734 TH E IMPENDING REVOLUTION. 



ness. Both sides fairly revel in figures and alleged facts to 

 prove how beneficial has been their theory when in practice 

 in the past, and how prosperous the people were under its 

 operation. Hearing the partisan orators to-day one would 

 be led to suppose that the people of the United States have 

 been blessed since the formation of the government with 

 uniform and superlative prosperity. And especially are the 

 free traders and low tariff men loud and lavish in sounding 

 the praises of the glory and grandeur of the free trade 

 eras. When was this wonderful prosperity and how did it 

 manifest itself? Was -it in the first years of the Republic 

 when according to the historian McMasters, c A man who 

 performed unskilled labor received two shillings per day ?' 

 It was only by the strictest economy that the half-starved 

 mechanic could raise his family. He was lucky if he 

 tasted meat once a week. The clothing of the citizen was 

 such that no tramp would wear them now-a-days. When 

 the gloomy wretchedness and misery of the people became 

 so intolerable that in some places they rose in armed rebel- 

 lion that had to be suppressed by military force ? Was it 

 when some years later, according to a writer of that time, 

 the people were so wretched and ragged that men who 

 were starting manufactories had to actually take the boys 

 and girls who were running around naked or almost naked 

 and get them suits of clothes so that they could set to them 

 work in the factories ? Was it when the country was not able 

 to pay President Tyler his salary and he had to beg the 

 brokers for a temporary loan in order to live? When the 

 desolation and wretchedness of the people were so great, 

 and the credit of the country so low that the government 

 could not obtain a small loan either in this country or in 

 Europe, although the little, insignificant kingdoms of Eu- 

 rope could borrow all they wished? Was it under Presi- 

 dent Buchanan, when the country was blessed with low 

 tariff and a Democratic government? Let Mr. Buchanan 



