is proved that we may do so without loss of revenue,
but retain them at a figure high enough to defray the
current cost of supporting the Government after the
Income Tax (which expires by limitation next year) shall
have ceased to be productive.
5. Maintain in prosperous activity all the industrial
pursuits we already possess, and endeavor to extend our
production of Iron, Gold, Silver, Copper, and other Metals, while encouraging and extending the production on
our soil of Tea, Sugar, the Grape, the Olive, &c., &c.,
with no expectation of supplying all our wants from domestic sources, but with a resolute, firm, intelligent purpose that our Exports shall soon be made to overbalance
our Imports, so that we may cease transmitting to Europe bonds which are really mortgages on the industry
and products of our grandchildren, and begin to call
back and pay off the large amount we already owe there,
with intent that' the close of this century shall find us
out of debt as a Nation and out of debt to Europe as
individuals, companies, or States.
Such are the outlines of a policy which commends itself to my understanding as honest, beneficent, conducive to National solvency, and truly American.
I believe that it will take us gradually and surely back
to Specie Payments; but I do not imagine that it would
restore us the low prices of forty, of twenty, nor even of
ten years ago. The enormous production since 1848
of Gold and Silver in California, Australia, and elsewhere, has permanently increased the volume of the
world's currency, and thus enhanced the money price of
almost every description of property: blot all paper
P
241
I I 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
money out of existence, and still prices would usually
range higher than they were twenty years ago. But we
have lately incurred a great Debt, involving heavy taxation; and such a Debt of itself strongly tends to enhanced prices, as Great Britain, Holland, and (more
recently) France, amply attest. The general range of
prices is and must be higher in a country largely indebted and heavily taxed than in that same or any similar country which owes but little or nothing, and is
taxed accordingly. Destroy all the specie that has been
mined or worked out since 1848, close up the mines, and
still prices would be higher with us than they were prior
to our late Civil War.
Yet the habits and inmpulses of a people are not easily
modified, while they are rarely and with great difficulty
transformed. The fact that three-fourths of us would
incur debt if any one stood ready to lend, and, if already
in debt, would like to plunge in still deeper, is the fundamental difficulty of our financial position. The poor
man would like to buy a farm or start a shop or store on
credit; if he has already a place whereon to stand, he
wants a better house, or a new barn, or a convenient
wood-lot, or some more efficient machinery,- in short,
he wants to incur debt; and he may sometimes effect
this by paying for his new purchase and letting his account at the store run on; but all comes to one end
more debt in the country, and more debt from this
country to Europe. Whenever we make a new railroad
or erect a factory or furnace, we look around to see
where the money can be borrowed on mortgage to pay
for the materials at least, and as much more as possible.
And, so long as this shall be the case, we shall make
poor headway in paying off debt, public or private. Our
prevalent, overruling tendency pulls in the opposite direction.
242
0 
OUR NATIONAL DEBT.
The practical remedy lies not in vain attempts to stop
the construction of railroads, the erection of buildings,
the opening of mines, the multiplication of factories, the
improvement of farmns. All these must and will go on,
unless we madly arrest them by breaking down the Protection of our imperiled Industry. Progress is the law
of our National life; arrest it, and the weight of our
public burdens will crush either our solvency or our
National integrity.  And, to my mind, while the dissolution of our Union, through the triumphant est,blishmnent and recognition of the Southern Confederacy, would
have been a National misfortune, the Repudiation of our
National Debt would be a still greater and more  deplorable calamity. Any true father would much prefer
that his son should become a needy bankrupt rather
than a rich villain: so I would regard the failure to pay
our Public Debt, promptly and fully, as beyond comparison more disastrous than a division of our country.
We must crush Repudiation as we have discomfited
Secession. We must stop the increase of our European
as we  ilave already stopped the total increase of our
National Debt; we must begin to reduce and pay off the
former as we have already begun to reduce and pay off
the latter. We must do this, not by ceasing to construct and repair and improve, but by more fully employing our Labor in downright Production and by
extending and rendering more efficient our National Industry.  We must grow more Grain, Grass, Vegetables,
and Fruits: we must extend our Manufacturing and
Mechanical Industry in order to furnish ample Home
Markets for the thus augmented produce of our farmers.
Take ten thousand people who live from hand to mouth
by occasional fishing or hunting, doing odd jobs of work
for others, having a cow per family running in the road
and a pig picking up a living as he may, with a patch
243 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
of poor garden by every other shanty, and gather these
same ten thousand into a manufacturing village, set
them steadily at work, and now they will purchase and
use twice as much food, clothing, furniture, &c., as they
did or could before. Thus, every new furnace or factory
built or old one started up, insures a large addition not
merely to the National production and wealth, but to
its consumption as well.
And this good work is now rapidly proceeding.  There
is hardly an old furnace in the Union that has not increased its capacity and its product within the last year:
while hundreds of new ones have been constructed and
set to work, or are now in process of construction, in the
South, in the West, and in almost every quarter of the
Union. Missouri now supplies Pig Iron to Pittsburg,
and is rapidly increasing her production; Tennessee, old
Virginia, West Virginia, and North Carolina, have put
several new furnaces into blast, and are preparing to increase the number; Pennsylvanians have just been buying Iron mines not only in these States, but even so far
South as Alabama; Oregon has been supplying the San
Francisco market with Charcoal Pig of a good quality;
while Illinois (a recent beginner) is making largely at
Chicago, and Indiana is putting up great furnaces at her
capital as well as near Greencastle, and boasts the possession of thousands of square miles of Coal better
adapted to Iron-making than any other in the known
world. She confidently counts on making Iron at once
cheaper and better than the best that Pennsylvania can
exhibit; and, while her sanguine expectations will probably be sobered by experience, her effort will doubtless
exert a wholesome influence on the Nation's prosperity
and on her own political sanity.1 If a thousand new
1 The last effort to render the Tariff more efficiently Protective received no single vote firom Indiana in either House.
244 
OUR NATIONAL DEBT.
furnaces and factories, giving employment, directly or indirectly, to Half a Million persons, were to be put in
operation within the next three years, while Three or
Four Hundred Millions would thereby be added to our
annual product of Metals and Fabrics, I am confident
that our Agricultural Produce would be increased rather
than diminished in consequence, - that more hands
would be incited to grow Vegetables and Fruits for the
new manufacturers than would be withdrawn from graingrowing and cotton-raising; and that the sum total of
the product of those factories and furnaces would be a
clear addition to the wealth of our country and to the
elements of comfort enjoyed by the human race.
NOTE.- The fact that the planting of Manufactures in a
district or county uniformly and speedily induces an improved
system of Agriculture in that district, may be verified by any
observer who travels through our Middle or Southern States.
Throughout most of New England, a pervading sterility or
ruggedness renders thorough, effective cultivation difficult, if
not quite impossible. Half a dozen ridges of partially naked
granite, a dozen knolls or swells of mingled stones, pebbles,
and gravel, separated by narrow strips or belts of barely
arable soil from the wider bogs or marshes, across which lie
similar strips and ridges, almost defy the power of man to reduce these to spacious and facile fields whereon grain can be
profitably grown. The face of the country is too seamed and
patchy for any but a petty, garden-like cultivation. New
England has of course some rich, inviting glades and intervales; but, as a whole, her soil does not favor nor invite a
generous, scientific cultivation; and, in spite of her high prices
for food, most of her grain must henceforth be grown on other
fields than hers.  Farther south and west, however, the
planting of Manufactures in a district is inevitably and speedily followed by a manifest and palpable increase of Agricultural production and thrift on every side.
245 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
XVIII.
WHAT HAS BEEN ELUCIDATING WHAT
SHALL BE.
NOTHING can be truer than that the Future is mirrored in the Past, so that only a keen, clear, searching
vision, undistorted by prejudice, unclouded by prepossession, is needed to read aright its lessons and deduce
their moral. If Protection has hitherto impoverished
and weakened our country, then it will almost certainly,
if persisted in, do so hereafter. If our population, production and wealth, are now less than they would
have been had no impost ever been levied upon foreign
products at our frontiers with intent to encourage the
production of like articles on our own soil, or with the
effect of rendering such encouragement, then it were
irrational to expect such results from Protective legislation in the future. Tennyson aptly makes the sage and
thoughtful Ulysses say, in the ripe fulness of his eventful, observant career:     "I am a part of all that I have met;
Yet all experience is an arch wherethrough
Gleams that intravelled world, whose margin fades
Forever and forever when I move."
The Evening Post has fairly earned the position of
leading exponent and champion of Free Trade in the
New World. It has won that preeminence by courage,
consistency, and signal ability. It has never trimmed,
nor prevaricated, nor pretended that the difference between Protection and Free Trade is ideal or illusory, nor
has it permitted considerations of party expediency or
party success to affect its attitude or muffle its voice.
.246 
THE INFANCY OF PROTECTION.
The Post has an established character and an honorable
history; and, whatever its occasional errors of fact or
inference, I will not doubt that its course on this subject is impelled by conviction and guided by principle.
In its issue of August 27, The Post, discussing the
effect of our present Tariff on Wool and Woollens, forcibly says: -
"The author of the' Positive Philosophy' was the first
writer on modern science to give verification its true place in
scientific processes. He showed clearly that the test of every
conclusion in science is prediction; and that the claim of any
doctrine to a truly scientific character is its proportion to the
accuracy with which it enables those who understand it to
foretell the results under known  conditions.  Economical
science accepts the test as fully as Chemistry, and its processes, though never complicated, are, when complete, not a
whit less trustworthy."
Concurring fully in this averment, I propose to test
the soundness of The Post's Political Economy by copying from its columns the predictions from time to time
made by its editors of the deplorable consequences certain to result from our country's adhesion to the Protective policy, and contrast those doleful prophecies with
the cheering results actually realized.
Though Protection to Manufactures had been declared
in its preamble one of the purposes of the first Tariff
framed and passed under the Federal Constitution, and
though Protection had been incidentally regarded and
affirmed in nearly every modification of that Tariff, and
though the Tariff of 1816 was made undeniably and
stringently Protective in its duties on Cotton Fabrics
and on some manufactures of Iron, it was not till
1820-22 that a revision of the Tariff in the interest of
Protection alone was sought for, and not till 1824 that
a measure of unqualified Protection passed both Houses,
247 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
and, being approved by the President, became a law of
the land. The Evening Post, after insisting that manufacturers, alike with farmers, traders, and all other
classes, were interested in the defeat of this measure,
proceeded to say: 1
"Pass the Tariff, as reported by the Committee, and you
palsy the nation. Pass it, and where will you any longer
find occupants for your costly piles of stores and dwellinghouses? Pass it, and who will be exempt from its grinding
operation? The poorer classes especially must feel its effect
in paying an additional price for every article of clothing they
and their families wear, and every mouthful they eat or
drink, save cold water; and to that will they erelong be reduced. If nothing short of the general voice of the people
will satisfy Congress that they can not and will not submit to
this report, so pregnant with incalculable mischief, so mistaken and inconsiderate, let means be taken without delay to
procure it, and it will be given in a tone and manner that
will not be disregarded."
t was passed, in defiNation was not pal it had never grown
sor its costly piles of
gher rates than had
lasses" did not (unwater as a beverage;
of the people" from
Tariff of 1824 stood
28) by one decidedly
" tone and manner"
ant and conceited as
eople only laughed at
alling for the main
tenance and increase of Protection.
1 February 3, 1824.
248 
MR. COOPER AND C. C. CAMBRELENG.
Two propositions have ever proved stumbling-blocks to
economists of The Post's school: 1. That the producers
of Wares or Fabrics may be benefited by Protection,
though its effect be to reduce rather than enhance the
price of their products; 2. That increased Protection
may secure increased revenue from Duties on Imports.
Dr. Cooper, then President of South Carolina College,
was then a leading pamphleteer against Protection, and
The Post 1 admiringly quoted him with commendations,2
as follows:  "But it is not against the merchant and agriculturist in those
specific capacities and characters that this monopoly makes war,
but it is against our national resources, against our revenue also.
Annihilate, however gradually, your custom-house duties, and
you must recur to direct taxation or to excise. I have no time
to dwell on the insuperable objections that lie against both
these measures in their details; but I would ask what finance
minister among us will be driven to the one of these execrated
resources or to the other? Let the manufacture-monopoly
speculators succeed, by hardihood of assertion and unbounded
promise, which they can give no pledge to perform, and I ask
where will you find a competent Secretary of the Treasury?
I say a competent one; for I am persuaded no man of good
sense will incur the difficulties and the responsibilities of that
situation under a system of direct taxation, and an army of
excise officers, unless from an extravagant love of power and
appointment."
To the same effect, The Post,' in printing the speech
of Mr. Churchill C. Cambreleng, then a Representative
of our City in the House, paraphrases and indorses his
views as follows: -
"Remember, it is stated by our able and faithful representative, whose speech is this evening republished, that it appears from Treasury documents that, if the purposes of the
Committee be accomplished and the dreaded measure adopted,
1 February 4, 1824.  t  2 February 3, 1824.    8 March 3, 1824.
---     11 *
249 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
a very considerable portion of the revenue connected with
manufactures, and amounting last year to upward of eight and a
half millions of dollars, will thereby be extinguished. But the
Treasury must nevertheless be supplied to the same amount
from some other source; and what remains for us but to resort to direct taxation? Are you, fellow-citizens, ready for
that?  Are you prepared for an impending evil like that?"
The Post was a faithful follower of its leader and
teacher. Mr. Cambreleng, in the speech simultaneously
published by it, had argued that the object of the bill
was Prohibition, -that it must have that effect or none,
save a needless and fruitless increase of the public bur
dens,-  and he proceeds:
"According to a statement which I have prepared from
Treasury documents, it appears that the manufactures designed to be protected by prohibitory duties yielded, in the
year ending September 30 last, a revenue of $ 7,337,256;
that other articles, partially manufactured, or forming raw materials for manufactures, yielded in the same year $ 913,969,
and that the agricultural articles yielded $ 278,736; making
altogether $ 8,529,961 of revenue.
"It is evident that, if the purposes of the Committee be
accomplished, a very considerable portion of the revenue must
be extinguished.  In any event, our revenue system will be
seriously injured by this measure."
At a City Meeting held to oppose the passage of the
Tariff, Mr. Gulian C. Verplanck,l set forth the objects
proposed, and submitted the resolves, which were unanimously adopted, with the heartfelt sympathy of The
Post. Here is the first of them: -
" Resolved, That it is evident that the measure will be
deeply injurious to the National Revenue, which, under the
operation of the existing Tariff, is collected through the Customs (nearly one-half at this port alone), at a very small expense, and with great punctuality, yielding to the Govern
1 March 4, 1824.
IRA
250 
THE REVENUE SWELLED BY PROTECTION.   251
ment means amply adequate to the National Expenditure, to
maintain and gradually increase the Navy, sustain a sufficient
Army, and not only to discharge as it becomes due, but to
anticipate, the reimbursement of a large amount of the Public
Debt."
On no point were the Free-Traders of that day more
unanimous or more vociferous than on this,- that Protection to Home Industry must inevitably destroy or
greatly reduce our Revenue from Duties on Imports,
and compel a resort to Direct Taxation for the support
of the Federal Government. This was a catastrophe incessantly flashed before the eyes of the People, vexing
the souls of landholders and farmers with a prospect of
double taxes on their freeholds, rendering it impossible to sell or even give them away. And yet the receipts from Imports (as I have already shown) were
$86,357,852 in the four years following 1824, against
$ 64,688,254 for the four years preceding,- a net increase of more than Twenty Millions of Dollars under
the Tariff which, according to The Post and its coworkers, could not fail greatly to diminish the Revenue from
Imports and compel a resort to Direct Taxes!
In 1828 the Tariff was still further increased, and
rendered still more Protective, in defiance of the diatribes and doleful prophecies of The Post and its confederates; yet the Revenue from Imports was still further
swelled, during the ensuing four years, to $ 97,294,036,
-  over Thirty-two Milions' excess over the four years
preceding The Post's and Messrs. Cambreleng and Verplanck's positive assertions that Protection would dry up
our Revenue from Customs and compel a resort to Direct
Taxation!
The passage of this Tariff was a direct consequence
of the satisfaction with which the great mass of our
people regarded the operation and effects of the Tariff 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
of 1824. They had tried a measure of moderate but
unequivocal Protection, and they felt that it had redounded to their signal advantage and benefit. Labor
was in more general demand and commanded better
wages than prior to 1824; embryo Patersons and Lowells were springing into existence and activity in different sections, and affording to the farmers convenient
and eager markets for Fruits, Vegetables, Fuel, &c., &c.,
which would not bear transportation to distant seaports,
much less to Europe; prosperity and thrift were generally replacing the National collapse and bankruptcy
which everywhere followed the enormous importations
of 1815 - 16; in short, the country felt that Protection
had drawn it nearly out of a deep slough, and was inclined to double the team. Hence the Tariff of 1828,
for which there was no pretext of inadequate Revenue
or unsatisfactory Finances. Its object, avowedly and
palpably, was Protection alone.
The Post, originally Federal, was now a Democratic
organ: that is, it supported General Jackson for President, and the partyvin this State whereof Martin Van
Buren was the chief. He had recently made at Albany
a speech on the Tariff question which did not clearly
define his position; but, when the question came to an
issue in the Senate, he cast his vote for the bill, as did
his devoted adherents,   Michael Hoffman, Jonas Earll,
Silas Wright, Selah R. Hobbie, John Magee, and others,
in the House, where the State of New York gave 27
votes for to 5 against the bill. Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky -each about to vote for General
Jackson as President -gave their every vote for the
bill; the Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, and
Tennessee, their every vote in the House against it.
Massachusetts, Maine, and New Hampshire went against
the bill; Vermont and Connecticut for it. The bill
252 
LAMENTATIONS OVER THE TARIFF.
passed the House by 105 Yeas to 94 Nays, and the Senate by 26 Yeas to 21 Nays. Most of the supporters of
Mr. Adams's Administration voted for the bill, with a
majority of the Jackson Democrats from the Free States;
the Slave States voted pretty solidly against it, though
among the votes in the Senate for the bill were those of
Thomas H. Benton, of Missouri, Richard M. Johnson,
of Kentucky, and John H. Eaton, of Tennessee.
When the news that this Tariff had passed reached
Charleston, S. C., the British vessels in port displayed
their flags at half-mast, an indecent interference with
the legislation of an independent country which was rebuked even by The Post. At Portland, Maine (as The
Post quotes from The Eastern Argus), "the bells were
tolled; the flags of the shipping were put half-mast
high; and processions were formed and marched through
the town of persons whose daily bread is earned by the
occupations of Commerce, followed by emblems of suspended industry and decaying trade," -demonstrations
which The Argus seeks to use to the prejudice of Mr.
Adams's reelection, but declares "not confined to any
political party, nor did they have their origin in party
considerations. They sprung from a sense of the deep
and, it may be feared, lasting injury inflicted upon this
town, and this part of the country."
The Post fought this bill, both before and after its
passage, with characteristic vehemence. It quotes 1 with
approbation, from The New Haven Herald, a prophetic
declaration that -
To the shipping and commercial interests of New England, -and especially to those of Maine, Massachusetts, and
Connecticut,- it is nearly an act of annihilation, which paralyzes industry, destroys revenue," &c., &c.
" As was justly remarked by a gentleman from Maryland,
1 May 21, 1828.
253 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
'The recklessness with which this law proposes to scuttle ships
is only surpassed by the ferocity with which it resolves to
slaughter sheep.'   Already was every bolt, rope, and nail,
used in ship-building, taxed to the utmost farthing that Commerce could bear; and yet they have gone on inventing new
sources of imposition."
The Post, commenting on the above, says: -
" New England had the benefit of the Tariff of 1824; and
it is proper that she should bear the burdens of the Tariff of
1828. Our City, however, bears the burdens of both, without
sharing the benefits of either.....   The following words
were seen yesterday chalked upon the walls of our Custom
House in large letters,- the work, probably, of some antiTariff wag:' Thlis House to let. Inquire at WVashington.'"
The Post asserts 1 that the bill, as reported, "with
respect to many articles, is equivalent to a non-importatiol act"; and again 2:_
"For our own part, we look upon the bill as a great piece
of absurdity; but it at least has the merit of being consistent
with itself and of carrying fearlessly into practice the doctrines in favor of which the manufacturers have attempted to
produce so much excitement. If we must be loaded with
the Tariff system, we prefer to take the whole at once, instead of being saddled with its burdens one after another. If
the whole extent of this evil is felt at once, it will be shaken
off the sooner by the nation, than if we are accustomed to it
gradually."
The Post,8 announcing the passage of the bill to a
third reading in the Senate, regards its'impulse as political (in view of the Presidential election then pending),
and adds: -
"It is a melancholy commentary upon the public virtue of
our legislators that, under these circumstances, they should
not have yielded to what must have been the convictions of
their own consciences and understandings, and boldly put a
2 February 13.      8 March 15.
254
1 February 4, 1828. 
THE EVENING POST ON THE TARIFF OF 1828.  255
decided negative on a bill which must so fatally cripple our
commerce, and bring ruin upon so many individuals now pursuing their occupations under that pledge, which results from
the nature of a free government, that their rights shall not be
sacrificed for the emolument of others."
The bill at length passed,' and The Post, in a leading
article thus forecast what it believed must be the consequences of the measure:
"The Tariff bill, as amended by the Senate and published
in The  Evening Post, on Friday last, has now  passed the
House of Representatives, and ere this has probably received
the signature of the President, and become a law of the land.
It remains for us to witness its practical effects upon the commerce and revenue of the country, - to see how much Agriculture will be promoted by it,- whether the farmer will be
enabled to sell his crops of wheat for more money, and
whether he will not be obliged to pay a larger advance upon
every article of woollen clothing he purchases, either to the
importer or the manufacturer.  Already, the prices of woollen
goods have advanced in the market by an amount more than
equal to the additional duties, which on some descriptions are
upward of a hundred per cent. We know very well how
difficult it is to predict with certainty what will be the operation of any bill for the protection, as it is called, of any article produced in our own country. We hesitate not to say,
however, that the present Tariff act, deeply as it must injure
the fair and regular commerce- of our country, will not be attended with those advantages to the manufacturers which they
expect. Take the case of woollens,- suppose the operation
of the new duties to raise, as was the intention of the makers
of the act, the price to the consumer. The effect of this will
be to increase the temptation to illegal trade, and the goods
will be introduced without duties. This is an element of the
calculation which the friends of the manufacturers have
scarcely taken into account, and which it is evident will make
an immense  difference in the result.  The improvements
which have been recently introduced into the manufacture of
1 March 19, 1828. 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
woollens in Great Britain have surprisingly lessened the cost
of fabrication, so that the prices of these goods in the English market ten years ago furnish no criterion whatever for
judging of their present prices. Here, then, is an article so
cheap in Great Britain, and so expensive at home, as amply
to compensate all the risk which the smuggler may incur in
bringing it into this country, with the aid of the advantages
afforded by our immense sea-coast and long inland frontier.
There never has been any lack of enterprise of this sort either
in this country or in any other, where the inducements held
out are sufficient, - and this bill, we repeat, offers a most
splendid temptation to the smuggler. Our country cannot
enforce the prohibitory system.  In order to do it, it would
be necessary to maintain on our frontier an army of customhouse officers, clerks, spies, and runners, large enough, were
they soldiers, to conquer the British American provinces.
The consequence will be, that the law will be evaded, and the
country will be filled with goods smuggled across the Northern
and Northeastern boundary. Whatever may be thought of
the morality of smuggling, it is certain that conscientious
scruples on this point are never prevalent where much is to
be gained by it.  There are persons enough engaged in commerce who can make the distinction between what is malum
prohibitum and what is- malume in se, with as much acuteness
and nicety as the most experienced barrister, and who look
upon the breach of a revenue law as a very different thing
from a breach of the Ten Commandments.   Nor is there any
lack of ingenuity or activity to carry enterprises of this kind
into effect. We shall probably have factories established
along our inland frontier in which American cloths will be
manufactured with a magical facility and cheapness and excellence of finish, and from whose prolific looms they will be
distributed all over the Union.  Quebec, Montreal, and other
ports of the British colonies, will become the centre of the
woollen trade which has been diverted from New York and
the other ports of the United States; the fair trader will be
ruined, and the smuggler encouraged and enriched.
"In this state of things, what will become of the manufacturer? We may expect similar consequences from the law
256 
WHOLESALE SMUGGLING ANTICIPATED.   257
of 1828 to that which followed the law of 1824. The supposed advantages offered by the bill will induce multitudes to
invest their capital in the woollen manufacture; the competition will be too great for the business; and in two years we
shall hear the same cry of embarrassment, distress, and ruin,
that we began to hear two years ago. But the competition
which the manufacturer will have to encounter will not be
confined to those of his own occupation. There is another
kind of competition which will never decline of itself, and
against which Government cannot protect him, - the competition of the smuggler.
" To show what a munificent temptation the new act holds
out to the practice of smuggling, a mercantile friend has made
a computation, by which it appears that, upon its going
into effect, the saving on two suits of broadcloth made at
Montreal would be sufficient to defray the expenses of a
journey from New York to that city.
" In the mean time, as the bill is to go into operation on
the 30th of June, great injustice will be done in the case of
vessels with cargoes of woollen goods purchased before the
passage of the act, or before receiving news of its passage,
and which may arrive after the 30th of June. The act contains no clause remitting the new duties on such cargoes, or
giving the Secretary of the Treasury any discretion to remit
them. The cargoes, having been purchased under the idea
of paying a different set of duties from those now imposed,
cannot be imported here without a ruinous sacrifice to the
owners. They must, therefore, be sent at great loss to the
ports of some other country. Several cargoes, we understand, have been purchased under these circumstances on account of New York owners, and which it is thought will not
arrive until after the law takes effect."
"Thus do the legislators of the nation violate those rights
of property which the letter of the Constitution professes
sacredly to protect. Men are driven by force of law from
their regular occupations, undertaken upon the faith of existing laws, and a shock has been given to all regular business
which will be felt throughout the nation. It is difficult to
describe the indignation which this rash, impolitic, and pernicious measure has excited in this community. While we 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
Write this, we are informed that the colors of the shipping in
this port are displayed at half-mast, in token of mourning for
this act of national folly.
" It is but a few years since, that a public meeting of the
inhabitants of New York was called to afford relief to the
wretched and starving manufacturers of Great Britain. The
framers of our laws are now endeavoring to transplant into
the United States the very system from which arose the evils
that then so loudly called for sympathy."
Here it will be seen that The Post, while affirming the
futility of prediction in general, does yet confidently
affirm several important and deplorable consequences as
certain to result from the enactment of the Tariff of
1828, in addition to the general prostration of Commerce and diminution of Revenue  on which it had
already so often insisted; viz.  -
1. The importation especially of Woollens would pass
almost entirely out of the hands of duty-paying merchants into those of duty-evading smugglers, who would
establish sham factories along the Canada frontier, and
produce goods with magical facility.
2. Our manufacturers, thus disappointed in their
hopes of advantage from the Tariff, would, within two
years, be clamorous for a further increase of duties.
3. A sudden and vast increase of our manufacturing
investments and enterprises was inevitable, which would
soon afflict us with a "wretched and starving" multitude of would-be operatives, living from hand to mouth,
often on the meagre dole of public charity.
Now, we have already seen that our Revenue from
Imports, which had shown an increase of Twenty Millions in the four years following the adoption of the
Tariff of 1824, as compared with the four years preceding, was still farthier increased some Eleven Millions in
the four years following the passage of the Tariff of
1828, in which the aggregate exceeded that of any pre
258 
OUR FOREIGN COMMERCE.
ceding four years, if we except 1816, wherein our country was so disastrously flooded with foreign products to
fill the vacuum induced by our War with Great Britain,
during which our coast was in good part blockaded and
our foreign trade nearly arrested. I have also shown
that our ship-building, instead of having been prostrated
by this or the preceding Tariff, was actually increased
under their sway.   I propose now  to show how our
legitimate Foreign Commerce was affected by these enactments, by citing the officially reported totals of Exports
and Imports prior to and under those Tariffs respectively:
Total Exports.
$87,671,569
93,281,133
70,142,521
69,691,669
64,974,382
72,1603281
74,699,030
75,986,657
99,535,388
77,595,322
82,324,827
72,264,686
72,358,671
73,849,508
81,310,583
87,176,943
No returns, within my knowledge, of the declared
value of Woollen Fabrics imported in those years are extant; but, as our Imports from Great Britain were (and
are) mainly of Metals, Wares, and Fabrics, whereof the
home production is protected by the Tariffs of 1824 and
1828, I compile1 the following aggregates of our Im
1 From Pitkins's Statistical View; edition of 1885; p. 266- 290.
259
U. S. Tonnage.
1,399,912
1,225,185
1,260,751
1,280,167
1,298,958
1,324,699
1,336,566
1,389,163
1,423,112
1,534,191
1,620,608
1,741,392
1,260,798
1,191,776
1,267,847
1,439,450
Total Imports.
$ 99,250,000
121,750,000
87,125,000
74,450,000
62,585,724
83,241,541
77,579,267
80,549,007
96,340,075
84,974,477
79,484,068
88,509,824
74,492,527
70,876,920
103,191,124
101,029,266 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
ports of the products of England and Scotland for these
years, so far as I can find them:
Years.        Declared Value.    Years.          Declared Value.
1821..  $24,400,954          1828...  $ 32,100,169
1822...  33,900,263         1829... 24,916,978
1823... 27,387,403         1830...  24,137,881
1824... 27,656,442           1831... 43,832,153
1825...36,100,974          1832...  36,429,374
1826...  25,458,975         1833... 37,693,544
1827... 29,736,984
It will be noted that the Wares and Fabrics smuggled
in through Canada or otherwise are not included in this
exhibit.
Now, it is well known that I do not measure the
growth or thrift of a people by the volume of its tonnage or of its foreign trade. If all our Grain were
regularly shipped to England, there ground and baked
into bread, whereof two-thirds were returned for our use,
we should have more ships and more foreign commerce
than now, involving a large increase of our Exports and
Imports, but a diminution of our independence, comfort,
prosperity, and wealth. I do not hold that Protection
immediately increased either our Tonnage or our Foreign
Trade, as I am confident it did increase our Industry,
our Revenue, and our Wealth. But I cite the official
returns above to contrast them with the doleful prophecies of The Evening Post. Of course, whatever foreign
goods were smuggled in across our Canada or any other
frontier do not figure in our official totals of annual Imports, nor did the bulk of them give employment to
Alnerican vessels; while it is probable that there was
some harder swearing at our Custom-Houses to evade the
enhanced duties of 1824 and 1828 than there had been
under the lower rates prescribed in 1816; and this tells
in favor of The Post and its prophecies; but it cannot
260 
MR. CLAY ON THE EFFECTS OF PROTECTION.   261
save them.  Our foreign fabrics were not mainly smuggled in across our frontier under the Tariff of 1828.
Our Northern border was not dotted with sham factories,
established to cloak the operations of smugglers by pretending to fabricate the goods those model Free-Traders
juggled across the boundary; our manufacturers were
not desperate and clamorous for more Protection in 1830;
and our country was not cursed with a wretched and
starving populace by reason of the Tariff of 1828. In
short, there is not a single point on which the results
of that measure were not in glaring contrast with The
Post's confident and dolorous predictions.
In 1832 the Tariff was slightly modified adversely to
Protection, when Mr. Clay, addressing the Senate, truthfully and forcibly said -
"Eight years ago it was my painful duty to present to the
other House of Congress an unexaggerated picture of the
general distress pervading the whole land. We must all yet
remember some of its frightful features.  We all know that
the people were then oppressed and borne down by an enormous load of debt; that the value of property was at the
lowest point of depression; that ruinous sales and sacrifices
were everywhere made of real estate; that stop-laws, and
relief laws, and paper money, were adopted to save the people from impending destruction; that a deficit in the public
revenue existed, which compelled Government to seize upon,
and divert from its legitimate object, the appropriations to the
sinking fund to redeem the national debt; and that our commerce and navigation were threatened with a complete paralysis. In short, Sir, if I were to select any term of seven
years since the adoption of the present Constitution which exhibited a scene of the most wide-spread dismay and desolation,
it would be exactly that term of seven years which immediately
preceded the establishment of the Tariff of 1824.
"I have now to perform the more pleasing task of exhibiting an imperfect sketch of the existing state of the unparalleled prosperity of the country. On a general survey, we 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
behold cultivation extended, the arts flourishing, the face of
the country improved, our people fully and profitably employed, and the public countenance exhibiting tranquillity,
contentment, and happiness. And, if we descend into particulars, we have the agreeable contemplation of a people out
of debt; land rising slowly in value, but in a secure and salutary degree; a ready though not extravagant market for all
the surplus productions of our industry; innumerable flocks
and herds browsing and gambolling on ten thousand hills and
plains covered with rich and verdant grasses; our cities expanded, and whole villages springing up, as it were, by enchantment; our tonnage, foreign and coastwise, swelling and
fully occupied; the rivers of our interior animated by the
perpetual thunder and lightning of countless steamboats; the
currency sound and abundant.; the public debt of two wars
nearly redeemed; and, to crown all, the public treasury overflowing, embarrassing Congress not to find subjects of taxation, but to select the objects which shall be liberated from
the impost. If the term of seven years were to be selected, of
the greatest prosperity which this people have enjoyed since the
establishment of their present Constitution, it would be exactly
that period of seven years which immediately followed the passage of the Tari of 1824.
"This transformation of the condition of the country from
gloom and distress to brightness and prosperity has been
mainly the work of American legislation fostering American
industry, instead of allowing it to be controlled by foreign legislation,'cherishing foreign industry. The foes of the American
System, in 1824, with great boldness and confidence, predicted, first, the ruin of the public revenue, and the creation
of a necessity to resort to direct taxation; the gentleman
from South Carolina [General Hayne], I believe, thought that
the Tariff of 1824 would operate a reduction of the revenue
to the large amount of eight millions of dollars; secondly,
the destruction of our navigation; thirdly, the desolation of
commercial cities; and fourthly, the augmentation of the price
of objects of consumption, and a further decline in that of the
articles of our exports. Every prediction which they made
has failed. utterly failed.  Instead of the r?in of the public
262 
GROWTH OF NEW YORK UNDER PROTECTION. 263
revenue with which they then sought to deter us from the adoption of the American system, we are now threatened with its
subversion by the vast amount of the public revenue produced
by that system. As to the desolation of our cities, let us take,
as an example, the condition of the largest and most commercial of all of them, the great northern capital. I have, in my
hands, the assessed value of real estate in the City of New
York, from 1817 to 1831. This value is canvassed, contested,
scrutinized, and adjudged, by thle proper sworn authorities.
It is, therefore, entitled to full credence. During the first
term, commencing with 1817 and ending in the year of the
passage of the Tariff of 1824, the amount of the value of real
estate was, the first year, $ 57,790,435, and after various
fluctuations in the intermediate period, it settled down at
$ 52,019,730, exhibiting adecrease in seven years of $ 5,7 79,705.
During the first year of 1825, after the passage of that Tarilff,
it rose, and, gradually ascending throughout the whole of the
latter period of seven years, it finally, in 1831, reached the
astonishing height of $ 95,716,485! Now, if it be said that
this rapid growth of the City of New York was the effect of
foreign commerce, then it was not correctly predicted, in
1824, that the Tariff would destroy foreign commerce and
desolate our commercial cities. If, on the contrary, it be the
effect of internal trade, then internal trade cannot be justly
chargeable with the evil consequences imputed to it. The
truth is, it is the joint effect of both principles: the domestic
industry Nourishing the foreign trade, and the foreign commerce
in turn nourishinSg the domestic industry.   Nowhere more
than in New York is the combination of both principles so
completely developed."
The Post, having been recently transformed, from a
life-long, imbittered adversary, into an admiring eulogist
of Mr. Clay, and having claimed him as a convert, about
1832, to its Economic views, I submit the above testimony to the magical beneficence of the Tariffs of 1824
and 1828, in the assurance that neither its pertinence
nor its cogency can well be gainsaid. 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
XIX.
TAXATION, DIRECT AND INDIRECT.
DIRECT Taxation has been defined as that which must
be borne by him who immediately pays it; while that
which he may charge over upon others is distinguished 1
as indirect. Thus, Duties on Imports are regarded as
indirect, because most articles imported are imported for
sale, and but a small proportion -probably not more
1 M. Thiers, in his terse, vigorous essay on "The Rights of Property; in Refutation of Communism and Socialism," says:  " We  may imagine another kind of tax, which, laying hold of all
articles of consumption on their passage, such as food, clothing, articles of luxury, and raw material, is thus confounded with and added
to the price of the articles. This tax, called indirect, to distinguish it
from the other, has a very great advantage over it, - it is that of taking
its proper place by adding itself to the price of produce, of which the
tax should evidently form a part; for, as the expense of insurance
against shipwreck should be included in the price of sea-borne merchandise, so the cost of its social protection ought to become an integra) part of the price of these productions. Hence it follows that the
tax, being confounded with the price of the goods in the market, is
paid successively, insensibly, by slow degrees; so that the tax-payer,
who generally has little foresight is not obliged to think of thle taxgatherer as he thinks of his landlord, and it happens that, while paying
his daily expenses, he pays at the same time his share of the public
charges. Moreover, the tax is voluntary on his part; for he can retrench his expenditure if he thinks he cannot meet it, and then he pays
only what taxes he pleases, and in proportion to the enjoyment in
which he indulges. This tax is the most equitable also; for the rich
man, who consumes more of the social productions, pays a greater
share of their cost of protection; and he who, from prudence, economy, or poverty, abstains from them, is relieved from paying a part of
the public expense, in proportion to his abstinence. This indirect tax
is therefore insensible, infinitely divided, prudent for the payer who
is not so, and in general more just."
264 
0
TAXATION, DIRECT AND INDIRECT.
than one per cent.   are bought abroad by those who
are to use or consume them in the country to which
they are sent. On the other hand, not only a poll-tax
and an income-tax, but any tax on lands or other fixed
property, is held to be direct, because the owner of lands
or houses cannot add the tax to the price of the property
in selling it; indeed, the buyer, in estimating the value
of the property, is quite at liberty to treat the tax as an
encumbrance or quit-rent, and deduct it from the rental
or income in estimating the value of the estate and fixing the price he will pay for it. I conform to the popular distinction without here inquiring into its justice.
It has been very generally assumed that Direct Taxes
are preferable to Indirect, in that they are more sensibly
felt by the public, and thus induce a more vigilant scrutiny of appropriations, expenditures, and schemes involving the use or investment of public money. Superficially regarded, the truth of this proposition may seem
self-evident. I, however, accustomed to scrutinize specious generalizations and look smooth plausibilities square
in the face, challenge its correctness, and submit a summary of facts bearing thereon, which are quite within
the scope of current popular observation.
The City of New York is (I think) as corruptly, prodigally ruled as any other twenty square miles of the earth's
surface; or, if there be an exception, it is presented by
her gig    antic suburb, Brooklyn.   Yet nearly every dollar
of the Twenty-odd Millions annually drawn from her
treasury, mainly for Municipal uses, is derived from her
citizens by what is distinguished as Direct Taxation,- a
mere shred of the vast aggregate being obtained from
licenses, market-stands, &c., &e. The personal property
of non-residents may possibly supply a tenth of the
total, though I judge that a twentieth would be nearer
the         truth; the residue is taxed upon lands and stric
12
265 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
tures at the rate of $ 50 to $ 4,000 per lot of 25 feet by
100, with the buildings, building, or part of a building,
standing thereon. And, as nearly all of us sleep under
some sort of roof,- at all events, sink to rest on some
sort of lot, -this mode of taxation would seem not
only direct but all-embracing. And, as all adult male
citizens are legal voters, a few thousand negroes excepted,
Direct Taxation ought here to exhibit its natural fruits.
But, when we look a little closer into the matter, we
find that our City has not less than One Hundred and
Twenty-five Thousanld Legal Voters (to say nothing of
the Illegal), of whose names less than one-fifth appear
upon her tax-lists. If the vast majority are made to
bear the burden of Municipal prodigality, it reaches them
so circuitously and unobservedly, in the shape of increased rents and enhanced charges for board and lodging, that they fail to trace the effect to this particular
cause. Nay, such of them as are sharp enough to look
into the subject at all perceive that, while Rent and
Board are apt to advance far oftener than they react,
there is no necessary, or, at all events, no immediate, connection between the increase of our Municipal burdens
and the inevitable cost of living here: that taxes may
be enhanced this year, while rents rise the next, and vice
versa; so that the voter does not generally feel that adding
$ 50 per family to the cost of our City's government will
add $ 50, or even $ 5, to the necessary or probable cost
of sheltering and subsisting his family. On the other
hand, there are thousands who make themselves busy
and useful as Ward politicians to the dominant power
here who shrewdly calculate that, if some Millions more
are spent per annum in oiling and running the Municipal
machine, there will be chances for such as they to receive somewhat of the greasy dripping. Hence, in several of our Wards, mainly owned by non-residents and
0
266 
TAXATION, DIRECT AND INDIRECT.
peopled by poor and unthrifty tenants, I firmly believe
that a candidate for Alderman known to belong to the
Municipal " Ring," and to favor "big things " in the way
of street-opening, grading, paving, &c., &c-, especially if
understood further to be liberal to "the boys," and ready
to give and take, would run better, and be more certain
of election, than one of identical politics but of old-fashioned notions of public economy and official responsibility.                            -
All this, you say, only proves that what is called Direct
Taxation is misnamed.  Possibly, but does it not prove
much more than that. Does it not prove the distinction between Direct and Indirect Taxation illusory and
non-practical? An excise or octroi duty of fifty cents
per polund on Tobacco would come straight home to the
business and bosoms of seven-eighths of our voters,
would incite them to look sharply about them to see
why that tax was imposed, and by what means it may be
abated; whereas an additional tax of $50 per house would
be regarded by most of them as an affair of the landlord's, in which they had but a remote if not purely ideal
or sentimental concern.  If, then, the current discrimination of Direct from Indirect Taxes be correct, I maintain that those termed Indirect are most likely to be
felt, scrutinized, and criticised, by the great body of our
people.
Of late, some speculative economists have favored what
is called Progressive Taxation,- that is, an exaction of
one mill per $ 100 from all whose taxable property is valued at less than $1,000; two mills per $100 from those
who have over $1,000, but less than $5,000; three
mills from those who have over $ 5,000, but less than
$ 10,000; four mills per $ 100 from those who have over
$. 10,000, but less than $ 20,000; and so on, until he
who has $1,000,000 shall be required to pay two or
267 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
three per cent., and he who has $10,000,000 or over a
still higher rate. Incidentally, such a system of taxation might prove beneficent, by inducing great capitalists
to divide much of their property among their natural
heirs without awaiting the intervention of death. Another inevitable effect - that of inducing a majority of
the legal voters to authorize large expenditures for public enterprises of questionable profit - I could not regard with complacency. Already, the rule 1 that Property must pay for all has been pushed beyond its proper
limitations. In our late Civil War, the old-fashioned
conception that a citizen owes as a citizen a duty to his
country, was very generally repudiated. Individuals -
very many of them -volunteered as a dictate, not of
choice, but of duty, and many a mother sent her only
1 M. Thiers deals with the proposition that all taxes should be levied
upon Property, none upon Labor, thus conclusively:  "Taxation must, therefore, be proportionate to each one's means;
and by means we must understand not only what each man earns, but
what he possesses. Thus the individual, protected in his labor by him
who mounts guard, or judges, or governs, is protected not only in his
personal labor, but in the accumulated labor of his parents, converted
into land, houses, or furniture. All that represents, say an income of
ten, twenty, or a hundred francs a day. This is preserved for him;
and he must pay some remuneration for the protection of wealth previously acquired as well as for that acquired every day. Taxation,
then, must be according to the income from his wealth, whether
bequeathed or acquired. This is what is meant by the proportionality of taxation.
"But, in like manner, as you owve one part of the tax for the property you possess and the social protection guaranteed to you, so you
owe another for your labor in proportion to the profits of that labor.
Any plan for exempting labor would be as unreasonable as exempting
property. All that is placed under the social protection owes a proportionate return. If you save me daily ten francs of my income, or
ten francs of my wages, I owe you a remuneration in proportion to
those ten francs. The principle, as in an insurance company, is to pay
the tax in proportion to the value guaranteed, whatever may be the
nature of that value. The argument which some might endeavor to
oppose to this truth would be, that property is wealth and labor poverty; and in that case there would be an apparent reason founded on
the interest which poverty inspires. and the little favor inspired by
268 
TAXATION, DIRECT AND INDIRECT.
son to the battle-field when she would gladly have ransomed him from the service with all her worldly possessions. The great majority, however, of those perfectly
willing to fight, awaited the offer of liberal bounties before volunteering; virtually assuming that the duty of
upholding the Nation's integrity and authority devolved
on Property alone.
For some years, a lively fusillade of discussion has
been maintained in our party journals with regard to the
comparative facility of earning a livelihood now and ten
years ago, or prior to the signal changes in prices and
current values effected by our great Civil War. Many
facts have been aptly and forcibly adduced on either side,
as many more may and doubtless will be; but the great,
controlling consideration that our public burdens have
wealth. But the allegation is utterly false, and therefore the interest
unreasonably inspired perishes with the allegation.
"If there is a rich property, there is also a poor property; and, if
there is a poor labor, there is also a rich labor.  For instance: here is a
wretched peasant who, by toiling all his life, has acquired an acre of
land, which, by dint of labor, returns him two or three hundred francs;
and on it he lives to the close of his days. This is poor property, and
perhaps the most general.  Hele is an old servant and an aged clerk,
modestly ending their lives with an income formed by their savings.
That is also poor property, as general as the former. I will next adduce the case of a merchant, a barrister, a physician, or a banker,
earning their twenty, thirty, or a hundred thousand francs a year, and
sometimes a million. That is rich labor, and labor by no means rare,
except the last, which is seldom met with.  And you would tax him
whom the protection of society secures in the enjoyment of the three
or four hundred francs composing the maintenance of his old age, that
you may exempt him who is indebted to the same protection for the
means of earning ten, twenty, or a hundred thousand francs a year!
In taxing property and labor we look not more to wealth than to poverty. We look to both, because there is a poor property as well as a
rich labor. The observation of facts thus accords with justice in establishiug that every man is indebted to society, whatever it may be
that is gutranteed, -be it wealth acquired formerly, or wealth acquired
recently, be it old labor or new; that the tax should fall on every kind
of labor without exception for all are indebted to society for the means
of production, whatever may be their nature and origin." - The
Rights of Piroperty, &c., p. 229.
269 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
been enormously and inevitably augmented by the cost of
that War, does not seem to have received due emphasis
from either side. Over and above the patriotic contributions and services freely proffered and the taxes paid during the War, the Government and the loyal States, with
their several Counties, Cities, and Townships, incurred
debts in raising, equipping, paying, and subsisting, armed
forces to the extent of not less than Four Thousand Millions of Dollars. Of these, nearly or quite One Thousand
Millions have already been paid off from the proceeds of
one or another form of taxation, or at the rate of about
Two Hundred Millions per annum, while the interest on
the entire volume of indebtedness has averaged an equal
amount. He who supposes that this vast load can be
borne by Forty Millions of people without feeling it, or
that it could by possibility be wholly strapped to the
shoulders of a small part of their number, evinces but a
shallow acquaintance with the nature and laws of taxation. Had the poorer three-fifths of our voters been
firmly combined in a determined effort to fasten the entire load on the more wealthy two-fifths, I believe success in their effort absolutely unattainable, unless by
direct confiscation and spoliation, if even thus. A Government may stipulate that its bonds or other certificates
of indebtedness shall be exempt from taxation, and keep
faith with its creditors to the best of its ability; but
taxation in some form - Income, Excise, or Tariff — will
reach and toll property, however carefully screened.  To
offer a non-taxable bond is simply to collect the tax in
advance; and even that cannot protect from its re-imposition and re-collection in various unnoted ways. Nor do
I suppose that Labor can escape taxation, however earnest and able the efforts to screen it. Hence, without
deciding that it is or is not harder in the average to
earn a livelihood in this country to-day than it was be
270 
TAXATION, DIRECT AND INDIRECT.
fore Secession, I am confident that it is harder than it
would have been at this time had there interposed no
Secession and no destructive, exhausting Civil War.
Our modern Free-Traders are accustomed to reiterate
protestations of their acquiescence in the i:ightfulness
and good policy of raising revenue by means of a tariff
of duties on imports. In so doing, they placate hostility
at the expense of consistency.   For, if it be true, as
they assert, that a duty on imported wares or fabrics
raises arbitrarily, by the amount of its exaction, the cost
to consumers, not only of the articles imported under
such tariff, but of the domestic products which are sold
in competition therewith, then any tariff at all is an oppressive mistake and injustice. Suppose pig-iron to be
the article taxed, and its natural, legitimate price in this
port to be $ 25 (gold) per ton, at which importers and
domestic producers are alike doing fairly, under a systemrn of absolute free trade. But a tariff is imposed
for revenue purely, and a duty of $ 5 per ton imposed
thereby on imported pig iron. The price rises at once,
according to the Free Trade theory, to $ 30 or over; so
that the importer transfers the whole burden to the
consumer. But the home-made iron, which is twice or
thrice the amount imported, is also enhanced in price,
equally with the imported; and the $ 5 per ton thus
taken from the consumer's pocket is paid, not into the
Treasury, but into the pocket of the producer; being so
much unjustly taken from another and given him by the
force of law. Such is the Free-Traders' representation
of the necessary effect of their kind of tariff. It is not
mine.
The superiority I claim for taxation by Tariff or Duties on Imports over any and all modes of taxing commended as Direct, is this: Taxation by Tariff involves
and insures a compensating advantage to the great body
271 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
of our tax-payers, in that it strongly tends to encourage
the planting of new industries, the naturalization of new
departments of productive labor, on our soil, and the
consequent opening to hundreds of thousands of opportunities for earning a livelihood superior to, and more
acceptable than, any which they would else have enjoyed.
Our present taxes on foreign-made Sugar and Molasses
were imposed for revenue purely,- for no Sugar-making
Interest was potent in the National councils at the time,
- but its effect has none the less been to rapidly revive and generously recompense the Cane-Sugar culture
of Louisiana, beside invigorating the Maple Sugar and
Sorghum Syrup induistry of the North, largely increasing
its product, and giving encouragement to the spirited
efforts of a few sanguine farmers to transplant to our
soil a scion fronm  the thrifty Beet Sugar industry of
France and Germany. So our present high duty on imported Teas, rendered necessary by the heavy burdens
of War, and imposed  with an eye to Revenue purely,
without a thought of Protection, bids fair to incite and
cherish kindred attempts to naturalize the Tea-culture
on our Pacific coast and in the valleys of East Tennessee, of Cherokee Georgia, and the Carolinas. It is too
soon, as yet, to predict with confidence that these atternpts, or any of them, are destined to succeed, but not
too soon to Itope that such may be the case, and that
the lapse of a few years may witness the firm establishment and rapid expansion of Tea-culture in different
parts of our country, enlarging the demand for, and increasing the recompense of, Women's and  Children's
labor amnong uLs, while proffering them  an employment
adapted to their inferior strength and superior delicacy
of touch, increasing the aggregate productiveness of our
National Industry, and elevating the average condition
of our people.
272 
COOPERATION.
XX.
COOPERATION.
THOUGH I have already' considered and commended
Cooperation in Industry as the natural sequence or continuiation of the progress already made in superseding or
supplanting Slavery by Wages, the change meditated is
so important, and in my view so inevitable, while it' lies
directly on the way to the goal I contemplate, that I am
impelled to give it further elucidation. I shall not attempt to answer all conceivable objections nor silence
cavil, but simply to show what Cooperation is and purposes. I will consider it first with reference to Commerce or Distribution.
The present century has witnessed vast progress in
almost every department of material production. Today, far more land is ploughed, by a certain expenditure
or outlay of human effort, and ploughed better, than by
our grandfathers; a girl of fifteen, guiding a'span of
horses, can mow grass faster and better than five men
could cut it by hand; our steel ploughs, cultivators, reapers, horse-rakes, &c., &c., have combined to render farm
labor less rugged and exacting, while far more efficient,
more productive, than formerly. To say that an average
day's work produces twice the food or fibre and thrice
the cloth or ware that it did a century ago, would be to
keep quite within the truth.
But, while Production has thus been increased by the
invention or adoption of machinery which renders Labor
more effective, no corresponding improvement has been
1 See Essay VI.
12*
2"1'3
n 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
wrought in the usual machinery of Distribution. Traffic,
through all its multiform ramifications, is continually
sucking the life-blood of Industry.   The  machinery
whereby Vegetables and Fruits (for example) are collected from the farms and gardens of their producers,
and supplied to the consuming artisans and laborers in
the adjacent cities and villages, is nearly as rude and
quite as expensive as it was in the days of Homer or
of the elder Pharaohs. The fishermen by whose efforts
and exposure New York is supplied with the products
of the ocean receive but dimes for their "catch'? where
the consumers pay dollars; the berries from the Jersey
barrens, for which the pickers receive ten cents or less
per quart, are retailed to our citizens for thirty; the
turnips, for which the farmer of Westchester County
with difficulty finds a purchaser at a dollar per barrel,
are commonly sold by our hucksters at twenty-five cents
the half-peck, or at the rate of six to seven dollars per
barrel; and the apples which bring the farmer two dollars per barrel cost the city mechanic forty miles away
many times that sum. And so throughout the wide
range of perishable food.
I write in the fulness of a Peach-harvest of extraordinary abundance. Peaches were never before at once
so plentiful and so good. The growers throughout our
country (and they abound and flourish everywhere
south of latitude 40~ on our Atlantic and 49~ on our
Pacific coast) will hardly realize an average of twentyfive cents per bushel; while immense quantities must
be fed to animals or left to rot under the trees that bore
them. This City is a great, if not the greatest, emporium of the Peach-trade, and is not far from the great
Peach-orchards of New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland,
wherewith it is connected by many lines of steamboats,
railroads, &c. Yet, while the growers have been con
~274 
COOPERATION.
strained by their abundance to sell Peaches at a low
figure, and often at prices which left them nothing after
defraying the cost of transportation and marketing, the
consumers have paid for them an average of not less
than two dollars per bushel. So imperfect is yet the
machinery of distribution that, though the swine of the
producing farmers have eaten peaches to satiety, our
City's Laboring Poor could rarely afford to let their
children eat once their fill of good, sound ones. It
would seem that here is room  for improvement,  and
that the wisdom of the Nineteenth Century should be
equal to effecting it.
Mr. Parke Godwin, an eminent apostle of Free Trade,
in his ingenuous youth wrote1 thus pertinently and
forcibly:  "Commerce is designed to bring the producer and consumer
into relation; that is, if it has any object. But in itself it
produces nothing; it adds nothing to the commodities which
it circulates. It is obviously, then, for the general interest to
reduce commercial agents to the smallest number, and to
carry over the excess to some productive employment.
"J Il our societies, precisely the contrary takes place; the
agents of Commerce are multiplied beyond measure; designed
only to play a subordinate part, they have usurped the highest
rank; they absorb the largest portion of the common dividend, out of all manner of proportion to the services they
render; they hold the producer in a servile dependence; they
reduce to its lowest terms the wages of workmen; and they
extort from the consumer without mercy.
"Blind competition, so much boasted of by the political
economists, has largely contributed to the evil. Traffickers,
in consequence of it, give themselves up to a regular war
against each other;  and, in order that they may not be
beaten, they are ready to resort to any expedient.  They
lie, cheat,-and falsify products; they adulterate grains, meats,
1 A Popular View of the Doctrines of Charles Fourier.  Redfield:
New York, 1844.                                   -..
275 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
wines, and sugars; they would poison the community, if they
dared, as we have recently seen in one or two instances; and
they spoliate the public in a thousand modes, by exchange,
brokerage, usury, bankruptcy; in short, they deceive in every
way, and defraud at all seasons; yet commerce, in our corrupted societies, is the most certain way of arriving at fortune,
honor, and distinction.
" We speak here only of intermediate commerce, by which
we mean the commerce which consists in buying from one in
order to sell to another. The manufacturer and the mechanic
belong to the class of productive laborers, although their functions are often complicated with the character and vices of
commerce, strictly speaking.
"We know very well that Humanity must employ a portion of its force in the transportation of products, in order to
bring them within reach of the consumer. But it is evident
that it ought to devote to this task only the force that is
rigorously necessary; every expenditure of time or money,
beyond this minimum, being a real loss for society."
The true distinction is here taken: Commerce is essential, since each cannot advantageously produce all
that is required to satisfy his wants; but it is not necessary nor desirable that Commerce should appropriate the
grist and leave only the toll to Production. We must
have men employed in exchanging the products of Agriculture for those of Manufactures; but a regiment would
suffice where we now employ an army; and we must
devise the means of dispensing with the army,-or
rather, of dismissing it from Trade to Industry, and
making the regiment serve in its stead. Such is the
end contemplated by Co6peration in Trade.
An average rural township, of thirty to forty square
miles in area, inhabited by some four hundred families
of two to ten persons each, whereof three-fourths are
engaged in Agriculture, is probably as free from parasites, or unproductive consumers of wealth, as so many
people well can be under the system which Cooperation
276 
COOPERATION.
is designed to supplant. It has fewer idlers or paupers
than so many people are obliged to support in almost
any other civilized country than ours, or in any other
than an agricultural community. Yet this township
supports from four to ten "stores," partly located within
and partly outside of its boundaries, and pays a profit
of ten to forty per cent. on whatever it does not produce,
but buys from abroad. Searching inquiry will establish
that a full eighth of the gross product of that township
is paid out as mercantile profit on the goods it imports
for its people's consumption.
Why need it pay so much. Why should it support
several families on the profits of its trade, when one man
could make purchases of the groceries, wares, and fabrics, it needs, and distribute them to better advantage
than a dozen can?  Of course, if it employs the dozen,
it must pay them: it were absurd to raise a clamor
against traders as cormorants.   They are no more at
fault than was the "great wheel" or "little wheel"
which the spinning-jenny has superseded. But may not
the people of that township devise some means of emuploying one man instead of seven to supply them with
the goods they need, and thus effect their exchanges at
an average cost of five per cent. instead of twenty. In
a manufacturing village or city ward, the waste is greater,
because few consume their own products to any extent,
and the volume of exchanges is therefore heavier, while
the charge for house-rent, clerk-hire, &c., is far higher.
It is quite within the truth to estimate that one-fourth
of the earnings of the poor in cities is absorbed by the
profits of retail trade; and mainly of the trade in what
they eat and drink. Need I stop to demonstrate that
this enormous exaction operates as a diminution of their
wages or earnings to that extent, so that twenty dollars
per week to a city mechanic is no more than fifteen dol
277 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
lars would be if the machinery of distribution were so
perfected that he could obtain the necessaries of life at
their lowest cost 
Happily, the whole matter has passed beyond the domain of hypothesis or speculation. We are saved from
contention as to what might be by a knowledge of what
positively is. Galileo's constrained abjuration of the
true theory of planetary motion did not affect the momentum of the smallest asteroid; and a thousand specious arguments, designed to prove Co6peration illusory
and impracticable, are demolished by the simple fact
that Cooperation is no untried theory, but a subsisting
and unquestionable fact..
Twenty-six years have nearly passed since a dozen,
poor, humble, ignorant weavers met in the -back room of
a mean tavern at Rochdale, - a manufacturing village
of British North Lancashire,- to devise the ways and
means of improving their condition. The political agitations of the time had reached them, and Chartism,
Free Trade, &c., were doubtless discussed, as were
Strikes and the kindred enginery of Trades Unions.
The larger number of the little company could not feel
that any decided, practical good was likely to be realized from any or all of these devices. At length, one
of them spoke to this effect: "If we cannot command
higher wages, our best course is to try to make our present earnings go further than they now do.  In this age,
every great enterprise is prosecuted by combinations or
companies. Thus railroads are constructed, canals dug,
and many things achieved that would else be impossible.
Let us imitate the projectors of these works, on the
small scale dictated by our scanty means, by combining
to buy at wholesale the necessaries of life." After discussion, the suggestion was approved, and an attempt to
reduce it to practice resolved on.
278 
COOPERATION.
A basis of organization for "The Rochdale Society of
Equitable Pioneers" was forthwith drawn up, and signed
by each of those present, who were to pay twenty pence
per week into the common fund of the association to
form a working capital. Only a part were able to do
this on the instant; and a year was thenceforth spent in
accumulating a cash capital of ~ 28 (or $ 140) wherewith to launch the new store. Meantime, their number
had increased to twenty-eight, and they had hired and
rudely fitted up a. building in Toad Lane for their store;
which was duly opened, in presence of the assembled
associates and their families, on the evening of December
21, 1844. Rent and fitting up had absorbed nearly half
their capital; so that barely seventy-five dollars remained
for investment in those- prime necessaries, Flour, Butter,
Sugar. As they could not afford clerk-hire, their store was
opened in the evenings only; the members by turns waiting upon purchasers. Scoffers and sceptics stood around
to hoot and jeer; but the "Pioneers" minded their own
business and let the heathen rage. Such was the himble beginning of an association of workers for scanty
wages, which has ever since been in prosperous activity,
and which has grown, in the course of a quarter of a
century, into a company of sixty-seven thousand members, wielding a capital of four to five hundred thousand
dollars, and doing business annually to a far larger
amount, -buying grain by the cargo, to be ground in
their mill and sold to members and customers as flour
or as bread; while cattle are likewise bought by it in
scores, slaughtered, cut up, and sold out as required. A
clothing store, a dry-goods store, three shoe-stores, and
five meat-shops, besides a magnificent central warehouse,
are among the structures owned and used by the Pioneers,
whose library of five thousand well-chosen volumes and
reading-room supplied with the best newspapers are free
279 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
to the members and their families,- two and a half per
cent. of the profits of the business being devoted to
educational uses. To buy only the most substantial and
serviceable fabrics; to offer no adulterated or inferior
article; to buy and sell for cash only; to charge moderate prices; and to divide all: profits equitably among the
members, - such are the cardinal principles propounded
and lived up to by the Equitable Pioneers, of whose doings an eye-witness writes 1
" Let us glance at the manner of doing business at the coperative store. The shop is open all day, but is most frequented
in the evening, being generally-crowded on the Saturday
night. As everything hasto be paid for in ready money, all purchasers must, of course, bring their cash with them.  Whatever be the amount a customer lays out, he or she receives a
tin ticket, on which is stamped the sum paid, - such tickets
being vouchers for the receipt of the money.   The buyer
preserves these tickets until the expiration of the current
quarter, when he brings them to the store, and, for whatever
amount of them he can produce, he is entitled to a proportionate share of the profits of the concern during the quarter.  The whole of his purchases in the time may amount,
perhaps, to five or six pounds; if the profits average ten per
cent., he would be entitled to ten or twelve shillings; and he
might either receive the money in cash, or have the same
transferred to hisaccount credit in his pass-book, in which
case it would go to increase the deposit on which he receives
interest. The shop being open to the public, and the tin
tickets being issued to all customers alike, non-members are
in the habit of disposing of them to members, who  are
credited for their value on producing them."
The signal success thus achieved at Rochdale has
prompted many imitations, not only in Great Britain but
on the Continent; while in this country "Union Stores"
were started quite as early as 1844. Some of these
1 People's Magazine, February, 1867.
280 
COOPERATION.
have prospered, and greatly benefited their founders and
the community; others have been mismanaged, through
incompetency or rascality, have fallen into bankruptcy,
and vanished from off the face of the earth.  Coopera;
tion is no proof against roguery, as many a bank can
bear witness;.and the cooperative. store which seeks or
desires credit is morally certain to be already well advanced on the road to, ruin.  For of the essence of Cooperation is Cash Payment; anc -a concern which buys
on credit will naturally sell on credit; thus dooming
itself and its members to flounder in a quag-mire of embarrassment and to work evermore for "dead  horse."
Such a concern will soon' be deserted by its indebted
members, who  will set off for the ends of the earth,
leaving their more thrifty associates to struggle vainly
against a flood-tide of adversity which must ultimately
bear them down, leaving the concern to be wound up' by
the sheriff and sold out by his auctioneer. Debt, for
goods had and disposed of, will, nine times' in ten, prove
fatal to any form of Cooperation.
On the other hand, the habits of thrift, economy;
foresight, calculation, which the conduct of' a Cooperative Store involves and requires, cannot fail to prove of
signal and permanent advantage to its members. They
are first constrained to save, in order to start their store
on the humblest scale; and to many of them the knowledge that they can save is novel and beneficent.  If the
Rochdale Pioneers have this day Half a Million Dollars
invested in their business, - that is, Half a Million Dollars' worth of ground, buildings, wheat, flour, coal, cattle,
meats, dry goods, groceries, &c., which they jointly
own,   it is quite probable that they individually have
more property outside of the company than they would
this day have had in the absence'of any such enterprise.
I believe it may be fairly computed, therefore, that Co
281 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
operation, in the single instance of the Rochdale Pioneers, has not only increased by at least Half a Million
Dollars the wealth of mankind, but has assigned that
wealth to a class at once needy and deserving. And the
habit of saving, the appetite for thrift, is of even greater
value than its already realized results.
What has been done may be done again, and doubtless
will be. There are hundreds of Cooperative Stores now
in operation; some will fail, as some have failed already;
while the greater number will attain no such importance
and achieve no such conspicuous and brilliant success
as has crowned the efforts of the dozen poor weavers in
Toad Lane, Rochdale. But scores have already achieved
a success as complete as that of the Equitable Pioneers,
and are now in the full fruition of their well-won triumph. Failures and successes are alike instructive, as
the beacon which tells of quicksands or sunken rocks is
as essential to the mariner as the light-house which
guides him to his haven. It is entirely practicable for
our industrious poor to diminish sensibly their weekly
expenses by means of Cooperative Stores; if they cannot trust each other, or if they shrink from bestowing
the care and foresight required, it is not because they
are incompetent or consciously depraved, but because
the recompense of labor is more liberal here than in the
Old World, and the necessity for planning and scheming
to save sixpences, and make each dollar go as far as possible, is consequently less urgent in America than in
Europe.
As one main object -indeed, the chief end of a true
Political Economy - is, in my view, the' extensive conversion or transmutation of superfluous exchangers of
products into actual producers of wealth, so that, in
place of sixty producers and forty exchangers and parasites of one species or another, there shall be at least
282 
COOPERATION.
ninety producers in every hundred persons who gain or
seek a livelihood by their own exertions, successful Cooperation commends itself as the natural complement of Protection. Each in a distinct sphere coworks with the other
to achieve a signal and general good. Protection dispenses with long and perilous voyages and the costly
movement of bulky raw materials across oceans and
continents to recompense and subsist artisans engaged
in the production of Metals, Wares, and Fabrics for the
use of the producers of those raw materials, securing
a larger recompense, a more generous subsistence, to
either class, by relieving them of the useless expense of
maintaining the army of speculators, forwarders, boatmen, shippers, railway operators, &c., &c., formerly interposed between them, and bringing them into direct
and economic relationship as members of the same community; Cooperation renders a like good service in dispensing with nine-tenths of the present locust horde of
hucksters, retailers, and middlemen, and bringing the
farmers and artisans of the same country, State, county,
vicinage, into a relation equally direct and beneficent.
Protection tends to plant the artisan by the side of the
farmer, and thus enable them to exchange their respective products at a tithe of the cost involved in their interchange between the inhabitants of widely separated
communities; while Cooperation performs a like good
office for the producers of the same country or neighborhood, enabling them to enjoy the fruits of each other's
labor without paying exorbitantly for their transfer from
one to the other. The end contemplated in either case
is a vast enhancement of productive power, through an
increase of the number or proportion of producers, the
elimination of needless intermediates, and a consequent
enlargement of the substantial recompense of all descriptions of creative industry.
1283 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
Of the various attempts to organize Labor on a basis
of Co6peration I shall speak more briefly. Many have
failed, as was to be expected; the failures have been
more general, or at least more conspicuous, among those
which, soon after the revolution of 1848, were subsidized
by the government of republican France, than elsewhere. A sum of $ 600,000 was appropriated and disbursed in aid of experiments in Industrial Association,
most of which soon collapsed; while several then started,
by workmen who declined the proffered subvention, still
exist and flourish. Most of these hire and pay journeymen, who receive wages, but no profits; these are divided among the associates, who have very generally discarded the principle of uniformity in recompense, finding it unfavorable to efficiency or excellence, and now
pay each associate the value of his product, -in other
words, prefer piece-work to day-work. The association
of Piano-makers, which commenced operations twenty
years ago on a capital of less than fifty dpolars, has now
a capital of $ 35,000, and does a business of nearly
$ 40,000 annually.  The association of Masons has but
eighty-odd members, of whom two-thirds work daily
with trowel and hod; the residue are foremen, managers,
or simply stockholders; while from two hundred to
three hundred more are usually employed by it as
journeymen. Lyons has several associations of workmen, one of which has eighteen hundred members; St.
Etienne has one of twelve hundred members, wielding a capital of $ 240,000. One formed in Vienna
eighteen years ago, for the manufacture of cloth, but
which now has its flour-mill, bakery, grocery, coal-yard,
and farm, does a business of $ 200,000  per annum.
Apart fromn these, several great manufacturing establishments, beside paying their workmen the current wages,
accord them a moderate share -usually, ten per cent.
284 
COOPERATION.
-of the profits realized on each year's business, and
find their reward in the community of interest thus
created: most workmen seeking, by efficiency and thrift,
to increase the profits wherein each is to share.  A pro
rata scale of distribution is usually adopted, - each
workman receiving a dividend proportioned to his earnings during the year; so that, if $ 1,000,000 has been
paid out as wages during the year, and $ 200,000 realized as profits, there are $ 20,000 of these to be apportioned among the workers, each of whom receives therefrom two per cent. of his annual wages: he who has
earned $ 500, $ 10; he who has earned $ 300, $ 6, and
so on. The dividend is not apt to be large; but, since
it is so much over and above the usual wages, it proves
quite acceptable.
In this country, there have been several attempts to
realize complete Industrial Association, most of which
have failed and disappeared; those of the religious communists known as Shakers, Rappites, Zoarites, Perfectionists, &c., forming the only conspicuous exceptions.
There have been failures among these; but quite a
number have succeeded; and, as several of these societies are more than sixty years old, and are now rich in
worldly goods, they can no longer be regarded as on probation. Of associations for the prosecution of a special
trade or business, those of the Iron-Moulders of Troy
have now been some three years in operation, and
seemed, when I was last definitely advised, to be enjoying a substantial prosperity. They had accumulated capital; they were earning more than journeymen's wages;
and they had abundant work, and were said to do it decidedly well. Should this success endure, it will, of course,
incite others to study their organization and history,
with intent to copy the former and emulate the latter.
Yet ours is one of the last countries in which Coopera
285 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
tion is likely to become widely popular. As a people, we
may be viewed as on the march from East to West; the
active, aspiring mechanic, who was born in Maine or
New Hampshire, migrates to New York or some other
Middle State soon after attaining his majority; reaches
Illinois or Missouri two or three years later; and will
often be found traversing Montana or California before
he is thirty; and, having no fixed abiding-place, he is
unlikely to trouble himself with aught to which stability
is so essential as it is to Cooperation. His wages, when
he has work, are usually so ample that he would scorn
to knot his brain with problems that seem to him so
petty and paltry as those which taxed the assembled
wisdom of the humble weavers of Toad Lane. Whatever the thoughtful few may do, it is not probable that the
great majority of our workers for wages will soon give time
or effort to the realization of Cooperative Industry, unless
its triumph in other lands shall be so emphatic as to
compel their attention and excite their emulation. And
yet my own conviction is strong that Cooperation is the
true goal of our industrial progress, the application of
the republican principle to Labor, and the appointed
means of rescuing the Laboring Class from dependence,
dissipation, prodigality, and need, and establishing it on
a basis of forecast, calculation, sobriety, and thrift, conducive at once to its material comfort, its intellectual
culture, and its moral elevation.  It may be that associations of workingmen to secure the full employment and just recompense of their labor may not become so common in the next age as associations of capitalists and business men for like ends already are; but,
if so, I must regret the fatuity which will not realize that
"In union is strength," or the faithless apathy which
rejects the proffered good because mutual and devoted,
persistent efforts are required to achieve it.
286 
WOOL AND WOOLLENS.
XXI.
WOOL AND WOOLLENS.
ACCORDING to the official returns, the whole number
of Sheep in the United States and the annual product
of Wool, in 1850 and 1860 respectively, were as follows: 1 -
1S50.          1860.
No. of Sheep,..   21,723,220      24,823,566
Pounds of Wool,.. 52,516,959        62,017,153
Inc. in 10 years, Sheep, 3,099,346.    Wool, 10,500,194 lbs.
These returns indicate a very moderate annual increase in the number of Sheep, but a more considerable
improvement in the annual product of Wool per head.
That Sheep Husbandry in the United States ought to
be extended is manifest.   Our people eat too much
Pork and too little Mutton., Fresh Pork can be had
only in the two last months of each year,- at least,
very little is seen among our rural population at ally
other season; while Fresh Mutton may be and is enjoyed by our farmers in the Sqmmer and early Autumn,
when fresh meat is otherwise unattainable by most of
them and Salt Pork too uniformly a staple of their diet.
Were our Sheep doubled in number and improved in
quality, it would be better for us all. And, even then,
our Sheep Husbandry would be behind that of Western
Europe.  A daring statistician 2 says that "recent German estimates" make the annual product of Wool as
follows: —
1 Quoted, but not named, in the official "Report upon Wool and
Manufactures of Wool," by E. R. Mudge, U. S. Commissioner at the
Paris Universal Exposition, 1867.
2 Preliminary Report on the Eighth Census. 1860. By Joseph C.
G. Kennedy, Superintendent. Washington, 1862.
287 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
Countries.      Pounds.     Countries.       Pounds.
Great Britain,   266,000,000  Germany,        200,000,000
France,         123,000,000  Russia in Eu- 
125,000,000
Spain,Portugal, /119,000,000    rope,
and Italy,    0,       United States,    95,000,000
Australia,South)              Northern Africa,  49,000,000
America, and  157,000,000  British  North    12000000
South Africa,                     America,
Asia,           470,000,000
If this estimate be correct, the annual product of
Wool in the whole world is 1,610,000,000 pounds,
whereof little Europe produces 827,000,000, or more
than half.
The rapid and vast diffusion of Wool-growing in Australia and in South America, where Sheep are neither
fed nor sheltered, has caused a general depression of
prices; and this has tended to discourage Wool-growing
among us. But it should be considered that, while the
value of the fleece has declined, that of the meat has
largely increased; and the amount or weight of Meat
produced far transcends that of Wool. Despite the low
price of Wool, whoever produces, under favoring circumstances, choice Mutton, in the vicinity of this or any
of our cities, can hardly fail to profit by doing so. I am
assured by successful New York and New England
farmers that they can make money faster by growing
early Lambs for the markets of our cities than by producing anything else.
During the eleven years from 1850 to 1860 inclusive
we imported unmanufactured Wool as follows: -
Year.           Value.        Year.           Value.
1850..  $ 1,681,691        1856..     1,665,064
1851...  3,833,157         1857...  2,125,744
1852... 1,930,711         1858... 4,022,635
1853..  2,6697718          1859.  4,444,954
1854... 2,822,185         1860... 4,842,152
1855...    2,072,139
Total........,    $ 32,110,150
288 
WOOL AND WOOLLENS.
During these eleven years we also imported Woollen
Fabrics (including some classed as such which were partly composed of other materials than Wool) as follows:
Year.          Value.        Year.        Value.
1850.. $ 17,151,509      1856.  $31,961,793
1851... 19,507,309       1857... 31,286,118
1852... 17,573,964      1858...26,486,191
1853... 27,621,911       1859... 33,521,956
1854... 32,382,594      1860... 37,937,190
1855... 24,404,149
Total for eleven years,..  $ 299,834,684
During these eleven years we exported homegrown
Wool to the value of $ 1,562,502; but there are no returns of American Woollens exported. We, therefore,
appear to have imported Wool and Woollens in those
eleven years to the value of $ 330,382,332 above that
of our exports. And no one who knows anything of
custom-house valuations and evasions can doubt that the
actual disparity in value between our exports and our
imports of Wool and Woollens considerably exceeded
that vast sutm.
Was it well for us thus to buy abroad so large a share
of the material wherewith our people are mainly fenced
against the rigors of Winter and the sudden changes and
caprices even of our milder seasons I I think not.
The production of Shoddy and M[unyo -that is, the
breaking up of the remnants of old woollen garments,
carpets, &c., into a substance which can be spun and
woven by machinery- is a very modern art, which originated in Great Britain, and is still little known in this
country. The product is mainly used for filling, and to
such extent that the British consumption now exceeds
65,000,000 pounds per annum, which is equal to the entire Wool crop of the United States not many years ago.
S
289
113 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
The average prices of Wool at our principal market
(Boston) for the thirty-five years preceding 1860 are
given by Mr. Kennedy'- as follows: Fine, 50-, cents
per pound; Medium, 42A; Coarse, 35w; Average, a
little under 43 cents. Assuming that our average product of Wool for those eleven years was 56,000,000
pounds per annum, its aggregate value, at 43 cents per
pound, was $ 264,880,000; so that we imported Wool
and Woollens to the value of $ 75,402,232 in excess of
our aggregate product of Wool. And the tendency, at
least up to the close of the era of comparative Free
Trade, was to a still further increase of our annual import alike of Wool and Woollens.
In 1861, higher duties on both were imposed; and
these were still further enhanced by the special "W ool
Tariff" of 1867, under which the rates are now as follows:
WOOL. CLAss No. 1.
Clothing wools, value 32 cents or less per pound, 10 cents per
pound, and 11 per cent. ad valorem.
Value over 32 cents per pound, 12 cents per pound, and 10
per cent. ad valorem.
WOOL.   CLASS NO. 2.
Combing wools, hair of the alpaca, goat, or other like animals,
value 32 cents or less per pound, 10 cents per pound, and
11 per cent. ad valorem.
Value over 32 cents per pound, 12 cents per pound, and 10
per cent. ad valorem.
WVOOL. CLASS NO. 3.
Carpet wools and other similar wools, value 12 cents or less
per pound, 3 cents per pound.
Value over 12 cents per pound, 6 cents per pound.
Sheep-skins and Angora goat-skins, raw or unmanufactured,
imported with the wool on, washed or unwashed, 30 per
cent. ad valorem.
1 See Census Report aforesaid, pp. 59-66.
290 
WOOL AND WOOLLENS.
Woollen rags, shoddy, mungo, waste, and flocks, 12 cents per
pound.
Wool, all manufactures of, or of which wool shall be a com  ponent material, not otherwise provided for in this act, 50
cents per pound, and 35 per cent. ad valorem.
Flannels, blankets, hats of wool, knit goods, balmorals, woollen
and worsted yarns, and all manufactures of every descrip  tion, composed wholly or in part of worsted, the hair of
the alpaca, goat, or other like animals, except such as are
composed in part of wool, not otherwise provided for, value
40 cents and less per pound, 20 cents per pound, and 35
per cent. ad valorem.
Value 40 cents, and not over 60 cents per pound, 30 cents
per pound, and 35 per cent. ad valorem.
Value 60 cents, and not over 80 cents per pound, 40 cents
per pound, and 35 per cent. ad valorem.
Value above 80 cents per pound, 50 cents per pound, and 35
per cent. ad valorem.
On endless belts or felts for paper or printing machines, 20
cents per pound, and 35 per cent. ad valorem.
Bunting, 20 cents per square yard, and 35 per cent. ad val.
Women's and children's dress goods, and real or initation,
Italian cloths, composed wholly or in part of wools, worsted,
the hair of the alpaca, goat, or other like animals, value not
over 20 cents per square yard, 6 cents per square yard, and
35 per cent. ad valorem.
Value over 20 cents per square yard, 8 cents per square yard,
and 40 per cent. ad valorem.
Provided, That on all goods weighing four ounces and over
per square yard, thle duty shall be 50 cents per pound, and
35 per cent. ad valorem.
Clothing, ready made, and wearing apparel of every descrip  tion, and Balmoral skirts and skirtings, and goods of simi  lar description, or used for like purposes, composed wholly
or in part of wool, worsted, the hair of the alpaca, goat,
or other like animals, made up or manufactured wholly or
in part by the tailor, seamstress, or manufacturer, except
knit goods, 50 cents per pound, and 40 per cent. ad val.
Webbilgs, beltings, bindings, braids, galloons, fringes, gimps,
291 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
cords, tassels, dress trimmings, head-nets, buttons or barrel
buttons, or buttons of other forms for tassels or ornaments,
wrought by hand or braided by machinery, made of wool,
worsted, or mohair, or of which wool, worsted, or mohair, is
a component material, unmixed with silk, 50 cents per
pound, and 50 per cent. ad valorem.
CARPETING.
Aubusson and Axminster, 50 per cent. ad valorem.
Carpets woven whole for rooms, 50 per cent. ad valorem.
Saxony, Wilton, and Tournay velvets, wrought by the Jac  quard machine, 70 cents per square yard, and 35 per cent.
Brussels, wrought by the Jacquard machine, 44 cents per
square yard, and 35 per cent. ad valorem.
Patent velvet and tapestry velvet, printed on the warp or
otherwise, 40 cents per square yard, and 35 per cent. ad val.
Tapestry Brussels, printed on the warp or otherwise, 28 cents
per square yard, and 35 per cent. ad valorem.
Treble ingrain, three-ply, and worsted chain Venetian, 17
cents per square yard, and 35 per cent. ad valorem.
Yarn, Venetian, and two-ply ingrain, 12 cents per square
yard, and 35 per cent. ad valorem.
Hemp or jute, 8 cents per square yard.
Drugget or bockings, printed, colored, or otherwise, 25 cents
per square yard, and 35 per cent. ad valorem.
Of wool, flax, or cotton, or parts of either, or other material
not otherwise provided for, 40 per cent. ad valorem.
Provided, That mats, rugs, screens, covers, hassocks, bedsides,
and other portions of carpets or carpeting, shall be subject
to the rate of duty herein imposed on carpets or carpeting
of like character or description.
Mats, all other (not exclusively of vegetable material), screens,
hassocks and rugs, 45 per cent. ad valorem.
Oil-cloths for floors, stamped, painted, or printed, valued at 50
cents or less per square yard, 35 per cent. ad valorem.
Value over 50 cents per square yard, and all other oil-cloth
(except silk oil-cloth), and on water-proof cloth, not other  wise provided for, 45 per cent. ad valorem.
Oil silk cloth, 60 per cent. ad valorem.
292 
WOOL AND WOOLLENS.
These duties are higher than they had ever hitherto
been, except, possibly, under the Tariff of 1828. But it
were a mistake to conclude that they differ in principle,
or very greatly in amount, from those imposed by our
previous Protective Tariffs. The principle of the minimum is embodied in each and all, and this has ever been
assailed by Free-Traders as taxing exorbitantly the
coarser and cheaper fabrics mainly worn (they allege) by
the poor. In the memorial of the Chamber of Commerce of this City, praying Congress not to enact the
Tariff of 1824, I find this subject treated as follows: —
"A  principle which runs through the entire bill has particularly attracted the attention of your memorialists, - that
spirit of patriotism, which proposes to tax the many for the
benefit of a few, proposes also to lay the burden on the poor
and to exempt the rich. Those articles which are consumed
by the poorer and more laborious classes of our inhabitants
are loaded with enormous duties, while those used almost exclusively by the rich are taxed at a comparatively low rate: a
few instances will illustrate this position. The duties on lowpriced cotton goods, on cheap flannels, and low-priced woollens, will, according to the proposed bill, be from 60 to 100 per
cent., and on low-priced guns 140 per cent., on the first cost:
these are almost exclusively used by the least wealthy part of
our population; while the fine cottons which pay 25 per cent.,
fine broadeloths which pay 30 per cent., and elegant fowlingpieces which, by this unskilful project, pay 6 per cent. only,
are used almost exclusively by the rich."
The policy of our Government, with regard to this,
as of most other branches of manufacture, may be
roughly characterized as Protective from 1824 to 1834;
thenceforward, a gradual reduction of duties, until they
had fallen to a minimum or (so called) revenue rate of
twenty per cent. in 1842; then Protective again till 1847,
when the Tariff of 1846 took effect; then anti-Protective till 1861; thenceforward Protective, but more
293 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
decidedly so since the passage of the Wool and Woollens
Tariff of 1867, which remains in force.
What have been the more important consequences of
this last change of policy?
,Most certainly, if either wool-growers or woollen manufacturers anticipated enhanced prices for their products
because of the Protection thus secured, they have been
disappointed. Neither Wool nor Woollens now command
prices so high (whether computed in paper or in coin) as
they did when the "Wool Tariff" of 1867 was enacted.
The law, so often insisted on in these essays, that Protection inevitably tends, by stimulating home production,
to a reduction of price, is here strikingly illustrated.
The prices of Wool in New York on the 1st of October,
in each of the years 1860, 1866, and 1869 respectively,
were as follows: -
1860.     1866.
Gold.      Currency.
1866.
Equivalent in gold
(gold at 146).
Fleece per pound, coarse
to fine,.p
Pulled, per pound, coarse
to fine,r
30@60c. 47@75c. 32,i%@51x?-6
25@55  30@65  20To44-o   %
1860.        1869.             1869.
Gold.      Currency.    Equivalent in gold
(gold at 130).
Fleece per pound, coarse
to fine,.      c
Pulled per pound, coarse
to fine,
30@60c. 40@65c. 30-io6o@50
25@55   24@50   185%8-@38f,
Cheap as wool may be deemed in this country, it is
cheaper still in every other. Sheep husbandry in Great
Britain is sustained by the price of mutton, not of
sheep.
The prices of the most important Woollen Fabrics ten
years ago, (when we had comparative Free Trade in Wool
and in Woollens,) and now, are as follows:
294 
WOOL AND WOOLLENS.
Price in     Price in  Currency
1859.        1869.1    Price in
(Gold.)     (Gold.)        1869.
Flannels
A. and
H. A.
J. R. 
B. twi
Doubl
F. &(
Talbo
G.M.
E. S.
N.A.
Ballan
Ballan
Ballam
Ballam
Ballam
Blankete
Hollan
Hollan
Coche
Cocl-he
Cumb
Cumb
Rocha
Roche
Rochd
Roche
Roche
Roce he
Cassimer
Broad
mer
Hamil
per
Shawls -
DeLaine
Co.'s
(1860).......          16Ao.13.171 Equivalent in gold (gold at 130). October average.
295
FABRIC. 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
Salisbury Mills, boys' checks per yard
(1860)...            $ 0.583 $ 0.451 $ 0.591
Salisbury Mills Eugenie cloths (1860).94.69.901
Salisbury Mills Silk Codrington
(1860).....   1.521  1.181    1.54i
Crossley Co.'s Conn., tapestry carpet      -.96     1.25
[The imported article sold in 1859 for 95 cents.]
Whoever may have suffered from the change of policy
initiated in 1861 and consummated in 1867, it seems
plain that the purchasers of Woollen Fabrics for consumption have not. Though the prices of Labor and the cost
of Living generally have been largely enhanced, Wool
and home-made Woollens are alike cheaper in 1869 than
they were in 1860.
What consequences, then, have resulted from this
latest triumph of the principle of Protection as applied
to Wool and Woollens?
Mr. Erastus B. Bigelow, an eminent inventor of machinllery adapted to the production of Woollens, and
President of the National Association of Wool Manufacturers, reports 1 our aggregate product of Wool in
1868 at 177,000,000 pounds, or nearly thrice the amount
we produced in 1860; while the value of our annual product of Woollen Fabrics is given by him at $ 175,000,000,
against a like product of $ 68,865,963 in 1860. And
this increase in value is made in defiance of a very considerable reduction in the average price of those fabrics
since 1860.
I have termed the above statements estimates; but
they are founded on returns made to the National Association from the various manufactories throughout the
country, with nearly all of which it is in correspondence.
1 An Address on the Wool Industry of the United States, delivered
at the Exhibition of the American Institute in the City of New York,
October 5, 1869.
296 
WOOL AND WOOLLENS.
Their general accuracy is confirmed by the officially reported fact that, while our annumal consumption has
largely increased, our importation, whether of Wool or
Woollens, is actually less in 1868 than it was in 1860.
The Treasury returns are as follows -
1S60.      18S6S.
Wool imported, value.. $4,842,152  $3,915,262
Woollens imported, value.   37,937,190  32,409,759
Decrease in Wool....   $ 926,890
Decrease in Woollens.... 5,527,431
That great improvement has meantime been effected
in the quality and finish of our Woollens is unlquestionable. The late Exhibition demonstrated this beyond
cavil. We are now making not only far more but far
better Woollen fabrics than we ever did prior to 1867.
We are producing Broadcloths, Beavercloths, Brussels
Carpets, &c., &c., which most of the purchasers suppose to be of foreign origin, and value accordingly. Of
this shameful fact, Mr. Bigelow instructively says: -
"Notwithstanding  the unquestionable  and the generally
acknowledged excellence of bur wool manufactures, those
manufactures still suffer, more or less, in the market, from
prejudices and prepossessions which are alike ill founded. A
preference for fabrics of foreign origin has very naturally
come down from the time, not very distant, when our domestic products were generally inferior. Of those who now
habitually insist upon buying the foreign article, some are
honestly ignorant. They are not aware of any improvement
in American manufactures. With others, it is the merest
aping of a senseless fashion. But the delusion could not be
long kept up, were it not for the interest of the dealer to
sustain it. It is easy for him to make a larger profit on the
imported article, from the fact that its probable cost is not so
generally known. In many instances, the temptation is so
strong that truth, honesty, and patriotism, make their appeal
in vain. Not only are American productions systematically
297 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
disparaged, but, in a multitude of instances, these very productions are labelled as French, English, or German. The
extent to which this imposition is carried is known only to
those who are let into the secret. There are, probably, very
few of us who have not thus been taken in. And, what I
am inclined to regret as the most melancholy thing of all, is
the unquestioned fact that some of the manufacturers themselves have consented to the deed. I suppose the process by
which such a bargain is consummated to be somewhat as follows: A manufacturer, after much toil and outlay, is prepared to introduce a fabric not before made here. HIe finds
the market, however, fully supplied with the foreign article.
Those who hold it give him no encouragement; for they
know that the introduction of the domestic productmust lessen their chance for high profits. Between him and the consumer (who must be reached somehow, or his enterprise fails)
stands a class of men whose interest it is to sell foreign rather
than domestic goods. The result is a compromise. Says the
dealer to him:'I like your goods; but I cannot sell them as
American. Give them a foreign brand, confine the product
of your mill to me, and I will take all that you produce.' The
poor manufacturer, seeing no alternative, closes the unhallowed bargain."
The Woollen manufacture of Great Britain is at least
one thousand years old; indeed, it is known to have
obtained a considerable importance while England was
subject to the Romans.   The kindred manufactures of
France and of Belgium have likewise been many centuries in existence, and have naturally attained great perfection, through the accumulation of capital, the progress
of invention, and like causes. Ours is of comparatively
recent origin; for, while a few rude "fulling-mills" and
small manufactories were established among us even before the Revolution, the development and importance of
our Woollen industry may fairly date from the passage
of the Tariff of 1824, while nearly all our great Woollen
mills were built since the passage of the Tariff of 1842.
298 
WOOL AND WOOLLENS.
If, therefore, our Woollen manufactures were still relatively crude and imperfect, that circumstance need not
excite surprise; but the fact is otherwise. The able Report of Mr. Mudge on the Great Paris Exposition, already quoted, says:
"The many practical manufacturers who have recently
visited Europe for the express purpose of studying its industries, concur in declaring that in these respects we are on an
equality with the most advanced nations.  Laying aside the
supposed advantages which we have in the possession of
water-power, upon which far too much stress is laid in popular estimates, we apply everywhere, in our fabrication of
woollens, the factory system, and make  the utmost use of
mechanical power, while handicraft processes are still largely
used abroad, especially in weaving. For the preparation of
card-wool, no machinery at the Exposition equalled in efficiency the American burring machinery exhibited, such as is
in general use here. In the carding of wool, no improvements were seen at Virviers, one of the chief centres of the
card-wool industry in Europe, which we do not have in use.
About the same number of hands were employed at the cards
as here. Spinning in large establishments abroad is usually
performed by mules; while jack-spinning is more generally
adopted in New England, as better suited to the different
qualities and quantities of yarns demanded by the variety of
fabrics usually produced in our mills. The mules used here
are of equal efficiency with those in the best mills of Europe.
With respect to weaving, it was remarked that looms were
being constructed at Virviers such as we would not put into
our mills to-day. It was also remarked that no European looms
for weaving fancy goods were shown at the Exposition which
would bear comparison with the Crompton loom; and, even
upon that admirable machine, great improvements are known
to be in progress. The other processes of manufacture, such
as dyeing, are the same as in Europe. When we take into
consideration the greater energy and intelligence of our better fed and better educated workmen, the necessary use of
every labor-saving process, on account of the higher cost of
13* _
299 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
labor here, and the admitted superiority in construction of
American machinery, it may be safely asserted that a yard
of cloth is made in this country with less hours of human
labor than one of equal quality and the same degree of finish
abroad. In other words, a week's labor will produce more
yards of cloth in an American than in a European mill."
"Well; if such be the case, what further need of
Protection? " triumphantly queries a Free-Trader.  The
Report proceeds to answer as follows: -
"But it is said that a yard of cloth costs less in Europe
than in the United States. Even this statement requires
qualification; for the American laborer can purchase here
more yards of cloth with the produce of a day's work than
the European laborer: the ratio of the price of cloth in this
country, to-day, not being in proportion to the ratio of the
rate of wages of ordinary labor. It is still true that the
money cost of producing cloths is greater in this country than
in Europe. From what has been said, it is apparent that the
greater money cost of fabricating cloths is not due to any
want of natural advantages or any deficiency in skill and
effective labor on the part of the American manufacturer. It
is not true of this industry, as is often asserted by theorists,
that it has a sickly and hot-bed growth, sustained only by artificial stimulus, and rendering its production as unnatural, to
use Adam  Smith's often quoted comparison, as that of wine
produced from grapes grown in the greenhouses of Scotland.
The higher cost of production in this industry is due, solely,
to natural causes inherent in the condition of a new country
and a progressive people, to the higher rates of the interest
on capital required to initiate and sustain industrial enterprises, and the higher rates of wages demanded by the greater
social and educational requirements of our industrial population."
The Pacific Mills, Lawrence, Mass., are, I believe,
much the largest producers of Woollens in America, and
perhaps in the world. The following table shows the
prices actually paid for Labor therein: -
300 
WOOL AND WOOLLENS.
France  ]gelg'm
c Mills,            and      and
Lrence,   Great   Switzer-  GerMass.    Britain.  land.   many.
Gold       In      In      In
. at 1331  Gold.   Gold.   Gold.
$ 1.80  $ 0.72   $ 0.40   $ 0.56
3.75    2.36 1.20         1.40
5.40    2.88    1.44    1.64
Per Week.              Currency
Children under 15 years.    $ 2.40
Common workers in carding.  5.00
Experienced women in carding   7.20
room...       )
Weavers, females, average of   8.55
plain and fancy-work. 
Common men mill-laborers.  9.00
Spinners and experienced male} 11.50
workers
Dresser-tenders, men, average    16.68
Men, overlookers...  13.50
We have in this country fewer holidays, with less interruption of regular work by the stopping of mills,
than they have in Great Britain, and there is a larger
proportion earned per annum than would appear by the
above weekly statement.
Professor Leone Levi, of London, in his report upon
"Estimates of the Earnings of the Working Classes,"
page 13, gives the average earnings of 551 workers in
a cotton-mill at 14 s. 10 d. sterling, or $ 3.56 per week.
This work was published in 1867. There has been no
essential change in the wages paid at the Pacific Mills
since that year. In April, 1869, the wages of the 2,997
of their mill operatives (being the whole number employed at that date) averaged $ 7.83 (equal to $ 5.87 in
gold) per week: showing a weekly difference of $ 2.31
(gold) in favor of the American work-people. Skilled
work-women, single, such as weavers, earn at Pacific
Mills from $ 4.75 to $ 6.85 ($ 3.56 to $ 5.14 gold) above
the cost of their board, lodging, and washing. In Great
Britain, the excess of the earnings of such persons above
the cost for same items is about $1.58. Skilled men
mill-workers, single, as spinners, weavers, and dresser
301
6.40
6.75
8.62
12.51
10.12
3.98
4.32
6.24
8.40
7.20
1.80
*..
2.96
...
1.80
2.96
*..
*.*o 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
tenders, earn above their outlay for board, lodging, and
washing, $ 7.25 to $ 12.43 ($ 5.44 to $ 9.32 gold). This
class in Great Britain earn a like excess of $ 2.88 to
$ 5.04 weekly.
The work-people of the Pacific Mills are, of course, to
a large extent, unmarried persons. In April, 1869, there
were 781 housekeepers employed in a total of 4,086 persons. Of these 781, there were 227 living in their own
tenements; and the value of the houses and lands thus
owned by these work-people was $ 413,163, or an average
of $1,820 for each person,- saved, to a very large extent, out of their own earnings.
The amount deposited with the cashier of the corporation by the work-people for safe-keeping during the past
two years is $ 80,732, of which $ 54,648 has been withdrawn, leaving on deposit $ 26,084. This is irrespective
of the sums deposited in the savings-banks of the city,
which are believed to be very large.
In 1867, when provisions were in some items higher
than now, of eight families, numbering, including adults
and children, forty-six persons, taken indiscriminately
among the work-people at the Pacific Mills, and whose
heads earned at least $13 (currency) per week, the cost
of food and rent for each person per week was $ 2.24
(currency). Supposing that prices have not materially
fallen since, the average cost per week in gold of the
living of each adult is at present $1.68.
These, then, are the results already realized from the
Protection afforded to our Wool and Woollen industry by
the increased duties imposed by the Tariffs of 1861 - 67
inclusive:  I. A very considerable increase of our annual production of Wool, and a much larger extension of our Woollenl manufacture.
II. A consequent and important increase in the amount
paid for Labor employed in our Woollen industry, in good
302 
WOOL AND WOOLLENS.
part to women and children, whose earnings and acquired
skill are substantially so much added to our National
wealth.
III. A very decided improvement in the quality and
finish of our Woollen fabrics, especially Shawls, Cassimeres, Beavercloths, and other descriptions intended to
be worn as outer garments; and
IV. All these advantages secured without cost to our
consumers; since the average prices of substantial, serviceable Woollen fabrics are actually cheaper (in gold) today than they were ten years ago.
That I am not mistaken on this head, I choose to establish and confirm by the best Free Trade authority.
The Evening Post of October 6 is eagerly quoted by The
Manchester Guardian (England) as thus triumphantly
proclaiming "What Protection has done for the Woollen
trade of the United States":
"The wools of Europe, of the Cape of Good Hope, of
Australia, and of Brazil, were excluded here by the duty;
they filled the markets of Europe, so that the price there fell
lower than ever before.   English manufacturers, with far
cheaper wool, and a specie currency, made goods at a price
which defied competition by the United States;  and thus
both our raw wool and our cloth were driven from all foreign
markets. Even the enormous duties on manufactured woollens could not'protect' our mills against their cheap cloths;
they are undersold even at home by the British, although
these duties are so high that nothing but extensive smuggling
can account for the low prices of many foreign cloths in the
United States. But the advantage of the European mills in
all the finer fabrics is so great that, even after paying 50 cents
per pound, and 35 per cent. on their value besides, they can
sell their goods here more cheaply than those made here.
Our mills are ruined; and those who want to enjoy the blessings of Protection have plenty of chances now to buy wellappointed factories at a small percentage of their actual cost.
Nor are the wool-growers better off. The inquiry for the
raw material here has been discouraged by this breaking up
303 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
of the trade, so that it has brought them fewer cents in paper
since the high tariff was passed than it did in gold before.
Meanwhile, the people at large have suffered. Every person
in the country is a consumer of woollen goods; and every one
is heavily taxed by these oppressive duties.  Those who wear
broadcloth and walk on luxurious carpets pay so much more
for them that they have less of a surplus left to employ other
industries. The poor man's bed is less warm, and his home less
comfortable; for he must buy lighter blankets and inferior carpets or none at all. Thus the whole community has been injured; and even the classes to whom these duties were designed
to secure a moo2opoly have gained nothing. These facts are now
widely known, and are producing their natural effect upon
intelligent men. Some of the leading manufacturers of woollen goods are coming to the support of the principles to which
they have so long been blind.  Thousands of the woolgrowers see clearly why they are not prospering, and demand
a repeal of the taxes on the necessaries of life; and the people, whose only interest is to get the best goods at fair prices,
are beginning to ask why oppressive duties, which benefit
nobody, should be maintained."
This testimnony of a bitter adversary to Protection is
certainly trustworthy to the extent of its bearing in our
favor; and I cannot be wrong in inferring that, with
cheaper Wool, a largely increased product of American
Woollens, and no profit to the manufacturers, our collnsumers must be supplied with home-made Woollens at
low prices, as I have already shown that they are.
Since we are importing fewer, and making at least twice
as many Woollens as we did ten years ago (all of which
find markets among our own people), if "our mills are
ruined," as The Post asserts, and "well-appointed factories for sale at a small percentage of their actual cost,"
then it is clearly untrue that Protection exaggerates
prices and robs the consumer to enrich the manufacturer.
Certainly, those mills are not "rulined" by making from
cheapened Wool goods that sell much higher, in an expanded market, than they did ten years ago, when Wool
304 
WOOL AND WOOLLENS.
was higher and our consumption of American Woollens
much less. Can it be necessary that I enlarge on this
head. Is not the demonstration conclusive on a mere
statement of the case?
Let me assume that my readers (can need no more
argument on this point, and close with simply citing the
law which underlies and governs the facts, as set forth
by Alexander Hamilton in his masterly Report to Congress on the expediency of encouraging Manufactures,
nearly eighty years ago: -
"But though it were true that the immediate and certain
effect of regulating or controlling the competition of foreign
with domestic fabrics was to increase the prices, it is universally true that the contrary is the ultimate effect with every
successful manufacture. When a domestic manufacture has
attained perfection, and has engaged in the prosecution of it a
competent number of persons, it invariably becomes cheaper.
Being free from the heavy charges which attend the importation of foreign commodities, it can be afforded, and accordingly seldom or never fails to be afforded, cheaper, in process
of time, than the foreign article for which it is a substitute.
The internal competition which takes place soon does away
with everything like monopoly,- and by degrees reduces the
price of the article to the minimum of reasonable profit on
the capital employed.  This accords with the reason of things
and with experience. Whence it follows that it is the interest of a community, with a view to eventual and permanent
economy, to encourage the growth of manufactures in a national view. A temporary enhancement of price must always be well compensated by a permanent reduction of it."
Possibly we have now abler statesmen than Hamilton
and his fellow-founders of our National existence, though
I really do not know where to look for them. I cannot
realize that views broader, more sagacious, more luminous, than those of Hamilton, whereof I have just given
a sample, are day by day vouchsafed us by Brick Pomeroy, S. S. Cox, The World's buffoon, and Professor Perry.
~__~~~~
T
305 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
XXII.
IMMIGRATION.
THAT Population is a main element of National
strength, -that its rapid, persistent increase implies
National growth and prosperity,-that the voluntary
migration of thousands from their native land to one
far distant, especially if its language, religion, customs,
institutions, &c., differ widely from those in which the
emigrants have hitherto delighted, argues a decided predominance of attractions and advantages in the land
they seek, over that they abandon,- can scarcely need
demonstration. Fanaticism may, indeed, impel thousands of its votaries to leave a fertile for a naturally
sterile and forbidding region; but such migrations are
of rare occurrence, and are as usually limited in area
as transient in duration.   Religious persecutions have
driven thousands from the soil they would gladly have
clung to till death; but these have exerted little influence on the peopling of our country since her independence, and seem unlikely to prove more potent in the next
century than in the last. It is within the truth to estimate that fully nine-tenths of those who have, since
1660, come hither from Europe in voluntary quest of
new homes, have been mainly impelled by the hope of
thus improving their pecuniary or social condition, and
securing for their offspring larger opportunities and
fairer prospects than those on which their own eyes first
opened.
If the impression prevails that our country has been,
306 
IMMIIGRATION.
ever since her independence was established, the cynosure and chosen home of the less fortunate millions of
the Old World, that impression is grounded in error.
So long as our industry remained almost exclusively
Agricultural, our annual Immigration was inconsiderable,
although the system under which a foreigner might bind
himself to a sea-captain (or the owners of his vessel) to
serve one, three, five, or seven or more years after reaching our shores, in payment of his passage, was plainly
calculated largely to swell the volume of such Immigration, while by no means improving its quality. Thousands of these "redemptioners" were thus cast upon
our shores who would never, in all human probability,
have made their way hither had they been required to
earn and save the needful passage-money before embarking. And the redemption system, however objectionable
as a whole, was not without beneficent features. The
immigrant was not put ashore, onl landing in America, to
make his way as he might, among a people to whom his
garb was strange, and his manners seemed uncouth,
while his speech was often utterly unintelligible. The
captain or consignee, in selling his services for the specified term, provided him with a home and insured him
against present starvation; if he landed without skill in
any useful art, he was morally certain to acquire some
industrial proficiency while working out his passage. I
presume the system under which China is now pouring
her superabundant millions upon the Western hemisphere does not differ essentially from that our fathers
tolerated and legalized, yet which we have long since
discouraged and discarded.
If a hundred persons, taken indiscriminately, were
severally asked to indicate the chief impulse to migration, probably the answers of nine-tenths of them would
point to density of population in one country, paralleled
307 
POLITICAL ECONOMY. 
by sparseness in another; yet they would hardly be sus tained by the facts. I judge that thinly peopled Scot land, Switzerland, or even Norway, supplies more emi grants to the New World than teeming London, Paris,
or Lancashire.   The general truth that population tends
to abandon purely agricultural regions for those, more
densely peopled, whose industry is diversified, is illustrated
by what is perpetually going on in our own country, in
Canada,,and in many others. Says The New American
Cyclopedia: 1
"It is a significant fact that the emigration from some Eu ropean countries- Rhenish Prussia, and Westphalia, for in stance -is in an inverse ratio to population. That is to say,
the largest number emigrate from the most thinly settled
agricultural districts; these having, relatively, a larger overpopulation than those in which agricultural and manufacturing pursuits are combined."
The readers of these essays will not be at a loss for
the reason of this anomaly, superficially considered.
Though the fearful and wide-spread convulsions attending and following the French Revolution, reducing
multitudes from wealth and comfort to want and misery,
driving many into exile and expelling myriads from their
homes, would seem calculated, especially when supplemented by the "redemption" system, to' have flooded
our shores with immigrants, the number actually drawn
or driven hither throughout our Free-Traders' golden
age of low tariffs and exclusive devotion to Agriculture,
was surprisingly small. Samuel Blodgett, who wrote in
1806, and who is indorsed by Bromwell, in his History
of Immigration, written half a century later, as "a statistician of more than ordinary research and accuracy,"
affirms that the immigrants to this country in the ten
years prior to 1794 did not exceed 4,000 per annum;
1 Article on Emigration, Vol. VII.
308 
IMMIGRATION.
and, though 10,000 were supposed to have come hither
in 1794, the current forthwith subsided; so that the
Hon. Adam Seybert (M. C. from Pennsylvania), writing in
1818, estimates the average migration hither, from 1796
to 1810, at 6,000 per annum; and he adds that, admitting 10,000 to have come over in 1794, that number remained without parallel down to 1817.  In that year,
22,240 persons arrived at our ports; of whom, after due
deduction for voyagers on business or for pleasure, we
may estimate the immigrants who remained with us at
15,000.
By an act of Congress approved March 2, 1819, collectors of customs were required to keep a record and
make a quarterly return to the Treasury of all passengers arriving in their respective districts from foreign
ports; and these reports, duly condensed in the Department, are the chief bases of our knowledge of the subsequent growth  and  progress of Immigration.   Mr.
Bromwell's volume,1 being compiled from official sources,
may, so far as it speaks, be trusted implicitly; and it
gives the total number of foreign-born passengers arriving at the ports of the United States in the several years
from 1820 to 1855 inclusive, as follows: -
....  18,875
...  27,382
... 22,520
...  23,322
... 22,633
2..  2 60,482
... 58,640
1 History of Immigration into the United States. By Wm. J. Bromwell, of the Department of State. Redfield, New York, 1856.
2 Hitherto, each year has closed with September; but for this and
the ten following years the arrivals during the calendar year are given,
so that the return for 1832 contains the arrivals for five quarters, or
fifteen months.
.309
1820
1821
1822
1823
1824
1825
1826
8,385
9,127
6,911
6,354
7,912
10,199
10,837
1827
1828
1829
1830
1831
1832
1833
... 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
1834... 65,365
1835.. 45,374
1836... 76,242
1837...79,340
1838... 38,914
1839...  68,069
1840... 84,066
1841...  80,289
1842... 104,565
1843... 152,496
1844... 78,615
[NOTE. -The greatly increased volume of Immigration
which, beginning to swell in 1849, reached its maximum in
1854, was doubtless impelled by the discovery of Gold in
California in 1848, with the consequent rush of thousands
thither, and the resulting momentum imparted to both our
Agriculture and our Manufactures by the new and rapidly
expanding markets opened to them on the Pacific.]
This table exhibits vividly the growth and progress
of Immigration to this country from its inconsiderable
infancy to its ripe maturity; and I submit that no fair
mind can gravely deny that it is a direct consequence
of the establishment and growth of our Home Manufactures. So long as our industry remained almost exclusively Agricultural, we failed to attract any considerable
Immigration: the total number of immigrants for the
forty years which followed the establishment of our Independence not having exceeded 300,000; while during
the next forty years- which may be designated by comparison our Manufacturing era- our annual increase of
population from this source mounted from a maximum
of 10,199 to one of 427,833, and our aggregate accession
1 In 1842, the fiscal year was changed again, so as to close with September; so this is the return for but three quarters, as that of 1832 was
for five.
2 Changed back again; so that this return includes the arrivals for
five quarters.
310
1845
1846
1847
1848
1849
1850
1851
1852
1853
1854
1855
~.. 114,371
...   154,416
... 234,968
...   226,527
... 297,024
*.. 2369,980
... 379,466
...   371,603
... 368,645
...   427,833
... 200,877 
IMMIGRATION.
of inhabitants from abroad was about Four Millions.
And, in spite of our great Civil War, our gain by immigration during the last thirteen years must have largely
exceeded Two Millions.
Nor is this all. A very large proportion of these immigrants approach our shores in the flower of their youth
or in the early prime of life, and soon become parents
of vigorous, hardy children. Much has of late been
absurdly said of the decay of the reproductive power,
especially of our primitive New England stock, and of
the prospect that this will soon be supplanted around the
very hearth-stones of the Puritans; the grain of truth
at the bottom of this heap of chaff being simply this:
New England has for half a century been sending forth
the most enterprising and energetic of her sons and
daughters to people and civilize the vast regions which
lie between her and the Pacific; and she has been proffering homes and work in their stead to the physically
robust but intellectually less developed youth of Western Europe and of Canada. Of course, a very large
proportion of those now born on her soil are children of
foreign-born parents, just -as a large portion of those
born in the Great West proudly trace their origin back
to a New England ancestry. I presume that this transfusion of blood is beneficial both to the East and the
West; and I do not apprehend that the original New
England stock is in any more danger of being supplanted
or run out at home than Ireland is of ceasing, because
of emigration, to be Irish.
Of the immigrants who landed on our shores in the
forty years ending with 1860, there came from different
countries as follows:Great Britain and            Germany... 1,546,476
Ireland... 2,750,874  Holland..... 21,579
France.......... 208,063  Mexico........17,766
311 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
West Indies... 40,487
Sweden and Norway  36,129
South America... 6,201
The Azores....3,242
Sardinia.....  2,030
Russia.......    1,374
Switzerland....  37,733
China..... 41,443
T      otal
Ital y...........  11,202
Belgium....... 9,862
Denmark...... 5,548
Portugal....... 2,614
Poland......  1,659
All other and not
stated...... 318,140
. 5,062,414
[NOTE. -  Of the large number who came to us from British
ports, it is probable that fully 2,000,000 were Irish, while a
considerable number had made their way from Germany,
France, Belgium, Sweden, &c., to Great Britain, thence embarking for this country. So a considerable proportion of
those who embarked from French ports were probably Germans, Belgians, or Swiss.
Up to a recent period, fully half of our immigrants were
of Irish birth; but of late migration from Ireland has fallen
off, while that from far more spacious and populous Germany
has largely increased, so that the last-named country (or
countries) is probably sending, and will henceforth send, us
more people than all the British Isles. The migration hither
from Sweden, Norway, and Denmark (sometimes grouped as
Scandinavia), has also largely increased; being mainly attracted to the congenial climate of Wisconsin, Minnesota, and
their vicinity.]
Since 1855, the whole number of persons, other than
natives of the United States, who arrived as passengers
at our ports was in each year as follows:
1856... 200,436
1857...  251,306
1858... 123,126
1859...   121,282
1860... 153,640
1861... 91,920
1862...  91,987
Total in 13 years
312
1863...
1864...
1865...
1866...
1867...
1868...
176,282
193,418
248,120
318,554
298,358
297,215
. 2,565,644 
IMMIGRATION.
While it is probable that this somewhat exceeds the
whole number of immigrants, -  many persons of foreign
birth arriving by sea who were not immigrants, but mnercantile or other travellers,- it should be considered that
thousands annually migrate hither from (or throuigh) the
Canadas, who do not count in the above exhibit, not
having reached us by sea. Thousands annually leave
Great Britain and Ireland in vessels whose destination
is British America; but their emigrant passengers are
scarcely landed in the New World ere they strike a beeline for the United States. Others give the Canadas a
trial, but are soon driven thence, by their comparative
lack of enterprise and dearth of employment, to the
greater activity, more rapid growth, and ampler wages,
proffered by the Union.
Of the above aggregate immigration for thirteen
years, there came to us from different countries as follows:
British Isles..  1,215,600
British America.. 108,531 
Sweden and Norway  58,289
Denmlark.... 13,043
France....   49,383
Switzerland... 24,539
Italy..... 13,088
Hungary....             487
Azores....   4,588
Central America...3,351
South America... 2,452
For the last fiscal year, closing with June, 1869, there
came         to t he United States by sea, other than natives of
this country, no less than 352,569 persons, of whom
214,746       were males, and 137,283 females.   They hailed
from         different countries as follows:              14
313
Germany, including
Austria.... 911,426
China..... 65,943
Holland...   11,205
West Indies...  10, 745
Spain.....   10,340
Belgium.... 8,245
Russia...... 1,761
Poland....   2,209
Portugal..~. 2,090
All others.... 48,329 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
Great  Britain  and
Ireland.... 125,224
British North Amer  ica...... 20,918
Sweden and Norway   40,292
ChiaL l...... 12,874          
le'g um..... 1,922
hiolland.....1,134
Gerniany and Atus  tria.....        132,537
France.... 3,89
Swiitzerland.... 3,650
Denmark....   3,649
Italy...... 1,488
Spain......   1,123
All other countries. 3,879
Frederick Kapp, one of our State's Commissioners of
Emigration, in a paper recently read by him before the
Social Science Association, sums up the influence of
political and commercial convulsions and of good or bad
harvests upon the volume of European migration hlithlerward, as follows:
"The difficulty experienced in disposing of property at
satisfactory prices prevented many  finom  leaving the  Old
World immediately after the close of the Napoleonic wars.
But the great famine of 1816 - 17 drove several thousands
over the ocean. Here it may be stated that, from that time
forward, the moral and material causes of immigration,
above alluded to, regularly governed the numerical proportions of the influx of Europeans into the United States in
successive years. To prove the controlling influence exercised
over immigration by material misery, on the one hand, and
political oppression on the other, a few statistical data will
suffice:
"While, in 1826, of 18,837 immigrants, 7,709 came  from
the British Isles, in 1827 their number increased to 11,952 of
18,875, and in'1828 to 17,840, of a total of 27,283; but in
1829 their number fell to 10,594 of 22,530, and in 1830 to
3,874 of 23,322 souls.  These fluctuations were due to the
great commercial panic of 1826, and the distress in the manufacturing districts of England, as well as the famine in Ireland, which drove thousands from their homes who, under
ordinary circumstances, would never have thought of emigration.
"Again, in Germany, where the abortive revolutionary
movement of 1830 - 33, the brutal political persecutions of
314 
IMMAIIGRATION.
the several State governments, and the reactionary policy of
the Federal Diet, as well as a general distrust of the future,
produced  an unusually large emigration.   In 1831, only
2,395 Germans had arrived in the United States; in 1832,
10,168; in 1833, 6,823; and in 1834 to 1837, the years of
the greatest political depression, 17,654, 8,245, 20,139, and
23,035, respectively.
" The emigration from Ireland, which from 1822 rose much
beyond its former proportions, reached its.culminating point
after the great famine of 1846.  During the decade of 1845
to 1854 inclusive, in which period the highest figures ever
known in the history of emigration to the United States
were reached, 1,512,100 Irish left the United Kingdom.   In
the first half of that decade, viz. from January 1, 1845, to
December 31, 1849, 607,241 went to the United States; and
in the last half, viz. from January 1, 1850, to December 31,
1854, as many as 904,859 arrived in this country. With
this unprecedentedly large emigration, Ireland had exhausted herself. Since 1855, her quota has fallen off to
less than one-half of the average of the preceeding ten
years.
"Almost coincident in point of time with this  mighty
exodus from Ireland was the colossal emigration from Germany, which followed the failure of the political revolutions
attempted in 1849 and 1851. Already, in 1845 and the following years, the German contingent of emigrants to the United
States showed an average twice as large as in the same space
of time previous to the year named. But a voluntary expatriation on a much larger scale resulted from the final triumph
of political reaction. The coup d'etat of Louis Napoleon
closed for all Europe the revolutionary era opened in 1848.
In the three years preceding that event, the issue of the
struggle of the people against political oppression had remained doubtful. But the second of December, 1851, having
decided the success of the oppressors for a long time to come,
the majority of those who felt dissatisfied with the reactionary regime left their homes. The fact that the largest number of Germans ever landed in one year in the United States
came in 1854, showed the complete darkening of the political
315 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
horizon at that time. The apprehension of a new Continental
war, w,hich actually broke out a year later in the Crimea, also
hastened the steps of those who sought refuge in this country.  People of the well-to-do classes, who had months and
years to wait before they could sell their property, helped to
swell the tide to its extraordinary proportions.  From January
1, 1845, till December 31, 1854, there arrived 1,226,392 Germans in the United States; 452,943 of whom  came in the
first five years of this period, and 773,449 in the last five.
" But the numerical strength of immigration to this country
is not governed solely by the manifestation in Europe of material and moral disturbances.  While bad crops, commercial
and industrial crises, and unfavorable turns in political affairs
in the Old World, tend to increase immigration, the appearance of the same phenomena in the United States as certainly tends to decrease it. Thus, in 1838, the total of imrnigration decreased to 38,914, while in the previous year it had
amounted to 79,340, and in 1839 and 1840 it increased again to
68,069 and 84,066, respectively. The reason of this extraordinary decrease was the great financial crisis of 1837, which
shook the foundations of the whole industrial and agricultural
life of the United States.  Again, the influx of aliens into
New York was smaller in 1858 and 1859 than in any previous
year since 1842, for the only reason that the commercial crisis
of 1857 had frightened off many of those who  wanted to
make a living by the labor of their hands.  In 1858 and 1859,
only 78,589 and 79,322 emigrants, respectively, arrived in
New York; while in 1856, their number amounted to 142.342,
and in 1857, to 186,733. In 1860, it rose to 105,162; but, in
consequence of the civil war, which broke out in 1861, it fell
again in 1861 to 65,539, and in 1862 to 76,306. In 1867, the
German immigration to New York increased over that of
1866 by more than 10,000, in which last-mentioned year it
had already reached the large number of 106,716 souls. Its
ranks were swelled in 1867 in consequence of the emigration
of men liable to military service from the new provinces
annexed to Prussia in 1866, and of families which were dissatisfied with the new order of things.  Hanover contributed
the largest share of this kind of emigration. In.1868, the
316 
IMMIGRATION.
tide subsided again, as people began to become reconciled
to the sudden change.
"In short, bad times in Europe regularly increased, and
bad times in America invariably diminished, immigration."
In the last century, and, measurably, throughout the
first quarter of this, the immigration to this country,
being largely made up of "redemptioners," added little
to our national wealth beyond the value embodied in
their stout and willing arms. Since then, however, their
average pecuniary condition has steadily improved, until
Mr. Kapp's estimate- founded on much observation and
intimate knowledge - makes the average value of the
property they bring with them $ 150 per head, which, if
they number 250,000 per annum, gives an addition to
our national wealth of $ 37,500,000 from this source.
Of this aggregate, probably $20,000,000 comes in the
form of money, or of bills of exchange, which subserve
the same end in reducing the heavy balance of trade
against us.
Nor is this all. The official returns clearly indicate
an improvement in the industrial capacity of our immigration.   In the four years 1857 - 60 inclusive, the
number of immigrants reported as mechanics was but
56,194; while, for the four years 1865- 68, the number
so reported was 87,421, -an increase which I am confident would not have been shown had not the former
been an era of relative Free Trade, while the latter was
one of Protection.
Immigration is not an unmixed good.  Very much
depends on its quality. Said stout, sensible, practical
Captain John Smith, writing home to the London Company which had employed him to found the Colony of
Virginia, from amidst the unpromising material with
which they had supplied him, " When you send again, I
317 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
entreat you rather to send but thirty carpenters, husbandmenll, gardeners, fishermen, blacksmiths, masons, and
diggers-up of trees'-roots, well provided, than a thousand
of such as we have." A good many colonizers and founders of States have preferred similar requests, though
seldom with eqially pressing reasons for so doing. If
all the thieves and harlots, blacklegs and beggars, of
Europe, were to proffer us assurances of their distinguished consideration, proposing to honor us with the
light of their countenances on and after the opening of
the next Spring, we should doubtless advise them of our
ability and willingness to spare them that proof of their
affection. Their coming would add largely to our numbers, but nothing at all to our strength, our worth, or
our happiness. Hence, we have always repelled, as adding insult to injury, every detected attempt of German
princelings or Belgian municipalities to saddle us with
the care and subsistence of their criminals, vagrants, or
paupers. Doubtless, these have, through collusion with
sea-captains, been thrown upon our charity by thousands
without eliciting even a remonstrance; but that was because the wrong was committed so adroitly as to escape
detection: whenever we have learned that a European
prison or poor-house had been emptied on our shores, we
have resented it as a dastardly outrage. And, on the
other hand, we have welcomed every immigrant, no mnatter how poor and illiterate, who brings hither an honest
heart and two brown hands, as a positive and valued acquisition. Though he have less than a sovereign or napoleon in his pocket, if he steps ashore able and willing
to wield the spade and the pick-axe, he is prized as an
accession to our strength and our wealth.
And, while a stout ditcher or collier is justly thus
valued, a thoroughly skilful and capable engineer or artificer is a still more precious acquisition. In winning
318 
IMMIGRATION.
Agassiz from  Europe, we  secured  an acquisition of
greater value than twenty day-labl)orers; could we at the
same time have won Liebig likewise, we should have
justly been more proud of our acquisition than though
it had been another Alaska or St. Thomas. Had it
pleased God to send us Watt and Arkwright and George
Stephenson in their early manhood, the gift would have
been worth more to us than Canada or Mexico.
Now, one inevitable consequence of the establishment
of Manufactures on our soil has been the attraction to
our shores of a higher order of industrial ability (or
faculty, to use a good old word in its wholesome Yankee
significance) than we formerly did, or could otherwise
hope to do. We could not expect to draw men of high
capacity hither until we could proffer them congenial
and remunerative employment.   A Roebling or an Elias
Howe is even less likely to be attracted to citizenship in
Paraguay or Abyssinia than to be developed among her
indigenous population.   If we had been content with
Agriculture as a National pursutit, we should no more
have drawn hither the better class of European artisans
than developed the inventive and higher industrial powers of our native-born population.  As it is, while we
have, on the one hand, enriched the world by our great
inventions, we have, on the other, enriched ourselves by
putting to use among us the great inventions simutltaneously produced on foreign soil.
When Louis XIV., nmisnamed the Great, revoked the
edict of Nantes, whereby Henry IV. had guaranteed religious liberty to all Frenchmen of whatever communion,
-  when Louis set on his "booted apostles" to hunt the
Protestants out of France or out of the world,- he did
not realize that he was driving away the most precious
wealth of his kingdom. It was not the mere loss of a
million and a half of her people, that thus crippled and
319 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
impoverished France; it was the fact that these were
in large measure manufacturers and artis&ns, the most
intelligent, ingenious, and skilful of her people. They
carried with them, into their enforced exile, arts which
their native land, so unworthy of them, could hardly
spare; they bore away to Germany, Holland, Great
Britain, industrial devices and processes, the loss of
which France  still mourns.   Her marvellous genius,
Palissy, who lived to exalt by his achievements Pottery
from its former low estate into one of the rarest and
loftiest of the useful arts, was nearly lost to her by this
stupid, brutal despotism, which failed to see in persecution for conscience' sake the invasion of a most sacred
and inestimable right,- a right essential not onlvy to
moral and intellectual health and growth, but even to
the physical and social well-being of civilized man.
For the last few years, the champions of Free Trade
have asserted and attempted to demonstrate an actual
superiority in the essential recompense and social condition of the Laboring Class of Great Britain over that of
their brethren in this country. Statistics in abundance
have been produced and figures manipulated with the
intent of proving that a working-man's wages in Enlgland will procure him better food, clothing, and shelter,
than the wages of his American counterpart will buy in
this country.  "You can do anything with bayonets but
sit on them," says a pithy apothegm; and so you may
do anything with statistics but overbear the most palpable, indisputable facts.  The undeniable truth that one
hundred persons migrate hither from the British isles
and colonies,to improve their condition by their own industry, for every one who, with like intent, migrates
hence to those isles, brushes away the cobwebs of sophistry and places the truth beyond contradiction.
Vast as has been the volume of migration to this
320 
IMMIGRATION.
country for the last quarter of a century, it has manifestly not yet reached its maximum.  Tile building of
one Pacific Railroad through the heart of our country,
soon to be followed by others, facilitates and invites anl
immense and rapid expansion of our Mining and  the
subsidiary pursuits, thus opening new and eager markets
for the products of the farm, the workshop, and the factory.  The valleys of the streams issuing from either
flank of the Rocky Mountains, but more especially on
this side, are rapidly filling up with herdsmen and farmers, who find, in the mining camps of the adjacent "foothills" and more elevated crests and ridges, a market for
nearly every edible they can produce. Recent discoveries of boundless coal-fields in Utah, among the "Black
Hills" of Wyoming, beneath the valleys and plains of
Colorado, with an abundance of the ores of Iron and all
the baser Metals, presage an early erection of furnaces
and works for the reduction of various ores throughout
the rugged interior of our continent. Cotton is now
grown with profit in southern Utah; the young vineyards of New-Mexico promise early and ample harvests;
while exploration southward from Salt Lake and WVhite
Pinle indicate less sterility and far greater natural wealth
throughout the wild regions tributary to the great Colorado than have hitherto been accorded them.  In spite
of many failures and disappointments, our production of
Gold and Silver must be far ampler ten years hence than
it has ever been yet. Perhaps no such enormous deposits of Gold already mined by rivers and runnels, working
silently and unobservedly throughout so many past ages,
as dazzled the vision of our California pioneers, will ever
again be unearthed; for I know no other region whose
streams, plunging swiftly down the steep face of a high
mountain-range, have worn such deep gorges and concentrated their heavier minerals in such narrow sand-beds;
321 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
but barely a fraction of the precious metals imbedded
in the primitive rocks of our Pacific slope has yet been
extracted, while enough remains undisturbed to pay the
public debts of all nations without a sensible diminution
of its volume. Illimitable is the demand for Labor to
develop this measureless wealth; and every man actually
engaged in Mining requires the services of several other
men as producers of Machinery, of Food, of Fabrics, to
sustain him at his work and give efficiency to his efforts.
Vainly do we look to Europe to purchase and consume
our surplus Food: her markets are inevitably capricious
and her prices unremunerative: but with our Railroads
traversing Arizona, Montana, Idaho, our Mines fully
opened and worked, our Manufactories supplying our
own ever-expanding wants, and our People uniting, hand
in hand and eye to eye, to sustain every Home interest
and develop every Home resource, a new era in Nationlal
growth will be opened, and our Immigration in the future wholly eclipse and belittle the gTandest realizations
of the past.
[NOTE. - Nothing can well be more  fallacious than the
Free-Traders' computations of the number of persons actually employed in and subsisted by our Mining and Manufacturing industry. For every person returned in the Census
as making Iron, there will be at least a score cutting wood,
burning it into charcoal, making roads, bridges, &c., mining
coal, quarrying limestone, &c., &c., - all of them impelled,
and paid so to do, by the fact that the furnaces require their
labor, or its product, - all, in verity, engaged in making
Iron.]
322 
SPECIFIC   AD VALOREM-  MINIMUM.
XXIII.
SPECIFIC-AD VALOREM-MINIMUM.
A specfic duty is one which exacts so much money
per yard, per pound, per ton, on the importation of an
article, without regard to fluctuations in the value or
price of that article.  Anl ad valorem duty exacts such a
percentage of the appraised, sworn, or invoice, value of
the article or articles imported. A minimum is established when the act provides that all Woollen dress cloths
(for instance) which are invoiced, appraised, or sworn, to
be worth or to have cost less than one dollar per square
yard, shall be taken and deemed to have cost one dollar
per square yard, and charged with duty accordingly.
I am not aware that the minimum principle was employed in framing any American Tariff prior to 1816,
when Mr. Lowndes of South Carolina proposed that all
imported Cotton fabrics invoiced or appraised as costing
less than twenty-five cents per square yard should be
taken and deemed to have cost that sum, and charged
with duty accordingly.   The duty on Cotton fabrics
being fixed at twenty-five per cent., this provision raised
the impost on all imported Sheetings, Shirtings, Calicoes,
&c., to 6- cents per square yard at the lowest, and thus
gave to our infant Cotton manufacture a protection
which enabled it to flourish and expand throughout the
succeeding years.   Indeed, Mr. Calhoun, in defending
this provision, frankly stated that its object was to place
the stability and growth of that manufacture beyond
323 
POLITICAL ECONOIMY.
contingency,- as it did. For, though twenty-five cents
per square yard may have been a fair estimate of the
average value of Cotton fabrics when that Tariff was
framed, vet the rapid expansion of our Cotton culture,
resulting in lower and yet lower prices for the staple,
paralleled by the strides continually made in inventions
which rendered more effective the machinery and processes for spinning and weaving the staple, cheapening
at once production and product; ultimately reduced the
price of many common but serviceable Cotton fabrics below tel cents per square yard; so that the duty, though
still nominally twenty-five per cent., was more efficiently
Protective than would have been one of one hundred per
cent. lacking the miinimum.
A cardinal objection to Ad Valorem duties, upon imported articles which compete directly and depressingly
with the products of our own industry, is this: Such
duties must always be lowest when they should be highest,
and hiy,hest when the need of them is least.  Let us suppose, for illustration, that British Pig Iron of fair quality
can be sent to us at a cost of ~t4, or $20 per ton; and
the dutty is thereupon fixed at twenty-five per cent., making the cost in this city of the British Pig $ 25 (gold)
per ton; while our smelters can just afford to make it at
that price. But the British product is put down to $15
per ton; consequently, the duty falls to three-fourths of
its former amount, reducing the price of British Pig in
our market below $ 20 per ton, and compelling a large
proportion of our furnaces to suspend operations. Should
the British makers decide to reduce, for a time, their
prices to $ 10 per ton, the duty would fall to $ 21,
making the total cost at our wharves $ 12-.  Laws thus
framed, so far from protecting Home Industry, lie in
wait to ensnare it to its ruin.
The Iron-masters of Pennsylvania assembled at Phil
324 
SPECIFIC - AD VALOREM -  MINIMUM.
adelphia in 1849 to petition Congress against the mainmtenance of the Polk-Walker ad valoremn Tariff of 1846.
In their memnorial,1 they say:
"When the price of iron is high abroad, the duty is high at
home, giving to the American manufacturer an incidental protection which continues so long as the market remains high;
but, so soon as the foreign market fluctuates, the duty falls with
it; so that, at the time when the highest duty is nieeded to enable American manufacturers to sustain a competition with the
foreign manufacturers, the protection is taken away,- thus
acting as a sliding scale against the American manufacturer.
When the Tariff act of 1846 was passed, the thirty per cent.
duty on the price of iron at Liverpool ($50) was $15 per ton;
the cost and duty added made the price $ 65.  But, for the
last two years, the price has fallen from $ 50 to $ 27 per ton,
and the duty from $ 15 to $ 8 per ton, making the cost of iron
and duty $ 35 per ton,- a fluctuation of $ 30 per ton. To
sustain the American manufacturer, he requires the reverse
of the operation of the present ad valorem duty.  When the
price abroad is highest, he needs the least duty, and when it
is lowest he requires the highest."
After showing that the Ameri-can Droduction of Iron
had decidedly increased under the operation of the Protective Tariff of 1842, they proceed to state that
"The fluctuations in price which have ensued from this
large production have been of late years so great as to cast in
the shade all other commercial changes of price. The range
of these fluctuations in pig iron during the last ten years is
from ~1 18 s. to ~ 5 12 s. 6 d., and il bar iron, from ~ 4 10 s.
to $13, or about two hundred per cent.
"In one extremity of this fluctuation, British iron becomes
too high to import under a revenue duty; in the other, too
low to admit of home production. In the one extreme, one
cannot afford to use it; in the other, it paralyzes our efforts
to manufacture for ourselves.
1 The History of the Iron Trade of the United States. By B. F.
French. New York, 1858.
325 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
"The legislation asked by American manufactures deserves
not the odium so frequently heaped upon it. We know that
we can furnish to the consumers of this country a million of
tons of iron cheaper and better than it can be had abroad.
We ask for defence against those commercial fluctuations
which occur in Great Britain, from causes wholly originating
there, and which, while they thrust down the prices of iron
there far below the cost of making, throw large and irregular
quantities into our ports, disturbing the regular course of industry here; breaking down our markets, and carrying ruin
at each such invasion into many establishments. If we ask
aid against such irregularities, it is no more than we should
be obliged to do if the manufacture in the United States were
as greatly developed as in Great Britain, and enjoying, in all
respects, equal advantages. If that wvere the case, each of the
equally powerful competitors would seek to relieve their
home markets in seasons of depression, by thrusting the rejected surplus upon his rival; and each would seize the opportunity of high prices in the other to make large exports,
until both markets, unable to maintain any high prices to
compensate for unifavorable periods, would sink into hopeless
depression, and the business perish or be greatly impaired.
Against such consequences, both would appeal to their respective governments for protection, not for monopoly, -for
that security against ruinous fluctuations, and that regularity
in sales indispensable to the success of industry.  Competitors at home can observe their mutual progress, and take
their measures of defence in time; but that competition which
comes from abroad cannot be watched, nor preparations made
for its sudden inroads. If the British manufacturer is prevented firom flooding our markets at less than the average
price upon which his business thrives, a mere revenue duty
will be ample protection against the great advantage he enjoys, of employing labor at less than half the cost paid in the
United States."
As to the effect of Protection on prices, a forcible statement was made by the Committee onil Iron of the friends
of Domestic Industry at their Convention held in this
City in November, 1831.   They say:
326 
SPECIFIC - AD VALOREM - MINIMUM.
"The average price of bar iron in 1828 was $1181.  In that
year, an addition to the duty on hammered iron was made of
$ 4.40 per ton, and on rolled of $ 7. In the following year,
the price fell to $114X, and in 1830 to $962; showing a
decline in two  years of $21- per ton in face of the increased duty above mentioned; a decline effected exclusively
by domestic competition, inasmuch as no corresponding decline took place abroad, and the fall here was greatest in those
markets which are inaccessible to foreign iron."
It is remarkable that our Free-Traders, who harp so
constantly on the practice and experience of other civilized nations as approving or confirming their theories,
rarely or never allude to the strong preference of nearly
all Europe for specific duties. The Zoll-Verein of Germany taxes nearly or quite every import by weight, —
so much per pound, per cwt., per ton,   and this basis
of taxation is very generally preferred for its honesty, its
simplicity, and its inflexibility. In an inquiry made in
1840 by a Select Committee of the House of Commons,
whereof that eminent Free-Trader, Joseph Hume, was
Chairman, Dr. John Bowring (also a decided Free-Trader)
testified 1 as follows:
"Question 831. - What manufactures have made and are
making most progress in Germany? Answer.- Certainly,
those which have grown up spontaneously, without any protection.
' Q. 832.- What are they? A. - The hosiery trade is the
most remarkable. I believe at this moment the cottonframes of Saxony are equal to, if they do not exceed in number, those of this country.  The manufactures which are suffering most in Saxony are the manufactures of modern introduction, particularly their spinning factories, which have
grown up since the introduction of the Prussian tariff.
" Q. 833.- Then do you consider the Prussian tariff a Pro
1 Report of the Select Committee on Import Duties, together with
the Minutes of Evidence: Ordered by the House of Commons to be
printed.  August 6, 1840.
327 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
tective tariff to manufacturers? A.- Protective to a certain
extent.
' Q. 834. - WVhat is the principle on which the German
commercial tariff is founded?   A.-  As respects  manufactures, it was intended that the maximum duty should be ten
per cent.; but effect has not been given to that intention; for,
on a great number of articles, the duty is from sixty to one
hundred per cent.
"Q. 835. - Has that been in consequence of taking the duty
by weight?  A. - Yes.  The finer articles pay a duty not
exceeding ten per cent.; but the duty on the coarser articles
is very highl, and really prohibitory.
"Q. 836. -Is not that operation greatly against British
commerce? A. -Decidedly. This system of taking duty
by weight was recognized by Mr. Huskisson in 1826, with
reference to silk; and it is notorious that, while it was the
intention of Parliament to levy only thirty per cent., there are
a great many cases in which fifty or sixty are levied under our
tariff; we have introduced a standard of alue with a standard
of weight, and the complication has thwarted the purposes
of the law. The result of this has been that, while the intention of Parliament was only to raise thirty per cent., fifty and
sixty are occasionally taken upon silk goods from Germany,
and France, and Switzerland."
I call the especial attention to this testimony of the
Free Trade essayists who are accustomed to assert that
the duties imposed by the Zoll-Verein are limited to
ten per cent.  Dr. Bowring  had just made  a careful
scrutiny on the spot of the provisions and operation of
the Zoll-Verein, and spoke from thorough knowledge.
To similar effect, Mr. John Dillon, also an intense
Free-Trader, of the Silk house of Morrison, Dillon & Co.,
London, testified as follows:
"Question 2,936. - Would you levy duties by weight or ad
valorem? Answer. - That is a very difficult question; there
are strong objections to both modes. The fairest mode, theoretically, is upon the value; but to that very great practical 
objections lie. It is exposed to evasion, and is constantly
328 
SPECIFIC -  AD VALOREM      MINIMUM.
evaded.  It is admitted almost by all, and few attempt to deny,
that, when they mnake returns of value, they make false retutrns; it is done in the most open, undisguised manner.....
Aware of these evasions, the Government have chosen, having
the option of two modes, generally to charge by weight. To
that mode, there are these objections: that the parties who,
from greater capital or talent, are enabled to buy abroad
cheaper, pay a higher rate of duty per cent. upon the costprice than those who buy badly; and that, when the duty is so
high as thirty per cent., makes a serious difference. Still, upon
the whole, I think the best plan for the legislature to adopt
is to levy the duty by weight; not that I think there are no
objections to that mode, but because, in the choice of evils,
that is the least."
Mr. Dillon seems to think that, where one importer
has bought his goods twenty-five per cent. cheaper than
a rival, he ought to pay twenty-five per cent. less duty
on them,- an opinion which I do not share.
Early in the last session of the Thirtieth Congress, the
Hon. James Thompson (a Democrat of the Pennsylvania
variety) was enlighteninig the House,' after the fashion
of his kind, on the subject of the Tariff,- trying hard
to steer midway between Revenue and Protection,- denouncing in one breath the Tariff of 1842 and that of
1846,    and saying:
"Now, Sir, what is the remedy for all this?  It is plain.
Specific duties, - moderate specific duties, - moderate, not
inconsistent with revenue.  Take Iron (Pig) as an example:
fix a price for it, - say $20 or $ 25 per ton, - calculate
it at $20, if you please: say thirty per cent. on this valuation; this would be six dollars.  Now,  Sir, when it would
become abundant abroad, and should come in at nine dollars, (the valuation per ton,) you would still get your six
dollars on the ton; and the more that should come in, (the
evidence of superabundance and want of market abroad,) the
1 December 19, 1848.  See Congressional Globe, p. 64.
329 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
more revenue there would accrue to the country. Let this
be the system in regard to the great articles of manufacture
and produce of the country. Specific duties would give stability.  Our affairs would not be made to fluctuate, nor our
revenue either.
"Mr. C. J. INGERSOLL, of Pennsylvania, inquired if his colleague did not consider specific duties necessary on Liquors,
Wines, and Brandies.
"Mr. THOMPSON. -  I do not know.  I cannot answer.  I do
not deal in those articles.
"Mr. INGERSOLL.-  YOU will, if you consider the interest of
the country.
"Mr. THOMPsO..-  I cannot charge my  colleague- for
whom I have the highest regard- with any want of consistency, not in the least. But it seems to be within my recollection that my colleague, at the last session of Congress,
proposed a reduction of the duties on Liquors to fifteen per
cent.
Mr. INGERSOLL.- I proposed it; for there ought, no doubt,
to be a reduction; but it ought to be a reduction to Specific
Duties: they are a good deal better than your Ad Valorems.
"Mr. THOMPSON.- I am opposed to Ad Valorems, as universally applied. I think it a mistaken policy in every point
of view. I am in favor of reasonable Specific Duties, and opposed to Minimums.
"Mr. GREELEY of New  York. -  Will the gentleman from
Pennsylvania he good enough to tell us how we can have
Specific Duties without minimums?
"Mr. THOMPSON. -I think there is a difference between
them; so thoulght the framers of the Tariff of 1842. They
fixed by law an artificial value, without any regard to the real
value, and assessed a duty equal to the whole value in some
cases, without any regard to supply, demand, market, or anything else.
' VOICES. -  YOU are wrong.
"Mr. THOMPSON.- I am not wrong, I think.  The Tariff of
1842 contained Specific Duties, and Minimums, not as a consequence of Specific Duties, but as a consequence of the Ad
Valorem system. Without critically inquiring into the matter, I have not taken the terms as convertible. At all events,
330 
SPECIFIC- AD VALOREM - MINIMUM.    331
these Minimums, to a greater extent than anything else, overthrew the Tariff of 1842."
The above is, I judge, not much more muddled than
the average of Congressional disquisitions onil the various
and important practical questions which must be decided ill framing or revising a tariff.  Judge Thompson
was anxious to sail between wind and water, — to favor
such Protection as was obviously required by and conducive to the well-being of Pennsylvania, and to oppose
or ignore all other. Now a Specific impost is especially
applicable to Iron, the Pennsylvania staple, while American Textile Fabrics were then almost confined to New
England, where the larger part of them are- probably
still produced. The only possible way of avoiding or
modifying the application to these of Ad Valorem
duties, unless we adopt the Zoll-Verein method of putting all Woollens into the scales, and charging as much
per pound (and thus a good deal more per yard) on
superfine Broadeloths as on the coarsest Blankets or
Carpets, is by a resort to the Minimum principle as
above illustrated. This allows duties to be adjusted
with very considerable regard to the value of the respective articles imported, yet interpose a decided obstacle
to the importation of cheap, showy, worthless goods on
the payment  of  merely  nominal  duties.   In  other
words: a Minimum is a device for rendering Ad Va loreim duties as nearly Specific as the nature of the ar ticle taxed will allow.
A correspondent of The Times (London) writing 1
from Manchester in the interest of the manufacturers
and exporters of that city, explains the existing depressioni of the Cotton manufacture b)y the failure of the
sanguine expectations formerly entertained of a large
1 Published September 27, 1869. 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
demand for British fabrics in France, through the operation of the Cobden-Chevalier treaty. The writer vindicates the British negotiators of that treaty as follows:
"In the first place, it should be remembered that the starting-point of Mr. Cobden, in the inculcation of Free Trade prinz
ciples in France, was simply a promise from the Government
of that country that, in any treaty that might be agreed upon,
the duties on British manufactures should not exceed 30 per
cent.; and, in criticising the labors of those who arranged the
details of the treaty, it should be borne in mind that any concessions from this stand-point were absolutely wrung from
French officials thoroughly imbued with a spirit of Protectionism, or sworn to the interests of French manufacturers.   It
has often been laid to the charge of the gentlemen who represented the English manufacturers that their mission was inefficiently performed, and that the representatives of French
industry succeeded in stealing a march on them, and in gaining a decided advantage for their own manufactures. In
answer to this, the English delegates reply that a very fewv
days' negotiation served to convince them that they had undertaken a conflict with the prejudices.of men who looked
with the utmost jealousy on foreign competition, and by
whom the principles of Free Trade were hardly understood, or,
at any rate, but imperfectly appreciated.  A hard struggle of
many days for the admission of an ad valorem principle ended
in a complete refusal on the part of the French; and, finally,
the present most unsatisfactory Tariff was submitted to in
the way of'Hobson's choice,' but certainly not as the embodiment of what the English representatives considered
either just or desirable..... The thin end only of the wedge
could, however, be inserted; and it was hoped that such
commercial results as the treaty might produce, added to the
hoped-for weakening of Protectionist feeling in France, might,
in future negotiations, influence the adoption of a scale of duties more likely to create a market for the productions of this
country. In consequence of the specific character of the present Tariff, the most favorable time for the English exporter
of cotton goods must be when prices rule highest, inasmuch
332 
SPECIFIC -  AD VALOREM-  MINIMUM.         333
as the duty then bears the smallest relation to their value;
and thus it is that our largest exports to France were made
during the American war, when the value of cotton goods
was unusually inflated, and when the duty amounted only to
fi-om 721 to 10 per cent. With a decline in prices came a decline in the consumption of English goods in France; and so
-small has the trade now become that it exists only in name,
and the few houses which in this country attempt to maintain
it can only do so by narrowly watching the fluctuations of the
respective markets, or by limiting their operations to those
fabrics to which the Tariff gives the highest preference.
The following figures will show the high rate at which the
duties now stand, and they also suggest the improbability
of any future fluctuations in the value of cotton, placing the
trade in a more advantageous position. Average duty on all
classes during the American war (say, cotton at 2s. per
pound), about 10 per cent. Average duty at the same time
on the sorts of goods most exported, about 8 per cent. Average duty on all classes at to-day's prices for goods, about 16
per cent. Average on all sorts of goods at the probable future ruling value fsay, cotton at 8 d. per pound), about 20 per
cent. Average on sorts most exported at future ruling prices,
about 17 per cent.  It is natural that the exporter should
select for shipment those articles to which the duty is most
favorable; but it thus appears that, even on those sorts, lihe
cannot escape a duty averaging about 17 per cent. Next in
objection to the high character of the tariff comes the erratic
and almost inexplicable application. To make this apparent, one has only to refer to the fact that, for purposes of
taxation, cotton fabrics are grouped in three classes, distinguished by the width and weight of the various cloths.  These
groups are again subjected to subdivisions, distinguished by
the number of threads in the square inch; making in all, for
plain goods alone, nine separate standards of tariff, each of
which must be laboriously groped out by the custom-house
officers with measure, scales  and whaling-glass.  Such an
utterly illogical method of fixing duties leads to the most
absurd inconsistencies in their application; and we thus find
the ingenuity of the exporter stimulated to the utmost in order
to pass his highly taxed fabrics utnder a lowver classification than 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
is assigned to them; in fact, the issue of his business often depends ort the success or otherwise of this deception."
I have printed so much of this letter as serves to show
the influence and working of Ad  Valorem and Specific
duties respectively. The writer - who takes throughout
what I may distinguish as the bagman's view of the
whole matter - of course thinks a low Ad Valorem duty
just what is wanted to restore the markets of France
to the looms of Manchester,-  which, to his mind, is
the great end to be achieved.  He insists that there
is little difference between the cost of making cotton
fabrics in the two countries, harps on the stupid prejudice of Frenchmen against buying from England fabrics
which they can easily make at home, and makes out, to
the satisfaction, doubtless, of the owners of British spinning and weaving machinery, that the French should be
induced to abandon the treaty arrangement and substitute for it a ten per cent. Ad Valorem duty; but I cannot glean from his statement that any benefit is likely
to result to the Freitch from an adoption of his policy;
wherefore, I conclude that it is not very likely to prevail.  Evidently the French "don't see it."
The above illustrations suffice, I judge, to elucidate
the nature and radical differences of the rival modes of
imposing or estimating Duties on Imports. My own
judgment decidedly favors the making (by means of
Minimums where the end can no otherwise be attained)
of every duty Specific, to the utmost possible extent.
Unlike Mr. Dillonl, I consider the fact that an importer
has bought (or made) his goods twenty per cent. cheaper
than another can buy them, no reason whatever why he
should pay twenty per cent. less duty on their importation I hold it a requirement of honest trade as well as
honest industry that one man's imports should pay the
334 
SPECIFIC-AD VALOREM — MINIMUM.     33
same as aniiother's, and I repel the suggestion that Specific Duties bear heaviest on the poor, because they purchase inferior goods.  If it be the fact that the poor
buy poor goods, I find in that fact an explanlation of
their poverty, a-  cause as well as a consequence.  If
they do not comprehend that thoroughly good fabrics
are cheaper than poor,- that a poor man's wife or daughter may wisely prefer for her dress an excellent Gingham
or Dc Laine to a flimsy, shabby Silk,- their knowledge
should be extended and their taste improved.   In my
view, it is a weighty recommendation of Specific Duties
that they inevitably and strongly tend to prevent the
imnportation of inferior and worthless goods, by taxing
them as high per yard or per pound as the excellent
wares and fabrics which they, outwardly resembling,
follow afar off, and would fain be mistaken for. If the
day shall be hastened by Specific Duties, in which no
one can offord to import any other than a thoroughly
good article of its kind, I shall hail it as a foretaste of
the Millennium.
*  [NOTE.- By the Tariff of 1842, all imported Wines were
charged moderate but Specific Duties.  The Walker Tariff, of
1846, upset all this, admitting every description of Wine at
an Ad Valorem duty of forty per cent. Hon. Thomas Corwin, as Secretary of the Treasury, reported to Congress in
1850, that the same description of \Vines were invoiced, under the latter of these Tariffs, but little more than one third
the prices at which they were entered under the former,
which afforded no inducement to under valuation.]
335 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
XXIV.
CONCLUSIONS.
I HAVE hitherto presented at some length the considerations which seem to me to render the maintenance of
a Protective Tariff expedient and beneficent. I have
contemplated more directly the case of our own country,
because of my special interest in her welfare, and because I am more familiar with the essential facts in her
case than I am with the corresponding facts in the history, resources and position, of any other people.  Whether it might or might not be well for Great Britain to
have all the Ore that is dug, and all the Cotton, Wool,
Flax, Hemp, &c., that are grown on the globe shipped to
her ports, utilized in her furnaces and factories, and sent
abroad for sale in a manufactured form, I have not so
closely studied, and do not decide; yet I am sure that
it would not be best for the Laboring Class generally,
and I doubt that it would be best for that portion of the
British people in particular.  For I cannot shut my eyes
to the truth that, other things being equal, the farther
a staple is transported from its producers for fabrication,
the larger is the percentage of its value which must be
abstracted from the proceeds to pay the cost of such
transportation; and this percentage must be deducted
from the avails accruing to Labor. If we send Apples
to Havana in order to buy Cuban Oranges with the proceeds, we should be very unreasonable were we to expect
to receive so many Apples for each bushel or barrel of
Oranges as the Cuban consumers gave for them; and
so with everything exported and imported.   We should
336 
CONCLUSIONS.
be reconciled to receiving fewer Oranges than the number of Apples we sent, by the consideration that Oranges
grow luxuriantly in Cuba and are grown with difficulty
or not at all here; and, so far as contrasted peculiarities
of soil or climate dictate such exchanges, they are abundantly justified.  But the case is entirely different with
regard to Satinets or Sheetings, Nails or Needles, which
may be made nearly or quite as well (that is, with as
little labor) in one country as another. Show me that
our country lacks the raw material or other natural
facilities for producing any or all of these, and I will
agree that she should not make the attempt; but, if the
reason urged for not attempting it be the greater aggregation of capital, machinery, skill, &c., which a thousand
years' effort and experience have achieved for a rival
nation, while these have been denied to or not yet attained by us, then I hold that a fallacious reason, which
ought to be overruled and rejected. If we lack experience, let us acquire it; if our inferiority inheres in
unopened mines and unbuilt railroads, factories, or furnaces, let us provide whatever we lack, and thus qualify
ourselves for supplying our own wants under every possible advantage. The reasons which dictate abstinence
from any effort on our part to grow Coffee or Cinnamon,
Cloves or Cacao, have no existence or no application
when we contemplate the production or fabrication of
Plaids or Cassimeres, Gloves or Ginghams, which may
be produced with as little labor here as elsewhere.
A true Political Economy, in my conception, regards
with especial interest and favor the producers and production of wealth.  If there be a community of ten
thousand persons whereof one-half are of fit age to earn
something, it dislikes to see half this productive force
dissipated in subsidiary and non-productive employments,
such as the various departments of transportation and
337
15 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
traffic. It does not blindly, sweepingly condemn Trade
as useless and unprofitable to the communmity; for it recognizes the beneficence of a diversity of pursuits, and
knows that the efficieincyv of Labor is thereby promoted;
it realIizes that, where each labors only in that vocation
for which he is best fitted by skill and experience, exchanges of products are inevitable; and that these fall
naturally, if not necessarily, into the hands of a class
devoted to and presumptively qualified to effect them
with celerity, economy, and substantial justice.  But
Commerce should be the servant, not the master, of Industry, which is better served, and at far less cost, where
the exchangers are few and the exchanges direct and
simple, than where they are needlessly complicated and
absorb a large share of the ability and force of a comrrmunity.  Doubtless, if all our Clothing as well as our
Cloths were fabricated in Europe, we should have a
larger and (for a time) more flourishing Commerce than
we now have, with more persons living and making fortunes by Trade; but the dividend to Labor from the
aggregate product of our National Industry must be proportionally and absolutely less than it now is, while the
proportion of our people who could find no work would
be far greater. Unless Europe could make our Clothes
for us in half the time required to make them here,
which she certainly could not, -there would be a loss
to us and a loss to mankind of the cost of sending our
Wheat, Wool, Cotton, Cheese, Meat, &c., &c., thither
to pay for our Clothes and bringing over those Clothes
'and diffusing them throughout our country; and this
loss would by no means be limited to the heavy cost of
transportation both ways, but would be swelled im mensely by the hazards of shipwreck, fire, and damage
during transit, as well as by the charges and profits of
those through whom the exchanges were effected.
338 
CONCLUSIONS.
"Then," says a Free-Trader, "those exchanges, proving unprofitable, would be superseded, and cease."
"Unprofitable," to whom?  Not to the exchangers,
who, having all the clews in their hands, would be living and generally prospering by their business, and
would be very likely to make efforts and sacrifices to
subvert any rivalry that threatened to supplant them.
And their command of capital, experience, skill, and the
channels of trade, would give them a very great advantage over any rash adventurer who should attempt to
rival them by making Clothes on our own soil. Inevitably, those who had long enjoyed the profits of
Clothes-making would display more elegant, attractive,
and even cheaper garments than their raw competitors,
and triumphantly ask the public to decide whether the
labor which produced the Wheat, Cotton, Wool, Tobacco, &c., wherewith their goods were paid for, was not
as truly American as that of the botches and extortioners who impudently besought our people to buy clumsy,
ill-made, unsightly, misfitting garments at exorbitant
prices, under the absurd pretence that they would
thereby encourage Home Industry.
There are men as well as women in this country who
now have their garments mainly made in Europe; and,
if they honestly pay the duties charged on their importation; I make no objection. They help to defray the
heavy burden of our Public Debt; and they do not materially depress the wages of labor. If we had never imposed a tax on such importation, there would be twenty
garments imported where one is now, and the art of
making elegant, fashionable Clothing would not have advanced among us nearly so far as it has done. Now let
us suppose that in such case an American, deprecating
such importation of our more costly and elegant Clothing as prejudicial to the National well-being, should re
339 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
solve to have all his own clothes made in this country,
what would he thereby effect. The price of his produce would remain at the low level induced by our necessity of exporting enormously and glutting the markets of Europe in order to pay for our Clothes and other
imports, and he must be content with such garments
as the rude and low estate of the Clothes-making art
among us enabled us to produce, and at such prices
would naturally result. But let us resolve and enact as
a people that we will henceforth encourage and favor as
Clothes-making on our own soil by taxing the importation of foreign-made Clothes, and the case would be
bravely altered. First-rate tailors and milliners would
be thereby incited to settle among us, bringing hither
their capital, skill, and experience; our own clothesmakers, having a larger and steadier demand for their
products, would be enabled and impelled to extend
their operations and thus cheapen their products; the
expansion and stability thus given to American Clothesmaking would create or insure larger and better home
markets for our Food, Wool, Cotton, &c.; and thus the
beneficent results vainly sought through spasmodic,
isolated, individual effort, would be readily and fully secured through that Protection which is another name
for National Cooperation to diminish the proportion of
exchangers or traffickers, and increase that of effective
producers of wealth. The difference is the same as that
between constructing the Erie Canal upon the resources
and credit of the State, and attempting to construct it
by inducing every one to dig out so much of the bed as
traversed his own farm or wood-lot.
Let me fuirther elucidate my difference with the FreeTraders by an incident that seems to me to show that
their idea of cheapness is mole-eyed and delusive. A
citizen of North Canaan, Connecticut, had always op
340 
CONCLUSIONS.
posed Protection as calculated to enrich the manufacturer at the expense of his own class (the farmers),
prior to 1842, when he contracted for clearing one huiindred acres of his woodland at $ 10 per acre in addition
to what could be made of the wood. Before this job
was completed, the Tariff of that year was passed; and
now a furnace was put into blast and the production of
Pig Iron from charcoal commenced in his neighborhood;
when the iron-makers paid him $ 20 per acre for the
wood on two hundred acres of just such land as he had
that year paid $10 per acre for clearing.  Here was a
difference of $ 6,000 made to one farmer between having
our Iron made at home and importing it; and that farmer was enabled to see that Protection benefited others
than manufacturers.
The whole country is thickly dotted with cases essentially like this. For instance: I bought, eighteen
months ago, a rugged wood-lot from which the wood had
just been cut, and which was largely covered with the
shrub known as Laurel (Rhododendron, or Kalmia),
which I would gladly have extirpated, that trees might
replace it. I naturally inquired for some use to be made
of this shrub, and learned that a manufactory in Connecticut, forty miles away, would buy it at $ 6 per cord,
less than I must  pay for its conveyance thither.
Had that factory been in my neighborhood, my Laurel
would have been property, whereas it is now merely
obstruction and nuisance. And it would be difficult to
establish in any rural neighborhood a factory that would
not give value to many products or substances previously worthless, if not worse.
These, then, are my general deductions from the facts
and considerations set forth in the foregoing essays: -
I. Protection is another name for Labor-Saving
through Cooperation, by bringing producer and con
341 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
sumer nearer each other, enabling them to interchange
their respective products directly and cheaply, instead
of circuitously, through several intermediates, and at
great cost.  In thus reducing the proportion of ex changers and increasing that of producers in a commu nity, it inevitably increases the aggregate product of
human effort, and thus enhances the recompense of Labor.
As Canals and Railroads have increased production and
wealth by reducing the cost of transportation, so Pro tection achieves the same end by shortening the distances for which transportation is required.
II. Protection has been seen, in the case of the French
production of Beet Sugar, to call into existence a new
department of Industry, with signal advantage to all
concerned. The people of France consume far more
Sugar than they ever did or could afford to do until its
production had been naturalized on their own soil. They
are so supplied cheaper than they ever were while they
procured their Sugar from abroad; the labor which produces it is better paid than it was or could be in the
absence of this industry; the fertility of their soil has
been increased, and even their anneal product of Grain
and Meat has been enlarged, by the naturalization among
them of the Beet culture, whereby the earth is pulverized and fertilized to a depth without precedent, and the
following crops of Wheat largely augmented, while the
leaves and residuum of the Beet subsist and fatten large
numbers of Cattle. And, so far is it from truth that
an industry once protected calls ever for more and higher Protection, that Raw Sugar of excellent quality is
now sold by wholesale in France at an average of five
cents per pound, and its producers ask no Protection
whatever, but acquiesce without objection in an excise
or internal tax on their product fully equal to that borne
by the Cane Sugar produced in the tropical colonies of
France.
342 
CONCLUSIONS.
III. While there has been an advance in the average
prices cf our Agricultural staples since the passage of
our first decidedly Protective Tariff in 1824, there is-Lno
single Manufacture protected by that Tariff and by its
Protective successors which has not been reduced in
cost to the great mass of our consumers; and that reduction is generally greatest on the articles which have
been most stringently, persistently protected. Iron and
its Manufactures, Woollen Fabrics of all kinds, Window
Glass, De Laines, Ginghams, and even Salt, illustrate
this truth.
IV. While it is certain that we already produce very
many Wares and Fabrics, such as Edge Tools, Nails,
Shovels, Spades, Satinets, Cassimeres, Sheetings, Prints,
De Laines, the less sumptuous Shawls, Clocks, Watches,
&c., &c., -far cheaper than Europe ever afforded them
till we began to make for ourselves,- cheaper than we
could now obtain an adequate supply abroad, if we had
not naturalized their production on our own soil,- it is
probable that some articles, like Pig Iron, whereof the
cost inheres scarcely at all in the material employed,
but wholly in the quantum of labor required to produce
them, will be produced at a lower monoey cost abroad
than among us, and that, though we have cheapened,
and shall doubtless continue,to cheapen them, by discoveries, by inventions, by larger aggregations of capital,
and by a riper experience, yet- the discoveries and inventions of our people being speedily appropriated by
our foreign rivals- it is probable that, so long as Labor
remains relatively dear in this country and  cheap in
Europe, our producers of these articles will be sharply
rivalled, sometimes undersold, and, in the absence of
Protection might be, as they have hitherto been, under mined and broken down by this unfair, unequal compe tition.  To me, it seems clearly not best for my coun
343 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
try, for Labor, nor for human well-being, that such pros tration and collapse of important branches of our Na tional Industry should be permitted; and I hold that its
legislative prevention by tax on the foreign rivals in our
markets of our producers of wealth is as justifiable and
beneficent as the fortification of our coasts and harbors
against possible foreign aggression.
V. The true; beneficent relation of the more advanced or perfected to the less developed and immature
industries of diverse nations seems to me one of friendly
encouragement, not depressing, destructive competition.
If (for example) the people of Liberia should desire next
year to start a manufactory of Ploughs and other Agricultural Implements, I could wish that the plough-makers
of Europe and America would make to that factory a
present of approved patterns and labor-saving machines,
and in every way bid the new plough-makers God speed:
I should deeply regret to hear that, instead of this, they
had sent out large invoices of farming implements to
their agents in Liberia, with instructions to sell them
below cost till their upstart Liberian rival had been
broken down. In my view, this course would be consistent neither with a Christian spirit nor with the
highest good of mankind. And, since I realize that this
latter course is far more likely to be taken than that
which I greatly prefer, I hold it a duty of Governments
to protect the imperilled, struggling-industries of their
peoples from overthrow by a competition which, in its
headlong clutch at personal, special emolument, tramples
ruthlessly on the just claims of Labor, and is deaf to the
pleadings of Humanity.
VI. I am no more the champion of the Laboring
Class, inaccurately so designated, - that is, of those who
sell their services for daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly
wages,  than of any other.  I realize that this class is
344 
CONCLUSIONS.
as likely as any other to be selfish, rapacious, wrongheaded, domineering, tyrannical. I do not doubt that
what are called "Strikes" for wages are often mistaken,
and that resistance to their exactions is then an imperative necessity as well as a social duty.  I feel that King
Mob may be as irrational anid headstrong, a despot as
any other monarch.  Yet I cannot forget that the Laboring' Class, so called, must, like any other, stand lup
for its own rights, or be content to see them trampled
under foot; and that the strength given it by organization, superinduced upon numbers, is its only effectual
defence against the else unchecked tyranny of Capital,
eager for profit and reckless of others' rights. The
power developed by combination may be abused, like any
other power; but Labor is helpless and a prey without
it. I hold, therefore, that Trades' Unions and similar
comnpacts, though often abused, have, on the whole, effected signal good; that Labor is to-day better paid, and
its rights better secured, than they otherwise would or
could be. But all this is "smoke to the eyes and vinegar to the nose" of the Free-Traders, whose fundamental principle it impugns, whose entire philosophy it conflicts with. Hence, Professor Perry is impelled to say 1
that
"The guilds of the Middle Ages, and the Trades' Unions
of our own day, are examples of voluntary associations for
the sake [purpose?] of regulating the wages of their members
by combined action. The restrictions in the old guilds, limiting the number of apprentices to each artisan, determining
the time a man should serve before he could become a master,
and so on, were  very onerous, and have mostly passed away.
The Trades' Unions of this country have never been very
popular or successful. The Printers' Union in the principal
cities has just been dissolved amid universal contempt. The
spirit of Political EconomyJ, which is the spirit of freedom, is
1 Elements of Political Economy, p. 117, 118.
15*
345 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
against such associations for such purposes.  If any man has a
service to render, let him offer it freely, and make the best
terms he can with whoever wants it."
This is undoubtedly the dictate of Free Trade; but
the Laboring Class dissents from and will never agree to
it. It knows that whatever there may be of improvement in its condition has been achieved by standing
shoulder to shoulder, and regarding the interest of each
member as the interest of the whole class; and it will
not consent to disarm and disband in the face of antagonisms which stand ready to take advantage of its disordered ranks in the future as they have done in the past.
It may sometimes abuse the might it has evolved
through Combination; but it can never afford to discard
the instrumentality and definitively renounce the power.
VII. Cooperation-  the organization of workmen into
bodies capable of selling their own labor or its product
by wholesale, and fairly dividing or allotting its proceeds,
or of consumers to purchase in gross whatever they
may require, and divide or apportion it at the least possible cost - seems to be the step next ahead in the industrial and social progress of the civilized world. Considering how protracted, how arduous, how costly, has
been the struggle to overthrow an abuse so flagrant as
Slavery, we ought not to expect that this will be accomplished in one generation, nor in two; and yet I deem
its ultimate success inevitable. The economies to be
realized through  Cooperation -economies in rent or
house-roomn, in fuel, in the first cost of raw provisions,
in the preparation of food, in medical service, &c., &c.,are so vast and pervading that I do not see how rational, intelligent beings can long resist or fail to secure
them. Let us suppose that one thousand heads of families were firmly banded, under officers implicitly trusted
and fully worthy of their trust, with a view to the most
346' 
CONCLUSIONS.
effective employment of their labor, and the most
economical outlay of their means, so that one of their
number should purchase for cash at wholesale all that was
required to satisfy their material wants; while another
devoted his time to finding employment and making
contracts for their labor; a third sought out and bargained for the premises best adapted to afford them the
required house-room on the most favorable terms; and
only the number needed were employed in transforming
animals into meat, grain into flour or bread, and reducing every article purchased to the condition most conducive to the satisfaction of their various needs,   every
one being required only to earn before spending, and to
defray his just proportion of the common outlay,- who
can fully realize the vast economies, both of time and
means, that would thus'be secured? Suppose some
mermber of this combination should be allotted, through
the imperfect working of the machinery, five to ten per
cent. less than his righteous due, he must still receive
so much more than he now does or can secure, that his
casual loss would be swallowed up in his far exceeding
and enduring gain.  It must be that the more intelligent and capable portion of the Laboring Class is prepared or preparing to realize economies so vast and so
palpable, and that few years can elapse before the destinies of that class will be moulded, its dependence on more
favored classes weakened, and its circumstances vastly
improved, by systematic, pervading Cooperation. After
that stage in its progress shall have been attained, I feel
sure that its contributions to the support of the liquorseller, the professional gambler, and the purveyor to any
vicious appetite whatever, will be immeasurably less
considerable than they have been.
VIII. Full as our world is of misdirection, mismanagement, and waste of all kinds, the most gigantic of its
347 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
material calamities are these two: 1. Lack of industrial
training on the part of at least twenty-five per cent. of
its boys, and fifty to seventy-five per cent. of its girls
2. (in good part consequent on the former) Lack of
employment for those who should be, and most of
them would be, at work if work were proffered them.
Though we have perhaps as slight a proportion of habitual, chronic idlers as any other people, yet our loss from
idleness alone (very much  of it involuntary) must
amount to hundreds of millions of dollars per annum,far more than our average annual losses by flood and fire,
by frost and drought, by storm and wreck, and by every
other description of physical calamity. And idleness is too
often a hereditarv disease; the vagrant or strolling beggar of one age perpetuating and increasing his kind ill
the vagrants and beggars of'the next.  Two-thirds of
our vast and ever increasing array of felons is recuited
from the- ranks of those bred to idleness and unfamiliar
with any department of productive labor. Among the
most urgent of our needs is that of Industrial Education for all; and this is in part met by a multiplication
and diversification of pursuits, giving employment to a
wider range of tastes and capacities, and drawing more
and more into the walks of systematic industry by proffering more varied incitements thereto.  If it seemed
more profitable to devote all our energies to tilling the
soil, that seeming would be fallacious, because oblivious
of the need of a great diversity of pursuits to educe our
diverse capacities and incite as well as employ our varied
aspirations and faculties.  Industry is the better part of
the education of a majority of mankind, and its multiform lessons should be commended and brought home
to each and all.
IX. Labor and the Skill thence resulting, therewith
combined, being the only property and means of liveli
348 
CONCLUSIONS.
hood of a large portion of the community, Government
should be as solicitous and as vigilant for its due Protection as for that of any other individual Property. To
this end, Patent and Copyright laws are wisely enacted
and enforced; to this end, Usury laws (whether wisely
or unwisely) seek to c(olfine within reasonable bounds
the rapacity of money-lenders; to this end, Tariff acts
are so shaped that, while they provide the Revenue required for the support and efficiency of Government,
they at the same time defend exposed and imperilled departments of the National Industry from prostration
and overthrow by destructive foreign competition. As
Carlyle well says, the well-being of England should never
hang suspended on her ability to make cotton-cloth a
farthing an ell cheaper than any other nation, so I maintain that the livelihood and industrial training of hundreds of thousands of our people should not be imperilled by the fact (if fact it be) that the British or any
other people can make cotton-cloth a farthing an ell
cheaper than it can be made in this country.
X. The Free-Traders are accustomed to assure the
people that they, too, are in favor of a Tariff; not, indeed, for Protection, but for Revenue alone. Assuming
that they are sincere in this assertion, they seem to me
the most inconsistent of mortals. Day by day, they proclaim and reiterate that cheapness is desirable,- that
low prices for Iron, for Fabrics, for Wares, are conducive
to general prosperity, -  and that a duty on an imported
article injuriously enhances, by nearly its amount, the
price, not only of whatever is imported subject to that
duty, but of whatever is made and sold in this country
in competition with the article thus imported. Suppose,
for illustration, we import Six Hundred Thousand tons
of Iron per annum, and make at home Eighteen Hundred Thousand  tons (and these will  be  very nearly
349 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
the actual figures for the calendar year 1869): Let us
put the average cost of the imported Iron at $ 40 (gold)
per ton, and say that the Free-Traders, being in power,
impose on that Iron a duty of twenty per cent. for
Revenue solely, making the importers of Iron pay
$ 4,800,000 per annum into the Treasury. So far, all
seems easy and natural. But this duty enhances (so they
assure us) the price not merely of the imported but of the
home-made Iron also: so that our consumers of Iron are
compelled by this duty to pay Fourteen Million Four
Hundred Thousand Dollars into the pockets of the
American Iron-masters in order that this $ 4,800,000
may be secured for the Treasury. What sort of economy, political or otherwise, is this l Why should the
consumers of Iron pay this exorbitant sum to favored
individuals - all of them asserted to be rolling in
wealth- in order to get an amount so much smaller
into the Treasury l Surely, if the Free-Traders' prenmises are sound (as I feel sure they are not), Tariff
taxation, though Revenue be its sole object, is the most
unequal, unjust, injurious mode in which the Treasury
can be replenished; and the fact that we are heavily in
debt and obliged to raise large sums by taxation, should
dictate the entire abrogation of Duties on Imports, and
the substitution therefor of some system which would
not take four dollars from the community for every one
that it puts into the Treasury. The naked fact that the
Free-Traders persist in declaring themselves supporters
of a Tariff for Revenue proves them unsound in their
fundamental positions or extremely reckless of the public interest and welfare.
XI. Our Revolutionary patriots were, with few exceptions, farmers; and their statesmen and soldiers were
generally, like Washington, engaged in cultivating the
soil. Yet the first Tariff ever framed under our Federal
350 
CONCLUSIONS.
Constitution  declared  "the  Protection  of  Manufactures" to be one of its objects; and this act received
the approval of Washington. Jefferson and Madison
were likewise agriculturists; Andrew Jackson and Henry
Clay were the representatives in Congress of constituencies almost wholly Agricultural; yet these forcibly
urged the Protection of Mamnufactures expressly for the
benefit of our inland Agriculture, by creating and diffusing a demand for its produce which should not be
subject to the fluctuations and caprice of foreign markets. "Plant the manufacturer by the side of the
farmer," said in substance Thomas Jefferson;1 so said,
in those identical words, General Jackson, eight years
later. Not in the interest of a manufacturing class,
which had as yet no existence, but in order that Agriculture might have a just and sure reward, was the Protective policy commended, not by these only, but by
George Clinton, Simon Snyder, Dewitt Clinton, William
L. Marcy, and other eminent Governors of States, and
by a large majority of our most honored statesmen
of the Revolutionary and the succeeding generation.  I
submit that these were not the dupes of specious
phrases, nor yet of sordid interests, but that they knew
whereof they affirmed, and spoke from personal knowledge of the disasters which preceded, the blessings
which followed, the initial triumphs of Protection.
XII. Monopoly is the restriction to one, or to a small
class, of the right to make, vend, or use, a certain article. A man may be loosely said to have a monopoly
of his own farm or fireside; but how has any one a
monopoly of a pursuit which is free to all his country men. and how can that law be said to create a mo nopoly in favor of those now prosecuting a business
which, inevitably, strongly, invites others to embark in
1 Letter to Benjamnin Austin, 1816.   4
351 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
that business and partake fully of its gains? The use
made of the term Monopoly by Free-Traders seems  to
me an affront to the general intelligence,- an ostenta tious defiance of dictionaries, - an experiment which
presumes an amazing dearth of common sense.
XIII. Insidious efforts have longl been, and still are
being, made by Free-Traders to prejudice especially the
West against Protection, as a device to enrich and ag grandize the East, and particularly New England, at
the expense of the newer States. If one were to believe
the speeches made, the editorials written, throughout
the West, by anti-Protectioniists, he would suppose that
New England had devised and originated Protection to
subserve her own special ends. Yet History proves
that New England opposed Protection throughout the
earlier struggles in its behalf, while the Free West with
great unanimity forced it upon her, practically constrainirng her to withdraw her capital and energies in
good measure from Navigation and Foreign Trade and
employ them in Manufactures.  And  now, among the
duties most  vehemently denounced  at the West  are
those on Iron, Lumber, and Salt,   all articles largely
imported and consigned by New England; none of
them, to any considerable extent, produced by her.
And, for every furnace and factory built or set to work
in the  East because  of the Protective  re~i9ne inaigurated in 1861, at least two have been, while more are
about to be, called into being in the West.
XIV. The striking fact that more immigrants have
landed on our shores in a single year since our Industry
was measurably diversified by the naturalization and
growth of Manufactures, than during the whole forty
years of our National existence which preceded the
passage of the Tariff of 1824, and that immigration is
more considerable from Ireland and the purely Agricul
352 
CONCLUSIONS.
tural portions of Germnany than from the far denser
populations of Great Britain and of those German
States wherein a mixed industry has taken root, bear
their own comment. Right well do I comprehend that
the discovery of Gold in California gave a special impetus to this immigration, and that its volume has not
always been immediately swelled by a casual triumph
of Protection, nor diminished by a temporary predominance of relative Free Trade. The factories and furnaces called into existence by Protection are not closed
immediately on the passage of a lower tariff no sensible
man ever imagined that they would be. Important
branches of Home Manufacture long since attained an
efficiency and perfection, by the aid of American inventions, machinery, and skill, that enable them to defy
foreign rivalry under almost any conditions. It is none
the less true, however, that Population strongly tends
in either hemisphere to abandon the regions wholly devoted to Agriculture, and concentrate in districts alive
and vital with the hiss of steam, the hum of machinery,
and the roar of wheels, -that the existence and prosperity of manufactures in any country is strongly conduicive, if not indispensable, to the steady, majestic influx thereto of Immigration.
XV. Finally, the great truth, so forcibly set forth by
Mr. Clay in 1832, that Protection has been to us a
sheet-anchor of Prosperity, a mainspring of Progress,
has not been and can never be explained away. Our
years of signal disaster and depression have been those
in which our ports were most easily flooded with foreign
goods,- those which intervened betwixt the recognition
of our Independence and the enactment of the Tariff
of 1789, - those which followed the close of our Last
War with Great Britain, and were signalized by immense
importations of her Fabrics, -those of 1837 - 42, when
w
353
v. 
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
the Compromise of 1833 began to be seriously felt in
the reduction of duties on imports; and those of
1854 - 57, when the Polk-Walker Tariff of 1846 had
had time to take fill effect. No similarly sweeping revulsions and prostrations ever took place - I think
none could take place   under the sway of efficient Protection.  Said Mr. Clay in 1832, after premising that
the seven years preceding the passage of the Tariff of
1824 had been the most disastrous, while the seven following the passage of that act had been the most prosperous, that our country had ever known,  "This transformation of the condition of the country from gloom
and distress to brightness and prosperity has bee? mainly the work of American legislation, fostering Amnericact
industry, instead of allowing it to be contreolled by f6re(gn
legislation, cherishing bforeign industry."  God grant -us
the wisdom and virtue to press forward on the shining
path thus opened plainly before us, to the end that our
Labor may be fully employed and fairly recompensed,
and that age after age may witness the rapid yet substantial progress and-growth of our people in all the arts
of Peace,-  all the elements of National well-being!
354 
ANALYTICAL INDEX.
ABOLITION * each cotton-factory in the South regarded as a citadel of, 24.
ABORIGINES (West Indian): 81.
ABYSSINIA: 319.
AcHARD: 188, 189.
ADAMS (President): 253.
AFRICA: penetrated by the Saracens, 16, 62; captive negroes introduced from,
81; slavery in, 82; South, 288.
AGASSIZ (Professor): 319.
AGRICULTiJtE: General Jackson on diversion of Labor from, 35; importance of
near market for the products of, 36; the Free Trade fallacy as to the choice
of two markets, 36; the profits of, increased by manufactures, 37; belief
once entertained that the country should be exclusively agricultural, 46; the
inevitable effect, 46; prostrated by the influx of British goods after the war
of 1812 - 14, 62; the great men of early years of the Republic directly or in  directly connected with Agriculture, 108; nearly unanimous in favor of Pro  tection, 108; believed it essential in the interests of Agriculture, 108; extract
from Washington's first Annual Message in favor of promoting manufactures,
109; action of Congress thereon, 109; Alexander Hamilton's Report, 109; a
Committee on Commerce and Manufactures created, 110; Washington affirms
his'former views, 110; Jefferson on the legitimate objects of the Federal Gov  ernment, 110; on the maintenance of Protection, 112; Madison advocates
the Protection and Encouragement of Manufactures, 112-114; Dallas on
the interest of the Agriculturist in Manufactures, 115; Newton, of Virginia,
on the harmony of interests, 116; William Lowndes reports the Tariff of 1816,
116; Calhoun's remarks in its favor, 117; advantages of the measure he sus  tained, 118; references to the messages of Governors George Clinton, Tomp  kins, DeWitt Clinton, and Snyder, as corroborative of the value to agricul  ture of Protection, 118; the consideration asked for the arguments and views
of the Fathers, 119; the founders of the Republic conversant with Free Trade
arguments, 133; Webster's Free Trade Speech, 1824, 133; John Randolph
of Roanoke leads the Southern anti-Protectionists, 133; the reasons which
governed the action of the various States, 1824, 133, 134; the votes in the
House from each State for the Tariff of 1824,134; Dr. Francis Lieber's state  ment considered, 135; the fallacy thereof, 136; the benefit of Protection to
the Agriculturist, 136;-secures him manufactures at less cost in produce, 136;
distant markets fluctuating, 137; exhaustion of the soil, 137; increase in the
value of Farm Products, Timber, &c., 138; Londonderry, N. H., as an illus  tration thereof, 139; corroborated by the action of the Canadian farmers,
139; Franklin on the interdependence of Agriculture and Home Manufac  tures, 139; Henry C. Carey on the value of near markets to farmers, 140;
4 
ANALYTICAL INDEX.
E. B. Ward on the necessity for Protection, 141; Adam Smith on the value
of Manufactures to Agriculture, 142; Rev. Lyman Beecher on the encourage  ment and successful prosecution of Agriculture, 142 -144; President Monroe
urges Congress to afford Protection to Manufactures, 144; the American Sys  tem, 145; Protection required in the interests of, 149; Manufactures increase
the recompense of Agricultural Labor, 167; the French Minister of, = 190=;
the Sugar Industry of France in connection with agriculture, 199; favored in
all its branches by the Beet Sugar Industry, 202; relative situation of our
great grain-growing districts, 236; our policy in regard to agricultural pro  ducts, 243; the beneficent influence of Manufactures on Agriculture, 245 =
276 =; Immigration inconsiderable while the country was almost exclusively
agricultural, 307; population tends to abandon purely agricultural regions,
3(}8; Immigration very small during the period of low tariffs and exclusive
devotion to agriculture, 308; immigration of the Agricultural and Manufac  turing eras compared, 310; favorable effect of Manufactures on Immigration,
319; distant markets for produce capricious, and prices unremunerative, 322;
Protection advocated by our great men in the interests of Agriculture, 350;
adopted that policy from enlightened reasons and experience, 351.
ALABAMA: 134 = 168 = 244 = 252.
ALASKA; 319.
ALBANY: 103.
ALEXANDRIA: 26.
ALISON (Archibald): 136.
ALMANAC (Merchants and Bankers'): 218.
AMERICA: influence of the discovery of, on Commerce, 26 = 61=, 62; exten  sion of Slavery in North and South, 81; Indians of, 81; extent of bondage
in a century ago, 82,186.
AMERICA (British): affords only an inadequate market for Canadian manufac  tures, 38 -= 229 = 288 = 313.
AMERIcA (Central): 314.
AMERICA (South): 62 = 81 =.288 = 312 = 314.
ANCHORS: 231.
ANDERSON: " IHistory of Commerce,'. 95.
APPLES: 336.
ARiZGONA: 322.
ARKWRIGIT: 319.
AsH: 230.
ASIA: 16 = 48 = 62; slavery in, 82 = 171  288.
ASSOCIATION: 90.
ASTOR (John Jacob): 20.
AUSTERLITZ: 191.
AUSTRIA: 313.
AUSTRALIA: 152, 241, 288, 303.
AXES: American superior to European, 47 = 105.
AZORES (The): 312, 314.
BALANCE OF TRADE: how an adverse is injurious, 60; the popular feeling right on
the matter, 60; the Free Trade treatment of the subject, 60; the Roman Em  pire and the drainage of specie, 61; beneficial effects on Europe of the gold from
America, 61; the Free Trade assumption that a country may part with half
its specie without serious harm, 61; the injury entailed by general recourse
to barter, 61; personal recollections of the pecuniary ruin at the close of the
last war with England, 62; Bankruptcy in New England, 63; pressure of
Debt in Kentucky and its effects, 63; the New York merchants memorialize
356 
ANALYTICAL INDEX.
Congress, 63; the mercantile and manufacturing interests ruined, 63; gen  eral consequences of the export of specie 1815 - 21 illustrated, 64; results of
scarcity of money summarized, 65; Free Trade propositions respecting Im  ports and Exports considered, 65; evidences of an adverse Balansce of Trade,
66; considerations which should govern Imports and Exports, 67.
BALTIMORE: 122.
BANKS: their origin, 71; development of banking, 71; an illustration of asso  ciation, 90.
BASTIAT (Frederic): 60; his treatment of the Balance of Trade question, 66.
BAYARD (William): 222
BEECHER (Rev. Lyman): on the encouragement and successful prosecution of
Agriculture, 142.
BEDFORD: 167.
BEDOUINs: 23.
BELGIUM: 150 = 196 = 207 = 298 = 312 = 313 = 314.
BENTON (Hon. Thomas H.): 135 = 253.
BERMUDA: 148.
BEET: 187 = 199 = 200 = 201 = 204 = 209; see also SUGAR.
BEREZINA: 191.
BERLIN: 188.
BIGELOW (Hlon. Erastus B.): on Wools and Woollens, 296; rebukes the coun  terfeiting of foreign trade-marks, 297.
BLANKETS (Army): 234.
BLODGET (Samuel): 308.
BORODINO: 191.
BOSTON: 290.
BOWPING (Dr. John): 327 = 328.
BRAZIL: 231, 303.
BROMWELL (W. J.): 308, 309.
BROOKLYN: 265.
BROUGHAM (Lord): 93.
BROWNE (Ross J.): observation of, on the Holy Land, 22.
BUCHANAN (President): 57 = 97.
BUILDING SOCIETIES (Cooperative): 79.
CABLES: 231.
CALCUTTA: 227.
CALHOUN (John C.): framed and advocated the Tariff of 1816, 24; abandoned
Protection when he became the foremost champion of Slavery, 24; defended
the proposed duty on Cotton Fabrics in the Tariff of 1816,117; his remarks,
117 = 217 = 323.
CALIFORNIA: 43 = 48=; limited its currency to gold and silver, 69; the ruling
rate of interest in, 69; overtrading not prevented by its exclusively specie
currency, 69, 168 = 241 = 286 = 310 = 321.
CAMBRELENG (Ilon. Churchill C.): argues that Protection must destroy Reve  nue, 250.
CANADA: 38 = 139 = 148 = 260 = 311 = 319.
CANALS: contemplated in New York before the era of Independence, 122;
Washington interests himself about canals, 123; advantages to be derived
from extended communications, 124; canal project, 1791, 124; Fulton suggests
a canal project to Pennsylvania, 125; the Erie Canal, 126; result of its com pletion, 126; the canal policy of New York opposed with the arguments
now used against Protection, 128; the Erie Canal demonstrating the impor  tance of State over individual action, 131 = 340 = 342.
357 
ANALYTICAL INDEX.
CAPE OF GOOD HOPE: 303.
CAPITAL: defined, 40; the value of Capital, 41; Civilization based on Capital
and systematic Labor, 40; relation of Capital to Destitution, 41; Capital in
its bearing on natural right, 41; definitions of Capital considered, 42; instan  ces of illusory distinctions between Capital and Wealth, 42; Labor may be so
misapplied as to produce no wealth, 42; illustrations of same, 42; saving
habits more beneficial to the community than wasteful, 43; the assumed re  lation between Wages and Capital considered, 43; the case of California cited,
43; circumstances under which an increase in Wealth is prejudicial, 43; the
proposition that Capital must be consumed to render it productive, 43-44;
the object of Industry, 44; incalculable value of the world's accumulated
wealth, 44; our indebtedness to past ages, 44; our obligations to posterity,
44; distinction between the wvant of Capital and of Money, 59; only needed
by the American people to achieve great results, 68; = 77-; an exclusively
Paper currency in connection with Capital, 78; cheaper in Western Europe
than in the United States, 78; the dearness of Capital impedes the progress
of our National Industry, 78; the Wages system foments hostility between
Capital and Labor, 85; its relative scarcity and dearness in the United States,
151 = 158 = 172.
CAPRON (Hon. Horace): 206.
CAREY (Henry C.): 136; on the influence of near markets on farming, 140.
CARaY (Matthew): reference to the writings of, 34.
CARLYLE (Thomas): on Work, 20 = 54 = 169 = 349.
CAROLINA (North): relative production, 19; little wealth produced in, save by
men's labor, 19 = 134 = 244 = 252 = 272.
CAROLINA (South): favors the Tariff of 1816,118 = 116 = 134 = 252 = 272 = 323.
CARPETING: Duties on, 292.
CARROT: 187.
CARTHAGE: 26.
CASSIMERES: 343.
CATTLE: 235.
CAULSDORPFF: 188.
CAYENNE: 209.
CIAMBsER OF COMMERCE (New York: 293 = protest against the Tariff of 1824,
222; against minimums, 293.
CHAMPAGNE: adulterations of, 155.
CHAMPLAIN: 151, 152.
CHANNING (Rev. W. E.): on the beneficence of Labor, 21.
CH.RLESTON (S.C.): 122 = British vessels at, display their flags at half mast, 253.
CIEESE: 234,338.
CHICAGO: 244.
CHINA: allusion to, as tea-growing country, 30; the relative price of tea in, 31;
condition of the population of, 44; her fabrics once worn extensively in New
England, 45; Chinese now importers of fabrics, 45; our dependence on, for
raw silk, 48 = 49 =; immigration from, 83, = 124  152 = 155 = 186 = 227
= 231,307, = 312, 313.
CIVILIZATION: security of property essential to the maintenance of, 15; Greek
and Roman, as affected by distaste for labor, 16; based on Capital and sys tematic Labor, 40.
CLAY (Hon. Henry): relation as a Protectionist to the Slavery Propaganda, 24;
reference to the speeches of, 34; defeat of, in 1844, followed by repeal, 97;
exposes the Free Trade fallacy about prices, 101 = 135 = 136 = 189 = 212 =
220; on the contrasted influences of Free Trade and Protection (1832), 261 =
851 = 353 = 854.
358 
ANALYTICAL INDEX.
CLINTON (Governor George): 34 = 118 = 35-1.
CLINTON (Governor DeWitt): 31 = 118 = 126 = l851.
CLOCKS: 313.
CLOTH: 139.
CLOTHING.XD DRESS GOODS: Duties upon, 291.
CLOTHaS-MAKING: referred to, as an illustration of how dependence on foreign
markets operates, 338, 339.
CLYDE (the River): 225 - 226   = 228 = 230.
COAL: 95 = 12 = 13 = 236 =244.
COAST (Atlantic): 274.
COASTING TRADE: 231.l
COBDEN-CHi.VALIER TREATY: the, 332.
COLEM sN (Dr.): letter from General Jackson to, 34,134.
COLISEUM: 42.
COLLES (Christopher): 123 = 125.
COLONIES (French): 195.
COLUMBUS: 15 = 61 = 81 = 91 = 186.
COMMZRCE: the immense growth and development of modern, 26; cause to
which it is due, 26; its greatness compared with ancient, 26; presages of its
augmentation, 26; influence of the hopes of commercial gain, 27; Traffic
preferred to Productive Industry, 27; deceptive character of commercial
traffic, 27; inter-oceanic commerce the most attractive, 28; offers the greatest
facilities for large gains, 28; illustrations thereof, 28; the chief end of a true
Political Economy in relation to Commerce and Production, 29; advantage of
reducing the number of non-producers, 29; waste of human effort by unprof  itable exchanges, 29; no contravention of the laws of nature proposed, 29;
Free Trade evasions of the true issue in regard to Commerce, 30; the true
functions of international and trans-oceanic, 30; no duty proposed on pro  ducts where Nature is a barrier, 30; where the principle of Protection might
be wisely applied, 30; enhanced cost of Tea to consumers from being a foreign
product, 31; the remedy for the unnecessary expense incurred, 31; the ad  vantages of diverting labor from Commerce to Production. 31; the proposed
distribution recommended solely for the public good, 32; the Free Trade er  roneous interpretation of this policy explained, 32; great economy which has
resulted from naturalizing products, 33; unfair action of Free-Traders in
quoting pricei at the seaboard, 33; illustrations thereof, 33; assumptions by
Free-Traders that we force the sale of inferior goods replied to, 34; their en  tire variance with history, 31; writings and speeches of eminent Americans
referred to, 34; their advocacy of Protection solely in the interests of Agri  culture,. 34; Manufactures unknown or of very limited extent at the time, 34;
the occupations of the people in these years, 34; the main considerations
which governed the early champions of Protection, 34; General Jackson's
letter to Dr. Coleman, 34; perishable field products require a near market, 36;
the effect of the cost of transportation on the price of Indian-corn, 36; the
price of corn not governed by foreign tariffs, 37; the profits of farming in  creased by manufactures, 37; the Free Trade cavil about indiscriminate Pro  tection, 37; the practical considerations to be taken into account, 38; the
mission of Commerce, 39; the New York Merchants memorialize Congress for
protective measures to save our Commerce from ruin, 1817; 63; the Free Trade
statements that a nation always Imports wisely considered, 131; that the best
distribution of Labor is caused thereby, 131; practical operation of this prin  ciple, 131; our foreign debt at the sacrifice of national interests, 132; a lavish
increase of Imports leads to depression and calamity, 132; cooperation in rela
359 
ANALYTICAL INDEX.
tion to Commerce, 273; machinery of Distribution defective, 274; pernicious
effects of Traffic on Industry, 274; illustration thereof, 274; Parke Godwin
on Commerce, 275; its true mission and relations, 276; the chief end of a true
Political Economy, 282; Commerce should be the servant, not the master, of
Industry, 338; its place in a true Political Economy, 338.
COMMERcE (Foreign): 220.
COMMONs (British llouse of): 327.
COMPETITION: home, reduces profits to an equation with those of general Indus  try, 32; circumstances in which it is neither just nor beneficent, 38; a fra  ternal feeling should take the place of, 844.
COMPETITORS (British): 219.
CONcLUsIONs (analysis of): Labor less remunerated when materials are trans  ported long distances for fabrication, 336; our policy regarding diversified
production, 337; the object of a true Political Economy, 337; Commerce
should be the servant, not the master, of Industry, 838; the loss from ex  changes, 338; the Free Trade view of the matter considered, 339; conse  quences of dependence on foreign supplies, 340; Free Trade idea of cheapness
delusive, 341; illustrations thereof, 841; Protection equivalent to Labor  Saving through Cooiperation, 341; Protection stimulates valuable industries
,and serves all, 342; it enhances the value of Agricultural Staples and reduces
the cost of Manufactures, 343; maintains remunerative wages for Labor, 343;
continuance on that ground desirable, 343; evils of competition and commer  cial strife, 344; rights of the Laboring class, 345; Free Trade opposition to
Trades Unions, 345; the necessity for Association, 345; Coioperation, as the
next great progressive measure, 346; its ultimate success inevitable, 346; its
immense advantages, 346; influence of its success, 347; losses entailed by
lack of industrial training, 348; continued evil influence of idle habits, 348;
industrial education secured by diversifying pursuits, 348; Protection to La,
bor, under various forms essential, 349; folly of National industrial inde  pendence being controlled by cheapness, 349; inconsistency of the Free-Trad ers' propositions respecting a Revenue Tariff, 350; Protection favored by our
great men, in the interests of Agriculture, 350; their policy, 351; false appli  cation of the word Monopoly, 351; Protection in American History, 352; the
West and New England in regard to Protective Tariffs 352; Iron, Lumber,
Salt, 352; the great Immigration since Manufactures were established, 352;
Population tends to abandon.Agricultural regions, 353; existence of Manufac  tures indispensable to steady and extensive Immigration, 353; the triumphs
of Protection in former epochs, 353; periods of prostration and disaster due to
the Free Trade policy, 353; Mr. Clay on the interval between 1824- 32, 354.
CONGRESS: the, of 1860 - 61 enacted a Protective Tariff, 25   63 =; action of,
on General Washington's First Message, 110 = 144 = 147 = 215 = 239 = 309
= 329.
CONNECTICUT: 47 = 133 = 134 = 152 = 252 = 340 = 341.
CONSTANTINOPLE: 23.
CONSTITUTION: provision in the Federal, respecting private property, 58; Fede  ral, 234 = 247.
CONSUMERS: all Producers and Consumers in turn, 171.: have all identical inter  ests, 171; demonstration thereof, 171; its general applicability, 172; miscon  ception of interests, 172; see IRON and SUGAR for further explanation and
proof that Protection is a boon to the Consumer.
CONVENTION (the New York Constitutional): 280.
COOPERATION: the whaling industry, 89; other cooperative enterprises, 89;
their experimental character, 90; possibility of modification if they fail, 90;
360 
ANALYTICAL INDEX.
evidences thereof, 90; the power of associated capital, 90; the prospects of
Labor, 90; conditions for the success of the cooperative principle, 91; the
value of one successful scheme, 91; the evil influence of Competition, 91; de   fect of the lWages system in regard to Cooiperation, 91; Louis Blanc on Com   petition, 93; the correctness of his remarks vindicated in the United States,
93; the vast progress of the present age in material production, 273; neces   sity for cooperation, 273, 274; machinery of distribution defective, 274; il   lustration thereof, 274; Parke Godwin on Commerce, 275; the object of Co   operation in Trade, 276; the losses to society from the unnecessary number
engaged in exchanges, 277; Cooiperation vindicated by experience, 278; the
organization of the Rochdale Equitable Pioneers, 278; their progress, 278;
their system, 280; cash payment essential, 281; general effect of CoiOpera   tion, 281; the further development of Cooperation in trade, 282; the rela   tions between Cooperation and Protection, 283; organization of Labor on a
CoOperative basis, 284; progress of Cooiperation in France, 284; in Austria,
284; schemes for industrial association in the United States, 285; the obsta   cles to its development here, 286; the advantages to be realized, 286; its aim,
346; success inevitable, 346; the economy to be realized by it, 346.
COOPER (Dr.): predicting National Bankruptcy, 249.
COPPER: 231, 241.
CoaRx Laws: the British, in relation to the market for American produce, 36.
CORN- (Indian): 36; its relative value in near and distant markets, 37; effect of
the cost of transportation on, 46 = 105 = 137 = 139 = 148 =-217; price in
1825, 218.
COR.NIXNG (Erastus, & Co.): 103.
COST: the effect of Duties on, illustrated, 103; general propositions on the sub  ject, 104; home production the cheapest, 105; domestic competition sufficient
to regulate cost, 105; cost of production the general measure of price, 106.
COSTA RICA: 26.
COSS.ACKS: 191.
COTTON: Indian, sent to England and returned in the shape of fabrics, 45 = 105,
235 = 331, price of, in 1825, 218; decrease in the production of, 224 = 235 =
321, 331 = 336 = 338 = 339.
Cox, S. S.: 305.
CREDIT: general confidence felt in the progress of the country, 233; the ten  dency to run into debt, 233; individual credit used to excess in this country,
234; extent of our foreign indebtedness at the outset of our Civil War, 234;
continued increase, 234; its present extent, 235; the necessary excess of Ex  ports over Imports, 235; increase in our national wealth, 236; the present
Paper currency, 236; its effect on Manufactures, 237; the National Debt, 238;
the most prudent policy to pursue, 238; the Revenue Tariff question, 239;
our financial policy, 240; payment of the National Debt, 240; Tariff legis  lation, 240; reduction of taxation on WVhiskey, Tobacco, &c., 241; Develop  ment of Domestic Industry, 241; the present high prices, 242; indiscrimi  nate tendency to incur debt, 242; Repudiation worse than Secession, 243;
importance of having the people remuneratively employed, 244; increase in
our Manufactures, 244; Agriculture as affected by Manufactures, 245.
CROSBY (Dr.): 153.
CUBA: 337.
CULLOI (Hlon. S. MI.): 206.
Cc'aExxNCY (Paper): see Mo.xF.y.
Cu?atv.cy (irredeemable: its effect on prices, 236; injurious to Manufactures,
237, See 3lo.N-?r.
16
361 
ANALYTICAL INDEX.
CUT-NAILS: 47 = 343.
CYCLOPOEDIA (Appleton's): 223 = 308.
DACCA (The District of): 164.
DAGUERRE: 52.
DALLAS (Alexander J.): Reports in favor of the Tariff of 1816, 117: his re  marks, 117.
DARIEN (Isthmus of): 26, 231.
DEBT (Foreign): probable amount of the American to Europe, 235; still in  creasing, 236.
DEBT (Public): gold and silver might be wisely retained to pay off our, 32; the
Public, should be the basis of an exclusively Paper Currency, 74 = 231=;
the Public Debt no blessing, 238; the importance of funding it, 238; means of
doing so, 238; our best policy.in regard to the, 240; the baseness of Repudi  ation, 243; the WIar Debt of the country, 270.
DOMBASLE, M.: 190.
DELAINES: 154, 343.
DELAWARE: 134, 274.
DELAWARE (the River): 225.
DELAVAN (Edward C.): 103.
DENMARK: 312, 313.
DETROIT: 173.
DEYEUX (M.): 190.
DILLON (John): 328 = 329 = 334.
DUTIES: Specific and Ad Valorem defined, 323; the nature of a minimum, 323;
the introduction and operation of the minimum principle, 323; the cardinal
objection to Ad Valorem duties, 324; iron-masters of Pennsylvania on the
working of the Ad Valorem Tariff of 1846 (1849), 325; fluctuating prices of
foreign iron, 325; their injurious effect on American industry, 326; specific
duties strongly preferred in Europe, 327; the operation of specific rates in
the Zoll-Verein Tariff, 327; evidence of Mr. John Dillon on levying duties
by weight and Ad Valorem, 328; Hon. James Thompson's treatment of the
Tariff question, 329; why the minimum principle is required, 331; British
negotiations for the French Treaty of 1860, 332; the French reject the Ad
Valorem principle, 332; the operation of specific duties, 333; a British view
of the French tariff analyzed, 334; the most advisable course to pursue in fix  ing duties, 334; the importance of discouraging the importation of worthless
and inferior goods, 335.
DUTIES ON IMPORTS: total receipts from each year from 1820 to 1828, inclusive,
223 = 236.
DUR-AU (M. B.): 199.
EARLL (Jonas): 252.
EAST (The): 286 = 311.
EASTERN STATES (The): 138.
EATON (Hon. John H.): 135 =; votes for the Tariff of 1828, 253.
EDINBURGI REVIEW: 192.
EDUCATION (Popular): Public Lands devoted to, 53.
EMBARGO: with War, a precarious shelter to our manufactures in 1812-14, 62.
EN.GL.AND: 28; reference to the value of Indian-corn in, 37; her fabrics thrown
in immnense quantities on our markets, 1812 - 14, 62, = 89 =; her sacrifices to
destroy American manufacturing Industry, 93; evidences thereof, 93 = 152  164 = 168 = 175 = 193 = 208 = 226 = 230 = 260 = 303 =  314 = 349.
EQUITABLE PIONEERS: = 89 = 280 = 281.
EuorPE: penetrated by the Saracens, 16; serfdom destroyed in, by diversified
362 
ANALYTICAL INDEX.
industry, 16, 28, 34; its markets remote and unremunerative for Canadian
manufactures, 38; prodigious progress of invention in, 45; her indebtedness
to American invention, 47; beaten in some branches of industry by American
skill, 47; Hamilton's antagonists desired to have our workshops in, 46; ulti  mate effect of industrial dependence on, 46 = 48 =; coinage of Europe, 57;
relative cheapness of Capital in Western, 78; the elements of manufacture
cheaper in, than here, 78; slavery, 82: iron-makers attracted hither, 99 =
138 = 146 = 148 = 158: peasantry of = 171 =172 = 174 = 175 = 195 = 211
219 = 226 = 231 = 234 = 235 = 236 =  241 = 242; Western, 287, 300, 303,
306, 311, 318, 322, 338, 340, 343, 344.
EXPORTS: the nature of our, 234 = 235 = 236; annual aggregate from 1817 - 32,
259.
EXPOSITION (Paris): 209 = 297 = 299.
FABRICS: 29,134,136,138,147,152,153,154,157,172,234,245 =   249,283,322,343.
FABRICS (Cotton): the Tariff of 1842 and cotton fabrics, 102, = 106; the com  mittee on Commerce and Manufactures report in favor of an increase of the
duties on, 1816, 115; rates on, in the Tariff of 1816, 117 = 323 = 324.
FLAX: 336.
FLOUR: 236.
FORWARD (Walter): 34, 136 =
FRANCE: 48, 111; the Milan, 112 = 114 = 150 = 151 = 152 =  175 = 189 = 190
192 = 193 = 194 = 195 = 196 = 199 = 200 = 204  206 = 207 -208 = 209
=210 = 233 = 242 = 284 = 288 = 298 =  311 = 313 = 314 = 320 = 334 = 342.
FRANKLIN (Benjamin): 90; on the interdependence of Agriculture and Home
Manufactures, 139.
FREDERICK THE GREAT: 188.
FREE TRADE: regarded by the South as in harmony with Slavery, 24; evasions
of the true issue made by advocates of Free Trade, 30; the Free Trade fallacy
that it affords the farmer the choice of two markets, 36; the Free Trade doc  trine limiting taxation to "maintain law and order," 120; wise deviation
from it in regard to Chicago and New York, 121; beneficial result, 121; the
City of New York as evidence, 121  the present arguments of Free-Traders
employed against the Canal policy of New York, 128; Adam Smith's state  ment that the employment each one prospers in is the best for the commu  nity, 128; fallacious and mistaken, 129; demonstration thereof, 129; Free
Trade doctrine as set forth in the petition of the London Merchants, 129;
its essential propositions quoted, 130; its first assumption involving the
dictum of Adam Smith, 130; the error therein, 131; the statement that a
country always imports wisely, 131; that the best distribution of Labor and
Capital is thus caused, 131; practical operation of this principle, 131; our
accumulated foreign Debt at the sacrifice of national interests, 132; a lavish
increase of imports leads to depression and calamity, 132; had always a
strong party in Congress, 133, = 139 = 271 = 278 = 317; the Free Trade
appeal to the Working Classes, 161; quotation from McCulloch to the effect
thereof, 162; the radical vice in their view, 162; testimony of Dr. Bowring,
in refutation of Mr. McCulloch's theory, 163; effects of competition in In  dia, 163; Free Trade sets the Laboring Class of different countries bidding
against and underworking each other, 169; theory and policy of Free-Trad  ers not in accord with the Golden Rule, 170 = 332; the Free Trade idea of
cheapness delusive, 340.
FREE-TRADER (newspaper): The, 209.
FREE-TRADERS: 240, 251; inconsistent in favoring a Revenue Tariff, 349; iLus  trations of the unsoundness of their position, 349.
363 
ANALYTICAL INDEX.
FRENCH (B. F.): 325.
FRUITS: 243 = 244 = 252 =  274.
FUEL: 252.
FULTON (Robert): 125 = 126.
GALILEO: 278.
GASPARIN (M. de): 207.
GENESEE (County): 137.
GEORGIA: 134 = 168 = 252 = 272.
GERMA-NY: 189 = 192 = 204= 205 = 207 = 288 =311 =813 = 814 =  320 = 853.
GINGHAMS: 343.
GIRARD (Stephen): 20.
GLLSS: 343.
GODINOFF (Boris): 81.
GODWIN (Mr. Parke): on Commerce, 275.
GOLD: regarded as Money at an early period, 56; its qualities, 56; originally
valued and transferred by weight, 56; supply of, increased in Europe by the
discovery of America, 61; the Free Trade assumption that a country may part
with half its specie without serious harm, 61; drainage of specie in conse  quence of the excessive importations, 1815 - 24, 64; effects thereof, 64; an ex  clusively specie currency in California, 69, 241, 310, 321.
GRAIN: 138 = 149 = 234 = 236 = 243 = 260.
GRANT (E. B.): 197.
GRAPE: 241.
GREAT BRITAIN: productive capacity of her machinery, 45; competes with the
Labor of Eastern Asia, 45 = 62 =; extends her trade over the globe, 62, = 72
= 93 =; British monarchs grant monopolies, 95; her arbitrary Orders in
Council, 111; War with, 113; the close of, 114 = 126 = 137 = 151 = 152 =
163 = 173 = 225 = 230 = 236 = 238 =.242 = 259 = 280 = 288 = 294 = 298
= 301 = 311 = 313 = 314 = 320 = 336 = 353.
GREENCASTLE: 173 = 244.
GREENLAND: 192.
GREELEY (Horace): 330.
GROCERIES: 234.
GUADALOUPE: 209.
GUARDIAN (Manchester), The: 303.
H.AMILTON (Hlon. Alexander): reference to his Report on Manufactures, 34 = 46;
as one of the Fathers, 109; his Report on Manufactures, 1791, 109; extract
therefrom, on the national economy of establishing home manufactures, 305.
HANOVER: 316.
HARDWARE: 139.
HARLAN AND HOLLINGSWORTHII CO.: 230.
HAROUN AL RASCHIID: empire of allusion, 16.
tHARRISON (Governor): 124.
HAVANA: 231, 236.
HAY: 200.
HAYTI: 237.
HEMP: 231, 336.
HERALD (The New Haven): prophecies of, 253.
HEWITT (Abram S.): 174.
HOBBIE (S. R.): 252.
HOFFMAN (Michael): 252.
HIOLLAND: 233 = 311 = 313 = 320.
Ho:M:R: 274.                   -
'364 
ANALYTICAL INDEX.
HooD (Admiral): 188.
Hlops: 106.
HowE (Elias): 50, 319.
I-IUDSoN (The River): 225.
HUNGARY: 314.
HIumE (Joseph): 93 -= 327.
IIusKISSO-N: 130.
IDAIIO: 322.
ILLINOIS: 37 = 134 = 137 - 152 = 152 = 174 = 244.
IMMIGPATION: Population the main element of national strength, 306; the pros   pect of gain the main incentive to Immigration, 306; Immigration inconsider   able while the country was mainly agricultural, 307; Redemption system, its
objectionable and redeeming features, 307; density of Population not an in   variable cause of Immigration, 308; population tends to abandon Agricultural
regions, 308; selects those more densely peopled where labor is diversified,
308; the number of Immigrants in the Free Trade and exclusively Agricul   tural period small, 309; the Immigration prior to 1794, 308; its extent from
1796 to 1810, 309; number of passengers who arrived at the ports of the United
States from 1820 to 1855, 309; the immense immigration a direct consequence
of the establishment and growth of our home manufactures, 310; contrast
of the Immigration during the Agricultural and Manufacturing era, 310;
causes influencing Population in New England, 311; the immigration by
countries. 1820 - 60, 311, 312; the imuligration of 1856 -68, 312; the immi  gration by countries, 313; Frederick Kapp on the influence of political and
commercial convulsions on European migration, 313; the property brought
by immigrants, 313; importance of the quality of Immigration, 314; im  provement in the industrial character of our Immigrants, 317; favorable in  fluence of the existence of Manufactures on Immigration, 319; losses entailed
on France by the persecuting policy of Louis XIV., 320; Free Trade advocates
on the relative condition of the Laboring Class in England and in the United
States, 320; disproved by the fact of Immigration, 320; Immigration in the
future, 321; the increasing inducements offered to Immigrants, 321; the
illimitable demand for Labor, 322.
IMMIGRATION (Mongolian)- 83.
IMPLEMENTS: 134.
IMPORTS: the relation our Imports should bear to our Exports, 235 = 251; the
Imports, 1817-32, 259; imports from England and Scotland, 1821-33, 260.
lNDI L:  allusion to, as a  tea-growinig country, 30; her traffic with England, 45;
her true industrial policy, 45 = 61 =; emigration from, 83 = 163.
IN-DIANA: ]34 ji relative production, 19; little wealth produced in, save by men's
labor, 19 = 173 = 244 = 252.
INDUSTRY: beneficent influence of, 15; the influence of indus,trious habits, 15;
criminals and reprobates produced by idleness, 15; diversified, undermined,
and destroyed serfdom in Europe, 16; industrial training should be made
general, 17; lack of it the greatest cause of calamity and loss, 17; advantages
of such training, 17; national loss from involuntary idleness, 18; diversified
industry essential to the employment of a whole community, 18; a people
who have but a single source of profit uniformly poor, 19; its inability to
employ and reward various capacities, 19; importance of a diversilv of pur suits, 19  illustrations, the once District of Maine, 19; some districts of the
Russian Empire, 19; the relative production of Massachusetts, North Caro lina, and Indiana, 19; the disparity removable by introducing Manufactures,
19; the almost exclusive employment of men's labor in South Carolina and
365 
ANALYTICAL INDEX.
Indiana, 19; the impulse to labor, 19; our indebtedness to the labor of past
generations, 20; beneficent influence of industry on the moral character, 20;
Nature inflexible and undeviating in her demands, 20; Carlyle on Work, 20;
Work an evidence of the value and necessity of integrity and truth, 20; Rev.
W. E. Channing on the beneficence of labor, 21; observation of Ross Browne
in the Holy Land, 22; absence of industry in Palestine explained, 23; few
manufactures there, 23; the people impoverished, 23; effects of Turkish fiscal
system on home industry, 23; the lazzaroni of Naples, 23; the controlling
influences at the South, 25; the development and employment of the peeple's
industrial capacity, 25; fatal effects of undiversified industry, 25, Traffic pre ferred to Productive Industry, 27; home competition equalizes the profits of
general National Industry, 32; its need of defence, 38; Capital the uncon sumed and unwasted remainder of, 40; the proposition that Industry is lim ited by Capital considered, 43; the object of Industry, 44; influence of the
progress of American, 49; whatever induces and incites systematic industry
a public good, 54; Money in connection with industry, 54; the incentive it
affords, 56; productive industry as a means of advancement referred to, 68
= 7 =; the dearness of Capital impedes our National, 78; importance of har mnonizing the interests of the employer and employed, 86; the whaling indus  try on a cooperative basis, 89; prostration of our manufacturing industry by
competition, 93; collapse of our industry in 1840 - 42, 93; our National, 235;
Manufacturing and Mechanical, 243 = 260 =; Cooperation in, 273; suffers
from Traffic, 274; the calamity entailed by idleness, 348; extent of its evil
influences, 348; the need of industrial education for all, 348; secured by di  versity of pursuits, 348.
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY: its rights, 49; compared with those of material, 49;
illustration of same, 49; Thiers on the Right of Property, 50; the sphere of
the poet compared with that of the inventor, 50; restrictions upon the in  ventor's right of Property, 50; the rights of author and publisher distinct,
51; International Copyright and patriotism, 51; effects of the absence of In
ternational Copyright, 51; Walter Scott a sufferer for want of International
Copyright, 52; abolition of the Patent system in conflict with the rights of
Property, 52; objections answered respecting the perpetuity of Patents and
Copyright, 52; proposed arrangement between the government and foreign
authors, 53; its accordance with the Federal Constitution, 53.
INTEPREST: the ruling rate of, in California, 69; conditions on which usury
tlaws might be modified, 70; the argument that interest is unjust considered,
70; the benefit of recognizing the rightfulness of interest, 71; the nature of
interest explained, 79; effect off creating an artificial rate of, 80; the annual
interest on our indebtedness to Europe, 235; on our National Debt, 238; how
to reduce the rate, 238.
IOWA: 37.
IowA CITY: 36 = 37'= 137.
IRELAO)D: 140 = 311 = 313 = 315 = 352.
IRON: unfair comparisons in the price of, 33; produced largely in the interior,
33; an instance of cost enhanced by transportation, 33; improvements in
the production of, 48; misapplication of the word "monopoly"' to the manu  facture thereof, 96; viewvs of a Missouri representative on the tariff rate on
Iron, 98, 99; the facilities for its production, 99; inconsistency between the
teachings and practice of Free-Traders in regard to Iron, 100; competition
therein, stimulated by profit, 106-  139 = 147; real cost of American Iron
less to American consumers than that of foreign, 150; the Sterling Iron
mines, 151; Copake Iron mines, 152; propositions to import Iron con
366 
ANALYTICAL INDEX.
sidered, 172; evidence of progress in Iron production, 173; price of Foreign
Iron enhanced under the Revenue Tariff of 1846, 174; Labor the principal
item in the cost of the production of Iron, 174; the relative cost of production
of Bar Iron here and abroad, 175; Hlon. D. J. Morrell on the future of our
Iron industry, 175; extract from the report of Abram S. Hlewitt showing the
share Labor has in the production of Iron and its influence on the cost of
production, 177; the same Report on the condition of the working classes in
England, 178; reasons why we should prefer buying our own manufactured
products instead of European, 179; Free Trade statements respecting alleged
claims for greater Protection, 179; the Protective Tariff rates on Iron from
1824-61, 180; Free Trade misrepresentations about the duty on Pig Iron,
180; production of Pig Iron in the United States, 1863-68, 181; do. in Great
Britain, 1863-66, 181; do. in France, 181; do. in Austria, 181; our Iron
Imports in 1888, 182; evasions of the Tariff made evident, 183; the price of
Iron rmeasured by the cost of production, 184; effects of instability in the
Tariff, 185; Iron in connection with Ship-building, 216; great facilities for
Iron Production, 217; our wisest policy in regard to Iron, 218; the Protec  tion extended to Iron unsteady, 218; Iron cheapened by Protection, 218;
price of Pig Iron, Corn, Wheat, and Cotton, 1825, 218; Free Trade mnisrepre  sentations in regard to Iron explained, 219; the mistake of expecting foreign
Iron at a fixed plice, 219; Sir Morton Peto on American Ship-building, 224;
Iron Ship-building on the Delaware, 230; the deceptive representations as re  specting the Tariffrates on Iron, 237; advantages of increasing its produc  tion, 241  rapid development of our manufacturing Industry, 244; Iron re  ferred to in connection with the pernicious working of Ad Valorem Duties,
324; the Iron-masters of Pennsylvania on the operation of the Tariff, 1846,
325; the fluctuating prices of foreign Iron, 325; the injurious effects, 326;
Protection and the prices of Iron, 327; IHon. James Thompson and the duty
on Iron, 329 = 341 = 313 = 349 = 352.
ISLE OF DOGS: 227.
IsRrAELITES: 47.
ITALY: 288 = 312 = 313 = 314.
JACKsoN (General): letter to Dr. Coleman, 34 = 134 = 135 = 212 = 252 = 351.
JAP-k,: allusion to, as a tea-growing country, 30 = 31 = 186 = 231.
JEFFRSONso  (President): as one of the fathers, 109; a farmer, 110; on the le  gitimate objects of the Federal Government, 111; on the maintenance of
Protection, 111; on the progress and Protection of Manufactares, 112 = 120
= 3_1.
JouHxso. (Col. Richard M.): votes for Tariff of 1828, 253.
Joxi-so  (Dr. Samuel): 187.
K.Ns.is: 55; proposed Industrial Association in, 90.
KELLOGG  (Edvard): his plan for an exclusively Paper Currency, 75; his view
of the  Monopoly of Money, 75; proposal for its remedy, 75; his proposed
Safety Fund Note, 76 = 79.
KEN.NEDY (joseph C. G.): 287 = 290.
KEmTUCK Y: intolerable pressure of Debt in, following the war of 1812 - 14, 63
= 134   252.
Ko.AN: The, 23.
LABOR: defined, 13; human existence dependent on labor, 13; idle and im  provident tribes and classes disappear, 13; produces first food and fabrics,
13; continues to minister to human desires, 14; man's insatiable desire for
wealth, 14; love of personal acquisition the mainspring to the achievement
of most material good, 15; Columbus as an illustration, 15; personal ad
367 
4NALYTICAL INDEX.
vancement as an incentive to continuous exertion, 15; Man's natural love
of ease and enjoymnent only overborne by incentives to labor, 15; security of
property essential to the maintenance of civilization, 15; industry beneficent
in its habitual influences and results, 15; reprobates and criminals the resuit of youthful idleness, 15; industrious habits in youth a guaranty of a
moral and useful life, 15; the fate of the idle, 15; numbers unable to do
anything useful, 16; a burden upon the coimmunity, 16; results from wvant
of industrial training, 16; their willingness to work of no account, 16; industrial training obligatory with some communities and races, 16; no exemption on account of condition or prospects, 16  the Saracens and Moors
honored industry, 16; different course of the Turks and Arabs, 16; Greek
and Roman civilization, as affected by the avoidance of labor, t16; diver;ifiea.
tion of industry destroyed and undermined serfdom in Europe, 16; that continent emancipated through it from ignorance and barbarism, 1; pauperism
and its attendant evils can only be banished by industrial training, 17; ought
to be made general, 17; even as a resource, 17; idleness and inefficiency inflict the greatest calamities, 17; the cause of this idleness and inefficieincy,
17; one tenth of our people habitually idle, 18; the cause, 18; national loss
from involuntary idleness, 18; no dearth of employment for skilled vorkimen,
18; the invariable influence of early laborious habits, 18; diversified industry
essential to the employment of a whole community, 18; a people who have
but a single source of profit uniformly poor, 19; its inability to employ and
reward various capacities, 19; importance of a diversity of pursuits, 19; the
once District of Maine illustrating the same, 19: some districts of the Russian
Empire, 19; the relative proluctiveness of Massachusetts, Northi Carolina,
and Indiana, 19; the almost exclusive employment of men's labor in the
latter States, 19; our indebtedness to the labor of past generations, 20; the
worker has rarely time or taste for crime or vice, 20; Nature profoundly imbued with integrity, 20; inflexible and undeviating in her demands, 20;
beneficial influence of labor on the moral character, 20; Work an evidence of
the value and necessity of integrity and truth, 20; Thomas Carlyle on Work,
20; Rev. W. E. Channing on the beneficence of labor, 21; observation of
Ross Browne in the Holy Land, 22; idleness in Palestine accounted for, 23;
labor amazingly cheap there, 23; few manufactures there, 23; the people
impoverished, 23; pernicious effect of the inequalities in Turkish taxation,
23; the lazzaroni of Naples, 23; the course an enlightened policy would dictate, 23; the extended influence of ample and remunerative employment, 24;
the South of 1815 - 60, without intelligent labor, 25; it and Slavery could not
exist together, 25; a Protective Tariff enacted in 1861 when  the Slaveholders
left Congress, 25; cheapness not an all-important consideration in a national
policy, 25; the development and employment of the industrial capacity of the
people paramount, 25; fatal effects of undiversified, 25; MA.  the noblest
fruition of Labor, 25; no useless application of Labor in contravention of natural laws proposed, 29; waste of labor in connection with tea, 31; the reward of labor increased by wise distribution, 31; civilization based on systematic labor, 40; the just relation between Capital and Labor, 43; cheapness of, in Eastern Asia, 45; unable to compete with British products, 45;
what the interests of labor demand in India, 46; the foundation of the right
of Property, 50; Rights of Labor, reference to, 51; unemployed labor lost
forever, 56; the wages of labor depressed by the influx of British goods at the
closeofthe war of 1812-14, 62 = 78; Labor in eager demandinnewsettlements,
81 = 91 = 134 =; Dr. Lieber's remarks on Labor considered, 135, 136 =
138 =; the two classes which Manufactures divide into and the connection
368 
ANALYTICAL INDEX.
of Labor therewith, 146; where cheap Labor is most effective in competition,
147; relative dearness of Labor, 150; the interests of our artisans and artifi cers, 158: conflict between Labor and Capital disapproved, 159; universal
industrial training approved, 160; Free Trade representations to the Labor ing class, 160; J. R. McCulloch quoted, 102; the Free Trade error in regard
to Labor, 163; its fallacy demonstrated, 163; Dr. Bowring's testimony, 163;
the decline of East Indian Industry, 164; the variable value of Labor, 165;
the laborer in the contemplation of far-seeing statesmanship, 166; the perils
attending cheap Labor, 166; Manufactures increase the recompense of Agricul  tural labor, 167; illustrations thereof, 167,168; the general movement for in  creased wages, 168; how retarded by the Free Trade policy, 168; the true rela  tion of the laboring class of one country to that of another, 170 = 17 2 = 173
= 174 = 175 = 199 =; Labor and the Beet Sugar Industry of France, 202;
Labor dearer in American than in foreign Shipyards, 225, = 236 =; Wages
of Labor at Pacific Mills, Lawrence, Mass., 301; compared with that paid in
England, 301; statistics of the savings of the workpeople at Pacific Mills,
Lawrence, Mass, 302; beneficial effect of Protection to the Woollen Indus  try, on Labor, 302; skilled labor attracted here by a Protective policy, 317;
Free Trade allegation respecting the recompense of Labor in the United States
and Europe, 320; the illimitable demand for Labor, 322; less remunerated
where products are sent long distances for fabrication, 336; suffers where
Commerce controls Industry, 338; influence of the cost of Labor on some
Manufactures, 343; the protection of these National Industries justifiable and
beneficent, 344; Free Trade antagonism to Trades Unions, 345; the govern  ment should be vigilant for its Protection, 349; the false policy of regulating
our Industry by the price of foreign products, 349. See also C06PERATION,
LABORING CLASS, SL.IVERY, AN'D WAGES.
LABORING CLAss: want of accuracy in the term, 159; universal industrial train  ing approved, 159; labor more honorable than idleness, 160; the Laboring
Class as popularly known, 160; its advance to political importance, 161; Free
Trade representations to the Laboring Classes, 161: J. R. McCulloch quoted in
connection therewith, 162; the Free Trade error, 162; its fallacy demonstrated,
163; Dr. Bo.vring's testimony, 163; the decline of East Indian industry, 163,
164; the variable value of Labor, 165; the laborer in the contemplation of far  seeing statesmanship, 166; evil of cheap Labor, 167; Manufactures increase
the recompense of Agricultural Labor, 167; illustrations of same, 168; the
general movement for increased wages, 168; how retarded by the Free Trade
policy, 169; Carlyle on the peril of depending on the product of cheap Labor,
169; our duty to rising industries in other lands, 170; the true relation of the
laboring class of one country to that of another, 170; see also LABOR.
LANCASHIRE: 308.
LAND: one sixteenth of the public lands devoted to Popular Education, 53;
cheapness of land in the United States, 78.
LARD: 234.
LAWItENCE (Mass.): 138 = 167 = 300.
LEGAL TEN.DEr (The, act): 72.
LEIPSIC: 191.
LEVI (Professor): on Earningsof Labor, 301.
LIBERIA: 344.
LIEBIG: 319.
LIEBEa (Dr. Francis): 135.
LILLE, 200.
L-LTSO,-E: 95 _ 173.
16*x
369 
ANALYTICAL INDEX.
Li-CCOLN (President): 57.
LIvu.POOL: 229, 325.
LLOYD (Ion James): 96.
Lo hs (Government): 72.
LONDON: = 26 =; the Petition of the Merchants and Traders of, 131 = 139 =
1o52 = 22 = 300 = 308.
LO'DO0aDEaRY (N. II.): 138.
LOUIS XIV.: 319.
LouIsI.tvT: 120 = 1831 = 252 = 272.
LOW-LL'Mass.): prices of the cotton fabrics of, in 1842, 103 = 138 = 167.
LO-sNDES (William, of South Carolina): his share in the Tariff of 1816, and
character, 116 = 217 = 3238.
LUMBER: 106 = 352.
LYoss: 284
M cHIC-E!Y: 322.
M-DISO  (kPresident): as one of the Fathers, 112; advocates the Protection and
encouragement of native Manufactures, 112 = 113 = 114 = 35L
MIGEE (John,: 252
M VINE: 19   30 = 133 = 134 = 225 = 252 = 286.
MALL.'P.Y (Rollin C.): 34 = 135. 
MINCEIESTR FEngland): 331 = 334.
MA.N-CIESTEP. (N. H11.): 138 = 167.
MANUFACTUREaS: reference to Hamilton's Report on, 34; the establishment of
home, advocated by eminent Americans for the benefit of farmers,  84; un  known or very limited in the early years of the Republic, 34; British, in com  petition with those of China and India, 45; manufactures foster invention,
48; prostrated by the influx of British goods soon after the war of 1812 - 14,
62  the New York merchants ask Congress for protective measures to save our
manufactures from ruin, 63; the progress of American, impeded by the dear  ness of Capital, 78; nearly every element of manufactures dearer here than in
Europe, 78; British, 78; French, 78; German, 78; Belgian, 78; the great
men of the early years of the Republic favorable to Ilome Manufactures, 108;
favored Protection for them in the interests of Agriculture, 108;  Washington
advises the promotion of Manufactures 109; action of Congress thereon, 109;
Alexander tIamilton's Report on Manufactures, 109; a standing Committee on
Commerce axid Manufactures  created  110; Washington affirms his former
views, 110; Jefferson on the objects of the Federal Government, 111; on the
maintenance of Protection, 112; Madison advocates the Protection and en  couragement of Manufactures, 112, 113, 114; Dallas on the interest of Agricul  ture in Manufacture, 115; Newton of Virginia on the harmony of interests,
116; on the general benefits arising from Manufactures, 116; Mr. Lowndes
reports the Tariff of 1816, 116; Calhoun on the mutual interests of Manufac  tures and Agriculture, 117; advantages of the measure he sustained, 118;
reference to the messages of Governors George Clinton, Tompkins, DeWitt
Clinton, and Snyder as corroborative of the great value of Manufactures to
Agriculture, 118; reasons which guided the great men of the Republic, 119;
Home Manufactures encouraged by the founders of the Republic in the inter  ests of Agriculture, 133; the Free Trade assumption respecting the cost of
IHome Manufactures 136; Franklin on the inter-dependence of Agriculture
and Ihome Manufactures, 139; downward tendency of the prices of domestic
manufactures, 138; Adam Smith on the great value of Manufactures to
Agriculture, 141; Alderman Mechi thereon, 142; Dr. Lyman Beecher on
the importance of Manufactures, 143; President Monroe urges Congress to
370 
ANALYTICAL INDEX.
afford Protection to Manufactures, 144; the distinct classes Manufactures di vide into, in regard to Political Economy, 146; explanation thereof, 146; in fluence of cheap Labor on, 146; Encouragement and Protection of Manufac tures contemplated in the first Tariff, 147; the special claim of Manufactures
to Protection, 148; in the interests of Agriculture, 149; why Manufactures
need Protection, 150; relative dearness of Labor, 150; the scarcity and dear ness of Capital, 154; abundance of skilled Labor in France and Great Britain,
151; Railroads as aids to Manufacture, 151; the control exercised by the
older manufacturing nations, 152; the partiality for foreign manufactures,
153; the ascendency of foreign interests, 153; want of information on Ameri can manufactures, 154; progress of the Watch manufacture, 154; imitation
of foreign goods, 155; instances thereof, 156; impediments to the growth of
American Manufacturing Industry and the nature thereof, 157; necessity for
Protection, 158; our inflated currency and Home Manufactures, 237; Manu factures stimulating Agriculture, 245 = 276 = the growth and progress of Im migration a direct consequence of the establishment of Home Manufactures,
310; existence of Manufactures attracts a high order of industrial ability, 319;
the loss France suffered from the expulsion of her manufacturers, 320; our true
policy regarding diversified production, 337; consequences of dependence on
foreign supplies, 340; the Free Trade idea of cheapness delusive, 341; demon stration thereof, 341; Protection stimulates valuable industries and serves all,
342; reduces the cost of Manufactures, 343; industrial education secured by
diversifying pursuits, 348; folly of national industrial independence being
controlled by cheapness, 349; Iron, Lumber, and Salt, 352; the great Immi gration since Manufactures were established, 352; existence of manufactures
indispensable to steady and extensive Immigration, 353.
MARCY (Hon. William L.): 351.
M.kRENGO: 191.
MARGRAFF: 187, 188.
MASO.XS: 284.
M.sSSACHUSETTS: relative production with North Carolina and Indiana, 19;
nearly half of the women and half of the children employed in, 19; spades
and shovels of, unsurpassed in Europe, 47; hostile to Protection in 1822, 96,
= 133 = 134 = 167 = 252 =
M.RTINIQUE: 209.
M-atYL.tD: 124 = 134 = 274.
McCULLOCH (Secretary Hugh): 239.
McCULLOCI (J. R.: 162.
MrcHI (Alderman): on the value of Manufactures to Agriculture, 142.
MEVT: 138 = 200 = 234.
MEDITERRtANIEAN: 186.
MED ri-.CK (the River): 167.
MERSEY (the River): 225 = 226.
MrT.kLS: 134 = 136 -= 172 = 245 = 283.
MEXICO: 311 = 319.
MICHIGAN: 137 = 173.
MIDDLE STATES: declared for Protection 1824, 133 = 134 = 245.
MIrFFLIN (Governor Thos.): 125.
MILL (John Stuart): proposition respecting Capital, 43, 60.
MILLWALL: 227.
MINER, LS: 172.
MINN-ESOTA: 30 = 137.
Missouri: = 97 = 134 = 152 = 244 = 286
371 
ANALYTICAL INDEX.
MissIssippi: the Valley of, 83; the State of, 134; the River, 174.
MOIAMMED' faith of, allusion, 16.
MOLASSES; 201 = 204.
MoNeY: the diffusion and practice of systematic industry promotes the public
good, 54; Money an agency in overcoming  Manes natural indolence, 54
work universally preferred to starvation, 54; case of voluntary idleness, 55;
influence of Money on industry, 56; beneficial effects of the creation and use
of money, 56; Gold and Silver originally selected for money, 56; coins of his  toric worth, 57; failure of American in that respect, i57; Paper Money a sig  nal improvement on an exclusively coin currency, 57; its advantages and
convenience, 57; the reasons for such selection, 56; the use of Paper Money
will increase indefinitely, 58; its advantages outweigh its abuses, 58; a new
country feels the dearth and realizes the want of Money, 58: its tendency to
send away its money, 59; effects which follow, 59; practical evidence of same,
59; distinction between tlie want of Capital and of Money, 59; cause of the
popularity of well-managed banks and their issues, 60; evils of Balance of
Trale whereby money is withdrawn and its return prevented, 60; the popu  lar feeling right on thi s matter, 60; the error of extravagant trading, 60; the
nation doing so incurs the penalty of culpable folly, 60; the Free Trade treat  ment of this subject, 60; Bastiat quoted, 60; Mill quoted, 60; effects of scar  cry of Money in the Roman empire, 61; beneficial effects on Europe  of the
gold from America, 61; the assumption by Free Trade economists that a
country may part with half its specie without serious harm, 61; the injury
caused by general recourse to barter, 61  personal recollections of the pecu  niary ruin at the close of the last war with England, 62; the tariff of 1816
inadequate to avert it, 62; Manufactures, Agriculture, and Wages depressed,
62; bankruptcy in New England, 6 3; intolerable pressure of Debt in Ken  tucky, and its effects, 63; New Yorl merchants memorialize Congress, 63;
barter general in Vermont in 1821- 31, 614; personal recollections thereof, 64
the scarcity of money less after the passage of the Tariff of 1824, 64; effects of
the drainage of specie by the excessive importations of 1815-24, 64; the con   sequences of scarcity of money summarized, 65; considerations which should
govern imports and exports, 67; the reckless tendency to borrow, 68; Papcr
Money natural to an industrial people, 69; preference for gold and silver in
California considered; 69; rash speculation not checked by hard money or
legalized usury, 69; Paper Money more a benrefit than otherwise, 72; an ex   clusively paper currency of questionable value, 72; the action of the Govern   ment respecting the currency at different periods  2; its course during the
Civil War, 72; wisdom of the measure originally designed, 73; consequences
of deviation from it, 74; conditions of an exclusively Paper  Currency, 74;
Edward Kellogg's plan for a paper currency, 75; h              is view of the  _7z1onojoly
of Money, 75; proposal for its remedy, 75; his fundamental  proposition, 76;
money in existence before government intervention, 76; the controlling in   fluences on the currency proposed by E. Kellogg, 77; its connection  with
our foreign trade, 77; its inevitable effect, 78; the merits of Paper Currency,
78; the enthusiasm in its favor, 78; the science of money aimperfectly known,
78; the dearness of Capital impedes the progress of our National uIndustry,
78; distinction between real and fictitious estimates of wealth, 78: a happy
medium between the ideas of extremists on a Paper and Coin currency, 80;
effect of an irredeemable currency on Prices, 236; our inflated currency inju   rious to Mamnfactures, 237.
MIO_OPOLY: a perverted and misapplied word, 95: the right of granting monop   olies exercised by British monarchs, 95; false application of the word, 96;
372 
ANALYTICAL INDEX.
incidents corroboratory thereof, 98; home competition and the mnanufacture
of brick, 99; the principle applicable to other industries, 99.
.MoaIs-o- (President): urges Congress to afford Protection to American Manu    factures, 144.
MONTANA: 286, 322.
MONTa Z.L: 28.
MOOEa  (Sir Henry): 123.
Moors: honored and practised industry, 16.
Moscow: 190 = 191.
MOU.NTAINS (The Rocky): 321.
MUDGo (I-Ion E. R.): 287; on the perfection of American Woollen machinery,
299; cost of production, 300.
MuN-GO: its nature and uses, 289.
NAPOLEON I.: 23 = his Berlin Decree, 111; his Milan, 112 = 136   189   191 
194 = 206.
NAPOLTON III.: 315.
N-sHUI  (N. II.): 138, 167.
N. VsIG TION LAWS: 231.
NEBRAsK1: 37.
NELSON (Admiral): 188.
NEVAD.I: gold-mining in, reference to, 31.
NEW BRU-NSWICK: 229.
NEW E.NGL ND: the poverty of the District of Maine a proverb in, 19, 37; Chi   nese fabrics once vorn extensively in, 45 = 55 =; Bankruptcy in, following
the war of 1812-14, 62 > Banks of, during the war of 1812-14, 72 = 245 _
254 = 311 = 331 = 352.
NEw Hlrs2PSHIR: 63 = 133 = 134 -= 167 = 252 =286.
NEw JERSEY: 131 = 151 = 152 = 274.
Now MENlxICo: 321.
N.wpO-XT: 122.
NEowSPSPARS: author's experience as a manufacturer of, 100.
N:WTON (Ion. Thomas, of Virginia): reference to the Speeches of, 34 -  109 =
reports as chairman from the Committee on Commerce and Manufactures in
favor of Protection, 115; extracts from that report, 116.
NEw YORK (City): commerce of, 26; reference to a merchant of, 28; the prices
of bulky staples in, mainly quoted by Free-Traders, 33 = 37 =; the Ncw York
merchants memorialize Congress in favor of Protective measures, 1817, 63:
progress of the.City, 121; population 1790 - 1860, 122; her rivals, 122; com  pletion of the Erie Canal, 126; its beneficial influence on New York, 126; the
same arguments as Free-Traders use employed against it, 128 = 153 = value
of Real Estate in, 263; taxation in, 265; government and politicians, 266 =
274 = 294 = 316.
Now Yoaa (The State of): 123; canals of, in 1791, 125; completes the Erie Ca  nal, 126; results, 126 = 128 = 134 = 137 = 151 = 153 = 252 = 286.
NIC.PRAGUA: 26.
NILos (Hezekiah): 34 = 133.
NITRE: 234.
NORFOLK (Va.): 122.
NORMA.. CO.NQUEST: 186.
NORTH CAN..AAN: 340.
NORTHERN STA TES: 138.
NoNwAY: 308, 312, 313.
Nooas (Treasury): = 73 
373 
ANALYTICAL INDEX.
NovA ScOTI-: 148 = 225 = 229.
OAK: 230.
OHIO: 122 = 134 = 252.
OLD WORLD: products of, allusion, 29.
OLIVE: 241.
OPDYKE (Hon George): on the law of exportation, 230.
OREGON: 244.
OWEN (Hon. Robert Dale): on the lazzaroni of Naples, 23.
PACIFIc MILLS (The): Wages of Labor, 301.
PALESTINE: observation of Ross Browne, 22; cheapness of labor in, 23.
PALMYRA: 42.
PAPERI: price of, largely enhanced in 1862, 214; effort to reduce the duty on,
defeated, 215; ultimate benefit realized, 216.
PARIs: 189 = 191 = 197 - 308.
PARLIAMENT (British): 93.
PARAGUAY: 319.
PAUPERISM: can only be banished by industrial training, 17.
PEACHES: abundant, but unremunerative, 274.
PENN —SYLVANIA: = 48 = 97 = 124 =- ]34 = 230 = 244 = 252 = 331.
PERFECTIONISTS (Community of): 285.
PERRY (Professor): 305; condemns (as a Free Trade writer) Trades Unions, 345.
PERU: 152.
PETER (the Czar) allusion, 23.
PETO (Sir Morton): on American Ship-building, 224.
PETROLEUM: 234.
PHARAOHS: the, 274.
PHILADELPHIA: population of, 1790 - 1860, 122.
PLIANO-MAEKERS: 284.
PIERCE (President): 57
PINTARD (John): 222.
PITTSBURG: 97 = 124 = 152 = 173 = 244 
PLOTGHIS (American)- 105, 146.
POI,AND: 206 = 312 = 314
POLITICAL ECONOMY: the chief end of a true, 29 = 218 =;  its true object, 282 =
337.
POLE (President): 97 = 287.
POMEROY (" Brick"): 305.
POMPEII: 42.
PORTLAND (Me.): on the Tariff of'28 = 253.
PORTUOGL: 140 = 174 = 288 = 312 = 314 =
POST (Evening): 135 = 222=; a leading champion of Free Trade, 246; on pre  diction, 247; prophesying, 248; proved a false prophet, 251; exults over New
England, 254; impugns the motives of those who voted for the Tariff of  28,
254; predicts universal smuggling, 255; refuted by the event, 259 =  303.
PREDICTIONS (Free Trade): success of Protection at former periods a guide at
the present, 246; the Evening Post a leading champion of Free Trade, 246;
the rule of verification it proposes, 247; Protection and the Tariffs 1189 -1824,
247; the Post's predictions of utter ruin from the Tariff of 1824, 247; com pletely falsified, 247; the country favors higher protection in 1828, 247; Free
Trade allegations as to the effect of Protection on Prices and Revenue, 247;
Dr. Cooper's anticipations of a decline in the Revenue, 249; the Post's en  dorsement of Mr. Cambreleng's remarks on the Revenue, 249; Resolutions
against Protection based upon injury to the Revenue, 260; entire fallacy of
374 
ANALYTICAL INDEX.
the Free Trade predictions demonstrated, 251; Free Trade prophecies again
falsified by events, 251; the Tariff of 1828, 252; how supported, 252; hostile
demonstrations when enacted, 253; the Post and New England, 254; the
Post's comments on the expected enactment of the Tariff, 1828, 254; the
Post's predictions as to its effects when passed, 255; summary thereof, 258;
United States Tonnage, Exports and Imports, 1817 - 32, 259; Imports from
England and Scotland, 260; foreign trade not the true measure of the growth
or thrift of a people, 260; application of the statistics quoted, 260; complete
fallacy of the Post's predictions, 261; Mr. Clay on the contrasted influences
of Free Trade and Protection, 1832, 261.
PRESIDU'TS: reference to the messages of our earlier, 34.
PRICES: the high, charged in inter-oceanic commerce, 28; prices of home pro  ducts equalized by Protection, 32; prices at seaboard habitually quoted by
Free-Traders, 33; misapplication of the word "monopoly," 97; prices governed
by the cost of production, 98; effect of domestic competition on the price of
Brick, 99; inconsistency between the teachings and practice of Free-Traders
in regard to supposed profits, 100; the Free Trade assumption regarding the
influence of the Tariff on prices, 100; personal experience stated, 100; the
progress of the Starch manufacture cited, 101; an illustration, by Mr. Clay,
of the subject, 101; the Tariff of 1842 and the price of cotton fabrics, 102;
Samuel Lawrence on the price of cotton fabrics before and after the Tariff of
1842, 102, 103; price reduced abroad in anticipation of the Tariff of 1842, 103;
the Tariff of 1842 reduces the prices of Hardware and Cotton goods, 104; an
immediate reduction not invariable, 104; the general propositions on the
subject, 104; Free Trade evidence in support thereof, 104; home production
the cheapest, 105; domestic competition sufficient to regulate prices, 105; cost
the general measure of price, 106; prices of Foreign Iron enhanced under the
Reventue Tariff of 1846, 174; influence of the Labor on the cost of the produc  tion of Iron, 177; the evils attending dependence on the products of cheap
labor, 179; the price of Iron measured by the cost of production, 184; gen  uine cheapness only attainable by Protection, 185; Dr. Wayland's statement
respecting the price of Sugar in France, 193; complete fallacy thereof, 193;
error of the Free Trade assumption of the effect of duties on the price of Home
products, 194; cheap Sugar attained in France by Protection, 195; gradual
reduction of the price of Beet Sugar, 197; relative price of Beet and Imported
Sugars in France, 198; Price of Iron cheapened by Protection, 218; why
prices are inflated, 236; Specie payments in connection with prices, 241; av  erage price of Wool for the thirty-five years preceding 1860, 290; prices of
WIool October, 1860,1866, 1869, 294; price of Wool and Woollens since the
Tariff of 1867, 294; price of Wool in Great Britain, 294; prices of Woollens
1859 and 1869 compared, 295; clothes-making referred to as an instance of
how dependence on foreign markets operates, 338 - 40; cheap Sugar attained
in France by Protection, 342; all Protected Manufactures have reduced in
price, 343; relative cost of Labor in the United States and Europe, in con  nection with the cost of some articles, 343; Free-Traders' inconsistencies in
regard to the supposed effect of Duties on Prices, 349, 350.
PRINTS: 343.
PRODUCE: 236, 239.
PRODUCTION: affected by conflicts between Capital and Labor, 86; increased by
the invention of Machinery, 273.
PRODUCTS (Farm): 138.
PROTECTION: the fundamental ideas on which it is based war on Slavery, 24; as
-a means of securing home competition, 32; has secured products at a lower
375 
ANALYTICAL INDEX.
cash price than when imported, 33; the considerations which governed our
early champions of, 34; General Jackson's letter in favor of a Protective
Tariff, 35; the fallacy that Protection would confine the farmer to one market, 36; the Free Trade cavil about indiscriminate, 37; cheapness attained
by, 48; the triumphs we will attain under, 49; memorial of New York merchants in favor of, 63; secures lower prices for cotton fabrics in 1842, 104;
general propositions relative to its bearing on prices, 104 to 107; Free Trade
evidence in support thereof. 104; cost the general measure of price under,
106; alleged exceptions explained, 106; Protection secures the manufacture
of patented articles here instead of abroad, 107; the great men of the early
years of the Republic directly or indirectly connected with Agriculture, 108;
nearly unanimous in favor of Protection, 108; believed it essential in the
interest of Agriculture, 108; Washington advises the promotion of manufactures, 109; action of Congress thereon, 109; Alexander Hamilton's Report,
109; a Standing Committee on Commerce and Manufactures created, 110;
Washington affirms his former views, 110; Jefferson on the objects of the
Federal government, 111; also on the maintenance of Protection, 112; Madison advocates the Protection and Encouragement of Manufactures, 112114; Dallas recommends the policy of Protection, 115; Thomas Newton's
(of Virginia) Report from the Committee on Commerce and Manufactures in
favor of Protection, 115; Calhoun favors Protection, 117; the advantages of
the measure he sustained, 118; reference to the messages of eminent Governors in favor of Protection, 118; the attention which the views of the Fathers
merit, 119; the motives that guided them, 119; the founders of the Republic
conversant with Free Trade arguments, 113; John Randolph of Roanoke
leads the Southern anti-Protectionists, 133; the reasons which governed the
action of the various States in 1824, 133, 134; Dr. Lieber's statement considered, 135; the fallacy therein, 136; the benefit of Protection to the Agriculturist, 136; secures the farmer manufactures at less cost in Produce, 136;
Distant markets fluctuating, 133; exhaustion of the soil, 137; Protection increases the value of farm products, Timber, &c., 138; Londonderry, N. H.,
an illustration thereof, 139; corroborated by the action of the Canadian
farmers, 139; Franklin on the interdependence of Agriculture and Home
Manufactures, 139; Henry C. Carey on the value to farmers of near markets,
140; E. B. Ward on the necessity for Protection, 141; Adam Smith on the
value of Manufactures to Agriculture, 141; Rev. Lyman Beecher on the
Protection and encouragement of Manufactures, 141, 142; President Monroe
favors Protection, 144; The AMEnIICAN SYSTEM, 145; economy attained in the
price of articles by Protection, 146; the preamble of the first Tariff declares
for Protection, 147; the special claim of Manufactures to Protection, 148;
reasons why they need it, 150; evidences of progress in Iron production, 173;
Price of Foreign Iron enhanced under the Revenue Tariff of 1846, 174; Hon.
D. J. Morrell on the progress which can be attained under Protection, 176;
Labor the main difference in the cost of foreign and American Iron, 177: the
evils attending dependence on the products of cheap Labor, 179; the Protective Tariff rates on Iron, 1816-61, 180; deceptions practised by Free-Traders
respecting Tariff rates, 180; the production of Pig Iron increasing, 181; evasions of the Tariff, 182; the price of commodities measured by the cost of production, 184; detrimental effects of unsteadiness in our past policy, 185; the
beneficial results that would follow stability in the Tariff, 185; a genuine
cheapness attainable only by Protection, 185; introduction of the Sugar-Cane
in Europe, 186; the progress of the Sugar industry under Protection, 187;.
origin of Beet Sugar, 187; history of its introduction, 188; circumstances fa
376 
ANALYTICAL INDEX.
vorable to its development, 189; scarcity of Sugar in France, 189; Napoleon
promotes its manufacture, 190; its extensive production an enduring evidence
of his genius, 191; permanent character and success of the Beet Sugar Industry, 192; the Free-Traders ridicule the French Protective policy, 192; Dr.
Wayland's misrepresentations and anticipations, 193; falsity of the Free Trade
assumption of the effect of duties on the price of IHome Products, 194; later
difficulties of the Beet Sugar Industry, 194; rates of duty on Sugar in France,
195; the immense production and consumption of Beet Sugar in France, 196;
its gradual reduction in price, 197; the Protection accorded to Beet Sugar in
France, 198; the relative prices of Beet and Cane Sugar in France, 198; Protection in relation to harmony of interests, 199; the French Sugar industry
in relation to general industry, 199; in regard to Agriculture, 200; in respect
to Cattle-raising, 200; the residuum in the Beet Sugar Manufacture utilized,
201; labor benefited by the Beet Sugar Industry, 202; a proof of the value
of diversified industry secured by Protection, 203; Beet Sugar Industry in
Germany, 204; its progress, 205; the value of encouragement to this industry,
206; its early progress in Europe, 206; statistics thereof, 207; our imports of
Sugar and Molasses, 1862 - 66, 208; Beet Sugar exported to England, 209;
the Free Trade version of the history of the French Beet Sugar Industry, 209;
the general benefits secured through its Protection, 211; a Free Trade document given, 212; the principles on which Free Trade doctrines and Protection
are based, 213; cheapness not to be obtained by dependence on foreign markets, 214; Paper as an instance, 214; Iron in connection with Ship-building,
216; abundance of Iron ores in Virginia, 217; the variable Protection afforded
to the Iron Industry, 218; some Free Trade misrepresentations respecting Iron
explained, 219; Free Trade anticipations of the ruin of Commerce and Navigation examined, 220; increase in United States Tonnage following the Tariff of
1824, 221; increase in the Revenue following the Tariff of 1824, 223; the decline in Ship-buLilding general and not caused by Protection to American Industry, 225 - 27; the necessary excess of Exports over Imports, 235; deceptive
representations of the Tariff Rates, 237; no essential change in the present
Tariff recommended, 240; importance of increased Production, 241; our present industrial progression must continue unless Protection is removed, 243;
rapid development of our Manufacturing Industry, 244; value of Manufactures to Agriculture, 245; effects of Protection at former periods a guide at
the present, 246; Protection and the Tariff, 1789 -1816, 247; the Evening
Post predicts utter ruin from the Tariff of 1824, 247; completely falsified, 247;
confirmed by the country favoring Protection in 1828, 247; Free Trade allegations as to the effect of Protection on Prices and Revenue, 249; Dr. Cooper's
anticipations of a decline in the Revenue, 249; Free Trade predictions, 249,
250; their fallacy demonstrated by results, 251; success of Protection, 182428, 252; demonstrations on the passage of the Protective Tariff, 1828, 253; the
Post's predictions as to its effects, 254-258; summary thereof, 258; United
States Tonnage, Exports and Imports, 1817-32, 259; foreign trade not a true
measure of national growvth, 260; Mr. Clay on the contrasted influences of
Free Trade and Protection, 1832, 261; Free Trade inconsistencies regarding
raising revenue by Customs Duties, 271; the relation between Protection and
CoOperation, 283; the Wool Tariff of 1867, 290-292; compared with former
Tariffs, 293; the character of the Tariffs since 1824, 293; Protection stimulates
Production, and reduces Prices, 294; the results of Protection as applied to
Wool and Woollens, 296; great improvements in the quality and finish of our
Woollens, 297; American Woollen manufactures compared with European,
299; why Protection is necessary, 300; the results detailed of Protection to
377 
ANALYTICAL INDEX.
our Wool and Woollen Industry since 1861, 302; statement of the Evening
Post on Protection to the Woollen Trade, 303; the inference therefrom, 304;
inconsistencies of its statements with actual facts, 304; a Protective policy
increases the immigration of skilled labor, 317, 319; nature can be the only
legitimate impediment to manufactures, 337; the operation of foreign trade,
338, 339; results to be expected from dependence on foreign supplies, 339;
profitable influence of Protection, 340; another name for National CoSpera    tion, 340; extended benefits of Protection, 341; its beneficent effect, in regard
to Beet Sugar in France, 342; a genuine cheapness secured in all Protected
manufactures, 343; the cost of Labor the only main difference in the cost of
some products, 344; Protection in such cases dictated by national interests,
344; a fraternal feeling should take the place of Competition, 344; Free Trade
in antagonism with Trades Unions, 345; Professor Perry on Trades Unions,
346; Government should be as vigilant for the Protection of Labor as for
other Property, 349; inconsistency of Free-Traders in advocating a Revenue
Tariff, 349; eminent Americans favored Protection in the interests of Agricul   ture, 351; did so from enlightened reasons and experience, 351; deceptive use
of the word Monopoly, 352; the Free-Traders' appeals to supposed sectional in   terests, 352; the favorable influence of Protection on Immigration, 353; Pro   tection always a sheet-anchor of Prosperity and a main-spring of Progress, 353.
PURITANS (The): 311.
PYIAMi[DS (The): 42.
RILPurO.iD (The Pacific): 321.
RAILOADS: =o 90 =; the Panama, allusion, 90; the Pacific, allusion, 90 = 342.
R.NDOLPH (John, of Roanoke): led the Southern anti-Protectionists, 133.
RAPPIrrTS: the community of, 285.
R-:x (Dr.): 120.
REBELLION: Shay's, 33; the Southern, 235.
RENT: 266.
REPRESENTATIVES (House of): A. Standing Committee on Commerce and Manu  factures formed by, 110 = 206.
REPUDIATION: 238; a crime and a misfortune, 243   = 314.
REUNION: 195.
REVENUE: failure of, in 1840 - 42, 93; increased by the Tariff of 1824, 221; also
by that of 1828, 251 = 258 = 260.
RETVOLUTION (French): 312.
RRODE ISLANT): 37 = 133 = 134 -= 167 =
RICE: decrease in the production of, 224.
ROCIHDALE: 89 = 278 = 279 = 280.
RODNEY (Admiral): 188.
ROEBLING: 319.
ROMAN EMPIRE: 61.
ROMANS, the: 298.
ROTHSCHILDS: 28.
RUSSIA: 207 = 236 = 288 = 812.
ST. ETIENE:  284.
ST. HELENA: 191.
ST. LAWRENCE (the River): 225.
ST. THOMAS: 319.
SALADIN: empire of, allusion, 16.
SALT: unfair comparisons made in the price of, 33; produced in the interior, 833;
an instance of cost largely enhanced by transportation, 33 = 147 =     343 = 352.
BARACENS: 16 = 186.
378 
ANALYTICAL INDEX.
SAI'NIA: 312.
SATINETS: 343.
SCOTT (Walter, Sir): 52.
ScREws: misrepresentations respecting the influence of Protection on the price
of, 106.
ScYTHES: American, 105.
SEcEssioN: 243.
S —BERT (lron. Adam): 309.
SEYMOUR (W. Digby): 203.
SKH.ERs: the community of, 285.
SHAM LS: 343.
SHEP: 201: number in 1850 and 1860, 287; why sheep husbandry should be
extended, 28; sheep in Australia and South America, 288; sheep husbandry
in Great Britain, 294.
SH-17TI-,GS: 343.
S.:ip BUILDIG (American): cheapness not to be obtained by dependence on for  eign markets, 214; Paper an instance, 214-16; Iron in connection with ship  building, 216; our great facilities for Iron production, 217; some Free Trade
fallacies in regard to Iron explained, 219; the mistake of expecting foreign
supplies at a fixed price, 219; Mr. Webster's anticipations in 1824,220; their in  correctness, 221; United States Tonnage, 1820 -28, 221; the Tariff of 1824 and
American Tonnage, 221, 222; memorial from the New York Chamber of Com  merce,222; incorrectness of its calculations 223; matters which control the
pro gress of our ship-building, 223; Sir Morton Peto on American Ship-Build.ig, 224; Shipping sold to foreigners before and during the war, 224; decline
of ship-building in Canada, 225; its depressed condition in England, 1868- 69,
226; general and permanent depression of ship-building on the Thames, 227;
on the law of foreign commerce, 229; Ship-Building at Wilmington, Del., 230;
our experience in Ocean Steamship trading, 231; impediments to its extension,
232; our prospects in regard to ship-building and navigation generally, 232.
SIOVELS: American, 105. 
SILESI.: 206.
SILK: the climate of California and the silkworm, 48 = 335.
SINKING FUxD: 238.
SILvER: 241 = 391.
SKILL: the great legacy we have received in, 44; its vital importance, 44; want
of skill in China, 45; machinery in England, 45; competes prejudicially with
the labor of Eastern Asia, 45; Chinese cotton fabrics superseded by foreign
products, 45; English manufactures and India, 45; her true industrial policy,
45; belief once entertained that the country should be exclusively agricul   tural, 46; the ultimate effect of such policy, 46; all great inventive triumphs
the result of gradual progress, 47; only manufacturing countries produce
labor-saving machinery, 47; indebtedness of Europe to American invention,
47; caused by our advance from dependence on Europe, 47; superiority of
some branches of American industry, 47; industry promotes new inventions,
48; iron, 48; cheapness attained by Protection, 48; the progress of invention,
48; the field of future achievements, 48 = 349.
SLA.VERY: engenders contempt for and avoidance of labor, 16; inimical to the
elevation of labor, 24; the idea of Protection implacably at war with Slavery,
Ilenry Clay never in sympathy with the Slavery Propaganda, 24; John C.
Calhoun adopts Free Trade principles because of Slavery, 24; each factory in
the South regarded as a citadel of abolition, 24; Slavery disappearing, 81;
its former revival, 81; its extension, 81; i circumstances which favored it, 81;
379 
ANALYTICAL INDEX.
one of the oldest conditions of systematic industry, 82; the circumstances
under which it originated 82; creates an aversion for labor, 82; the semi   civilization it promotes, 83; Chinese immigration and its bearings, 83; the
WVages system an immense advance on Slavery, 83; destroys all incentive to
labor, 87; its intolerance of inquiry or discussion, 88.
S.IITH (Adam): his statement that the employment each one prospers in is the
best for the community, 128; its fallacy demonstrated, 129; reference to,
138; on the value of Manufactures to Agriculture, 141.
S.ITSI (Ashbel, Colonel): testimony in favor of American axes, 47.
SMITH (Capt. John): 317.
SNYDER (Simon, Governor): 34 = 118 = 351.
SOUThIER-N STATES: their relation to Protection, 24; the South of 1815-60 had
all the elements of manufacturing prosperity but intelligent labor, 25; the
anti-Protectionists of, led by Randolph, 1824, 133 = 138 = 218 = 235 =  245.
SPADES: American, 105 = 343.
SPAIN: 288 = 313 = 314.
SPANIARDS: 81 = 186.
SPANISHI MAIN: 81.
SPARTA: iron money of, 77.
SPECIE PAYMENTS: = 72 = 74 =; consequences of, and why opposed, 239; how
to effect Resumption of, 240.
STARCIH: an instance of price reduced by Protection, 101.
STATE, TiHE: its relation to usury laws, 70; the Free Trade theory of the duty of
the State, 120; it affirms that taxes should be raised only to maintain law and
order, 120; cases which demonstrate its futility, 121; the purchase of Louisi  ana, 120; Chicago water-works, 121; progress of New York City, 121; relative
progress of New York and Philadelphia, 122; the rivalry of other places, 122;
canal projects, 122; interest taken therein by Washington and Colles, 123 - 125;
Washington's views on the subject, 124; the course open to Pennsylvania, 125;
Fulton's suggestion to, 125; Erie Canal and its beneficial effects, 126; the pro  ject vehemently opposed, 126; the position of New York due to deviation from
Free Trade doctrine, 127; the Canal policy of New York opposed on the same
grounds as the National Protective is now, 128; Adam Smith's statement that
the employment each individual prospers in is the most advantageous for the
community, 128; fallacious and mistaken, 129; demonstration thereof, 129;
Free Trade principles as contained in the Petition of the London Merchants,
129; its essential propositions quoted, 130; its first assumption involving the
dictum of Adam Smith, 130; its statement that a nation always imports wisely,
131; that the best distribution of labor is thus caused, 131; practical opera  tion of this principle, 131; our accumulated foreign debt at the sacrifice of
national interests, 132; a lavish increase of imports leads to depression and
calamity, 132.
STEEL: 147 = 154.
STEPHENSON (George): 319.
STORES (Union): 280.
STRIKES: Report on, to the British Parliament, 93 -= 278.
SUEZ (Canal): 90.
SUGAR: in general favor, 186; introduction of the Sugar-Cane into Europe, 186;
definitions of Sugar by Johnson and Webster compared, 187; origin of Beet
Sugar, 187; history of its introduction, 188; circumstances favorable to its
development, 189; scarcity of Sugar in France, 189; Napoleon promotes its
manufacture, 190; its extensive production an enduring evidence of his
genius, 191; permanent character and success of the Beet Sugar Industry,
380 
ANALYTICAL INDEX.
192; opposition to, and doubts of its development, 192; Dr. Wayland's mis  representations and anticipations, 193; falsity of the Free Trade assumption
as to the effect of duties on the price of home products, 194; later difficulties
of the Beet Sugar Industry, 194; the rates of duty on Sugar in France, 195;
the great production of Beet Sugar in France, 196; gradual reduction in its
price, 197; the relative price of Beet and Cane Sugars in France, 198; effect
of the development of Beet Sugar manufacture on the general industry of
France, 199; on agriculture, 199, 200; on cattle-raising, 200; the residuum
in the manufacture of Beet Sugar utilized, 201; share of labor in the Beet
Sugar Industry, 202; increases the yield of Wheat in Belgium, 203; the evi-,
dence of the value of diversified industry afforded, 203; Beet Sugar Industry
in Germany, 204; its progress, 205; the Commissioner of Agriculture's Report
on Beet Sugar Industry, 206; its early progress in Europe, 206; statistics of
production, 207; our Imports of Sugar and Molasses, 1862-66, 208; Beet
Sugar exported to England, 208; the Free Trade version of the history of the
French Beet Sugar Industry, 209; the benefit secured through Protection by
the Sugar Industry, 211; a Free Trade document given, 211; the principles
on which Free Trade doctrines and Protection are based, 213; decrease in the
production of, 224 = 241 =- its production promoted by the present Tariff, 272;
introduction of Beet Sugar Manufacture, 272; the wisdom of Protection ex  emplified in France, 342.
SUPERIOR (Lake): 152 - 173 = 174.
SWEDE: 207 = 312   313.
SWITZERLANID: 308   312 = 313 = 314.
TARIFF: the, of 1816 framed and advocated by Calhoun, 24; the Protective, of
1861, 25; relation of foreign, on the price of Indian corn, 37; the tariff of 1816
mainly framed by William Lowndes, 62; proved inadequate, 62; the Mer  chants of New York ask for an increase of, 1817, 63; the tariff of 1828 secures
our industry from ruinous foreign competition, 93; effects of the tariff of 1833,
93; the effort to increase the Tariff of 1816, 96; a Senator's argument against
it, 96; misapplication of the word': monopoly " in connection with, 96; the
tariff of 1816,96; contemplated general revision of, 97; incidents corroboratory
of the misapplication of the word "monopoly," 98; the tariff of 1842 imposes
a duty on Starch, 101; result, 101; tariff of 1842 and the prices of cotton fab rics, 102; prices of Ilardware under a Revenue and a Protective tariff, 103;
draft of the tariff of 1816 submitted by Dallas, 115; William Lowndes reports
the tariff adopted, 1816, 116; its salient features, 117; reasons which gov erned the action of the various States respecting the Tariff of 1824, 133; blun der made in breaking down in 1846 the tariff of 1842,174; effect of the Revenue
Tariff on the prices of Foreign Iron, 174; Protective Tariff rates on Iron from
1824-61, 180; Free Trade misrepresentations about the duty on Pig Iron,
180; evasions of the Tariff, 183; the Tariff of 1816, 217; of 1824, 220 = 235 -=
237 =; deceptive representations respecting the Tariff rates, 237; the Reveulle
Tariff question, 239; no essential difference in the Tariff recommended, 240;
Protection and the Tariffs of 1789-1816, 247; the Tariff of 1828, 252; how
supported in Congress, 252; the Wool Tariff of 1867, 290; compared with for mer Tariffs, 293; the character of the Tariffs since 1824, 293; the Wool Tariff
of 1867, 294; tariff of 1824, 298; Ad Valorem and Specific rates defined, 323;
the minimum principle, when introduced, 323; the cardinal objection to Ad
Valorem rates, 323; the Iron-masters of Pennsylvania on the working of the
Tariff of 1846, 325; demonstrated by the fluctuating prices of Iron, 325; their
injurious effect on American industry, 325; Specific Duties strongly preferred
in Europe, 327; the tariff of the Zoll verein, 328; evidence of Mr. John IDillon
381 
ANALYTICAL INDEX.
on levying duties by weight and Ad Valorem, 328; HIon. James Thompson and
the Tariff question, 331; why the minimum principle is required, 331; nego  tiations of the French Treaty of 1860, 332; the French reject the ad valorem
principle, 332; the British view of the French tariff exanmined, 334; the most
advisable course to pursue in fixing duties, 334; Free-Traders' inconsistent
policy respecting a Revenue Tariff, 349, 354.
TARIFF (Revenue): the Free-Traders inconsistent in supporting, 271.
TADMIOR: 42.
TAX (Income): 241.
TAXATION: pernicious effect of the inequalities of Turkish taxation, 23; the
Free Trade doctrine which would limit taxation to the maintenance of law and
order, 120; wise deviation therefrom in Chicago ad New York, 121; bene  ficial result, 121; the City of New York as evidence, 121; effect of the excise
tax on the French Beet Sugar Industry, 1837,194; Direct, 251; Direct and
Indirect defined, 264; assumptions in favor of Direct Taxation examined, 265;
the working of Direct Taxation in New York, 265; Taxation in New York
city, 266; its application to theories on Taxation, 267; Progressive Taxation,
267; tendency to impose Taxation on property, 268; M. Thiers on equality of
Taxation, 268; the relative facility of earning a livelihood now and ten years
ago, 269; the Taxation necessitated by the War, 270; Free-Traders' incon  sistencies regarding raising revenue by Customs Duties, 2i1; why by Cus  toms Duties preferable, 271; advantages of raising Revenue by Customs Du  ties, 272; evidence thereof, 272.
TAXES (Internal): 72.
TEA: in connection with the principle of Protection, 30; grown almost wholly
in China, Japan, and India, 30; its enhanced cost from being a foreign pro  duct, 31; how labor might be wisely applied from traffic in, to the production
of, 31; price not reduced in England by the reduction of the duty, 105 =
241 =; the culture of the Tea-plant encouraged by the present Tariff, 272.
TEHUANTEPEC (Isthmus of): 26.
TENNESSEE: the tea-plant in, 30 = 134 = 244= 252 = 272.
TENNYSON: 50 = 246.
TEXAS: 47.
THAMES (The River): 226 = 227  228.
THEnES: 26 = 42.
THIERS (Adolphe): on the Right of Property, 50 = 136  -; on direct and indi  rect taxation, 264; on Property and Labor, 268.
THOMPsoN (Ion. James): 329.
TIMBER: 225.
TIMES (The London): 331.
TIMEs (The New York): on the decline of ship-building on the Thames, 227, 229.
TOBAcco: decrease in the production of, 224 = 241 = 339.
ToD (James): 34.
TOMPKINS (Daniel, Governor): 34 = 118.
TONNAGE (United States): from 1820 to 1828 inclusive, 221; effect of Tariff of
1824 thereon, 222; yearly aggregate from 1817 to 1832, 259.
TRADE: the prizes in the lottery of, preferred to the rewards of productive In  dustry, 27 = 276.
TRADES UNIONs: 278; Free Trade antagonism to, 345.
TRAFALGOAR: 189.
TRA trFFIC: the present an age of, 26; the recent growth and development of, 26;
influence of the hopes of gain by, 27.  See COmMERCE.
TRE,ASURY (Federal): 238, 309.
382 
ANALYTICAL INDEX.
TRIBUNE (The): 215.
TROY (N. Y.,: Iron Moulders' CoSperation, 285.
TURKEY: the Turks, allusion, 16; taxation in, 23; the Turks Slaveholders, 24.
TYNE (The River): 228, 229.
UNI!ON STOaRES: 89.
UNITRED S.AT:S: 31; labor and capital dearer than in Canada, 38; its markets
inaccessible to Canadian manufactures, 38 9  73 = 225 = 228 = 287 = 288 =
303.
USuRY:  the legitimacy of legalized unlimited, considered, 69; conditions on
which usury laws might be modified, 71.
VAN. BUaEN (Hon. Martin): 135; votes for the Tariff of 1828, 252.
VEGrETABLES: 243 = 252 = 274.
VERPLALNCE (lion. Gulian C.): asserts that Protection must destroy Revenue,
250.
V~RRNION'T: barter general in, 1821- 31, 61 = 134 = 168 = 252.
VIRGINI: = 341 =  115 = 122 = 134; the Iron and Coal Lands in, 217 = 244;
colony of, 317.
WAZGES: decreased by the influx of British goods at the close of the war of
1812 - 14, 62; Wages system an immense advance on Slavery, 83; circumstan  ces under which Immigration is undesirable, 83; improvidence caused by the
Wages system, 85; foments hostility between Capital and Labor, 85; works
habitual injustiwe between man and man, 86; its injustice to the skilful and
industrious, 87; Slavery destroys all incentive to labor, 87; its intolerance
of inquiry or discussion, 88; the Wages system enjoys no immunity  from
criticism, 88; affords a field for inquiry, 88; its comparative merits, 88
prospects of a better system, 88; whaling industry prosecuted on a coiopera  tive basis, 88; other cooperative enterprises, 89, 90; their experimental
character, 90; possibility of modification if they fail, 90; evidence thereof,
90; the power of associated capital, 90; conditions necessary for the success
of the cooperative principle, 90; defect of the wages system as a means to
its development, 91; the value of one successful effort, 90; the evil influence
of Competition, 90; Louis Blanc on Competition, 92; correctness of his re  marks demonstrated in the United States, 93; commercial disaster extended
by Free Trade, 94, 273; the rates of Wages paid at the Pacific Mills, Lawrence,
Mass., 301; compared with the wages paid in England, 301; statistics of the
savings of the workpeople at the Pacific Mills, Lawrence, Mass., 302.  See Co  OPERA.TION, LABOR, SLAVERY.
WALTHAM (Mass.): 155.
WAR: our revolutionary, mainly carried on with Continental Money, 72; War
Finance, 73; Civil war, 73 = 214=; of Independence, 233; civil, 234 = 242 =;
of 1812, 259; civil, 269.
WARD (E. B.): on the necessity for and objects of Protection, 141.
VWARRES: 13 = 136 = 147 = 154 = 172 =249 = 283 = 343.
WARING (George B.): 138WASHINGTON (President): =  57 =; action as one of the Fathers, 109; advises
the promotion of manufactures in his first annual Message, 109; affirms his
former view, 110; interests himself about canals, 123; the benefits to be de  rived from extended communication, 124; political reasons for effecting it,
124; approves the first Tariff, 147 = 254 = 351.
WATCIH: Manufacture, the, 154 =  343.
WATT (Isaac): 319.
WAYLAND (Dr.): 192 = 193 = 194.
WEALTHII: man's insatiable desire for, 14; illusory distinction between Capital
383 
ANALYTICAL  INDEX.
and Wealth, 42; incalculable value of the world's accumulated, 44i our in  debtedness to past ages,44; our obligations to posterity, 44 =  260.   See
C(APITAL.
WEBSTER (Daniel): 18 = 72; Free Trade Speech in 1824, 1133, 13g; speech of,
in 1824, in championship of Navigation and foreign commerce, 220 = 221.
WEBSTER (Noah): 75 = 18 7.
WLLLS (D. A.): 104.
WEST (The): 217, 286, 311, 352.
WESTERN STATES: favor Protection, 1824, 133, = 138 = 218.
WEST INDIES: 195 = 196 = 229 = 812 = 314.
WHEAT: = 137 = 139 = 199= 203 = 204 =;  price in 1825, 215 = 217338 =
339 = 352.
WHITAKER (Joseph): Almanac of, 226.
WHITNEY (Eii): 52.
WILIMLNGTON (Del.): 230.
WISCONSIN: 137, 141.
WOOL, AND WOOLLENS: 106 = 147 =; rates on, in the Tariff of 1816, 117 =; the
Tariff on, allusion, 247 = 259 =; value of Imports, 297; number of Sheep in
1850 and 1860, 287; wool product of 1850 and 1860, 287; why Sheep Il-s  bandry should be extended, 287; the annual Wool product of the world, 288;
circumstances which have tended to discourage Wool-growing, 288; quan  tity of Wool imported 1850 to 1860, 288; the import of Woollen fabrics, 289;
Slhoddy and Mungo, 289; average price of Wool for the thirty-five years pre  ceding 1860, 290; the Wool Tariff of 1867, 290-292; compared with former
Tariffs, 293; the character of the Tariffs since 1824, 293; prices of Wool in Oc  tober, 1860, 1866, and 1869, 294; price of WVool in Great Britain, 294; prices
of Woollens in 1859 and 1869 compared, 295; Wool and Woollens cheater
in 1869 than in 1860, 296; effect of Protection as applied to Wool and Wool  lens examined, 296; immense increase in production, 296; our Imports of
Wool and Woollens in 1860 and 1868 compared, 297; American manufactures
sold as foreign, 297; Woollen manufactures of Great Britain, France, and
Belgium, 298; origin in the United States, 298; progress compared with Eu  ropean, 299; why Protection is required, 300; the wages paid at Pacific
Mills, Lawrence, Mass., 301; compared with the wages paid in England, 301
statistics of the savings of the workpeople at the Pacific Mills, Lawrence,
Mass., 302; results realized by Protection to our Wool and Woollen Industry,
302, 303; Evening Post on Protection to the Woollen Trade, 303; the in  ferences to be drawn therefrom, 303; inconsistencies of its statements, 304;
the minimum principle in connection with; extract from Hamilton's Report
on cheapness attained by Protection, 305 = 331 = 335 = 336 = 338 = 339  343.
WRIGHT (Hon. Silas): votes for the Tariff of 1828, 252.
ZOLL-VEREIN: 204 = 205 = 327 = 328.
ZONE (The Temperate): 211.
ZOARITES (The community of): 285.
THE END.
Cambridge: Printed by Welch, IBigelow, & Co.
384