88 WHY OPPOSE TARIFF FOR REVENUE EXCLUSIVELY? Because this means a direct tax on the things we use, such as tea and coffee, with no aid to our own products. Because English-Democratic free trade, or low duties, have been tried in America with disastrous results. Our Revolutionary war came from the unjust duties of England. The House of Commons prohibited rolling mills in the colonies, and forbade skilled artisans and machinery from coming to our shores. During the war, the country thrown upon itself prospered, but in 1783 English goods poured in, our people ‘‘bought in the cheapest markets,” with no regard for the country they had fought to save, and the Nation became bankrupt. In 1789 the people demanded and obtained a protective tariff, which they kept for about twenty years and prospered. The tariff was high in the war of 1812. It was lowered in 1816. Great distress resulted, and when high tariff was restored in 1828, the country was never, perhaps, in a worse condition. Prosperity was soon restored. In 1833 duties were lowered again, and the panic of 1837 followed. The Democratic party was put out of power for this reason, and a tariff was obtained in r842 with renewed prosperity. But in i846? Robert J. Walker, of Mississippi, being Secretary of the Treasury, and the Sftuth always favoring free trade, a lowered tariff was obtained. For years the Nation had a changing policy, till in i860 the Republican party took a country,' with an empty treasury, business stagnant, and a war imminent. The prosperity for the last twenty years is well known, our exports in that time being over $12,000,000,000, against $9,000,000,000 since the birth of the Government to President Lincoln’s time. Hon. Thomas H. Dudley, our former Consul to Liverpool, says that while we in ten years under protection have increased our exports 135 per cent., England, under free trade, has decreased her exports 14 per cent. We do not want a trial of low duties again. England desires to open our markets for her cheap labor. To this end the Cobden Club has scattered a million free trade pamphlets in this country, and uses money freely here. Several importers and foreign bankers have given $5,000 each to the American Free Trade League of New York. The London Mining Journal says: “If the League succeeds, we may hope for a very large trade from that country.” A tariff for revenue only, which is the leading cry of the Democrats, will open an immense additional field for the sale of English manufactured goods in the States.—Iron Trade Review, London.
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