FARMERS AND THE TARIFF. 



Address delivered September 30th, 1881, at the Annual Fair, 



BY PROF. ARTHUR L. PERRY, 



of Williamstown, Mass. 



ADDRESS. 



The American Revolution was waged mainly in the interests of 

 a free trade. Parliament had much restricted for selfish English 

 ends the rights of the colonists to sell their own products to the best 

 customers, and to buy their own supplies in the best markets. There 

 were other grievances; but those relating to their trade were the 

 chief, as any one may see who will compare the Sugar Act, the Stamp 

 Act, the Tea Acts, and the Act creating revenue commissioners, with 

 the other acts and grievances complained of by the Stamp Act Con- 

 gress of 1765 and the Continental Congress of 1774. Of the thirteen 

 solemn resolutions of the first named congress, four related exclu- 

 sively to these interferences with their trade, the last of which was in 

 these words: "That the restrictions imposed by several late acts of 

 Parliament on the trade of these colonies will render them unable to 

 purchase the manufactures of Great Britain." 



Accordingly, so soon as our fathers saw clearly that they must 

 set up for themselves, one of their first great national acts was, ante- 

 dating the declaration of independence by three' months, to throw 

 open the commerce of the thirteen colonies to all the world not sub- 

 ject to the King of Great Britain. April 6, 1776, witnessed in this 

 manner the sweeping away of the old and hated colonial system by 

 the Continental Congress. The vote abolished the British custom- 

 houses here forever, instituted none in their stead, and invited the 

 flag of every nation to our harbors. George Bancroft (viii, 323) says : 

 ^^ Absolute free trade took the place of hoary restrictions ; the pro- 

 ducts of the loorld could he imported from any place in any friend- 

 ly bottom^ and the products of American industry in like maymer 

 exported without a tax^ Thus things went on throughout the war, 

 and essentially thus till the establishment of our present form of 

 government in 1789 ; although under the confederation it was one of 

 the reserved rights of the States, each for itself, to lay such duties 

 on exports and imports as it chose ; and this power was sometimes 

 used contrary to the general good. 



No ill effects followed this general liberty to buy and sell with 

 foreigners, any more than ill effects follow the liberty at present of 

 all the people of all our thirty-eight States to buy and sell freely with 

 each other, because everything that is bought has to be paid for, and 

 the pay has to be taken for everything that is sold. Trade is noth- 

 ing in the world but the exchange of goods for the mutual benefit of 



