INIerino Sheep Industkt. 221 



horizontal tariff of 1 S-iG. The iiiaiinfa(;turers, on the other 

 hand, representing a growing sentiment at the East, were 

 becoming more and more disposed to look abroad for their 

 chief supply of raw material. 



" They were not unwilling to avail themselves of such com- 

 mercial practi(;es as would diminish the duties intended to 

 be given for tlie protection of the American wool grower, 

 and were; inclined to advocate the British policy of free 

 trade in raw material, including wool, as the wisest system 

 of protection to manufacturers. 



" Tliey overlooked the fact, which thciy have since 

 acknowledged with returning magnanindty, that it lias been 

 the experience of all nations that the domestic supply of 

 raw material has been the first and always chief dependence 

 of its manufacturers. They failed, also, to consider that 

 while aiming at the largest and clieapest supply of foreign 

 wool, they would render American sheep husbandry miprof- 

 itable, and inevitably destroy domestic production, thus 

 reducing themselves to a sole dependence upon resources 

 liable to be cut off by foreign wars or political revolutions. 



" The inevitable result of such diverging views must have 

 been perpetual strife and legislative action, which favoring 

 each interest exclusively, as its influences might preponde- 

 rate, must alternately ruin both. From this explanation of 

 the old differences which formerly distracted the woolen 

 industry, it can hardly be doubted that the disaffection 

 toward the prevailing policy exhibited by a limited number 

 of the older wool growers, is but the expression of the tra- 

 ditional hostility in which they were nurtured. 



" The convention of 1865 is chiefly memorallo for its 



