14 



the question. Local interests, and sectional preju- 

 dices were summoned to the combat. The cries of 

 wanton oppression on the one hand, and of cruel 

 and ruthless abandonment on the other, were loudly 

 uttered. The North and the South were pitched 

 against each other in hostile array, and sustained 

 their respective positions with much partizan zeal. 

 Parties in a free government are always to be ex- 

 pected, but that legislative measures, changing ma- 

 terially the national policy, should be unanimously 

 approved by the inhabitants North of a certain geo- 

 graphical line, and as unanimously condemned by the 

 inhabitants South of that line, is, indeed, " strange, 

 passing strange." What is there in the waters of 

 the Potomac, or in the breezes of the Alleghanies, 

 that should produce this withering effect on our 

 national policy? The halls of congress were be- 

 seiged, session after session, by various opposing 

 interests, and the battle between the champions of 

 free trade, and the American system was fraught 

 with various success, till at the last session, a modi- 

 fied tariff of duties was obtained, distinctly recog- 

 v nizing the principle of protection to domestic 

 industry. 



It being now the avowed policy of the govern- 

 ment to encourage the growth and production of 

 certain manufactures, by the imposition on similar 

 foreign articles, of other and greater duties, than 

 are necessary for the purposes of revenue, we may 

 expect to see large investments of capital in manu- 

 facturing stock, and an active competition among 

 manufacturers. It has been well said, that all rea- 

 soning is in favor of free trade and unrestricted 



