268 [Assemble 



It was at that period of our government that the sagacious and 

 profound statesmen, who then presided over the treasury department, 

 recommended to the wisdom of Congress the protection of our infant 

 manufactures. If the illustrious author of the report which contains 

 that recommendation, had left behind him no other memorial of his 

 enlarged and liberal policy, of the vast reach of his political views, 

 of his wisdom and decision, the name of Hamilton would have gone 

 down to posterity as the Colbert of his country. It is memorable, 

 that at that period the correctm ss of his principles was almost uni- 

 versally assented to by American statesmen. Our manufactures 

 had then scarcely budded. They were not of sufficient importance 

 to awaken the jealousy of foreign manufactures. But as they have 

 struck their roots wider and deeper in our soil, as their branches 

 have spread so as to cast an increasing shadow upon foreign compe- 

 tition, we have seen a new spirit and theory of national policy set 

 up in opposition to the spirit and the theory which Hamilton incul- 

 cated. If this new hypothesis had been confined to those who were 

 at the pains to instruct us, that it was our true policy to continue to 

 buy foreign manufactures and neglect our own, because the foreign 

 manufacturer could afford to undersell the American, then the error 

 would not have been very extensive, or of very long continuance. 

 But the foreign authors of it called to their aid the theories of free 

 and unrestricted commerce; totally inapplicable and absurd, while 

 their own governments loaded our commerce with restrictions and 

 prohibitions. They summoned to their aid, also, the prejudices of a 

 large portion of the commercial community, by alarming their fears 

 with predictions of the unfavorable operation of manufactures on for- 

 eign commerce, and by representing them as an interest rival and 

 hostile to the commercial. They have sought also, with great suc- 

 cess, to rouse the jealousies of the cotton planter, and to persuade 

 him that he must buy foreign manufactures, or pay exorbitant pri- 

 ces for inferior American fabrics, if he did not indeed forfeit the for- 

 eign market for his cotton. These have been the chief elements of 

 the opposition, which has been so long maintained to the American 

 System. 



Over all these obstacles and errors that system has thus far tri- 

 umphed. A large majority of the American people are known and 

 admitted to be in its favor. Its progress is steady, and its march is 

 firm. But an active and zealous minority have often, in this as in 

 other instances, succeeded in delaying where they could not event- 

 ually defeat. Exertions and sacrifices are made to sustain the in- 

 terest of the foreign manufacturer, which, if made in the cause of 



