368 [Assembly 



** protection against pauper labor," which, as paupers do not labor, 

 means protection against foreign labor and capital combined in man- 

 ufactures, or it means nothing; and the term pauper may be relin- 

 quished without injury to the argument. The necessity of protec- 

 tion has been felt to be obvious, but unfortunately the real interest 

 to be protected has not been apprehended. 



On the other side of the question, we have had the glory and 

 blessedness of commerce and agriculture, as the only pursuits wor- 

 thy of freemen: mechanics are vulgar lellows, and to this hour the 

 false sentiment pervades American society; to stand behind a coun- 

 ter and measure tape, is a more honorable avocation, than to con- 

 struct a steam engine, or to manufacture broadcloth. All the mise- 

 ries of the suburbs of Manchester were to grow spontaneously in 

 American soil, if cotton spinning should ever get a footing in New- 

 England. Then the " foity bale theory" 'had its day, and southern 

 planters honestly thought that their lazy negroes were the origina- 

 tors of all the wealth of the nation. Now we have *' free trade," as 

 the grand idea which is to regenerate the world; minds of a high 

 order in both hemispheres, are bitten with the mania; Cobden is fe- 

 ted through Europe; Mr. Secretary Walker is delivered of a report 

 and overwhelmed with the pains of parturition, the distinguishing 

 features of which are "free trade" and " the sub treasury." Let us 

 return from this digression, and endeavor to find the true solution of 

 the question so long debated. 



The supply of national and individual wants, must result from 

 labor and capital combined in the production of the objects and sub- 

 stances needed. Labor is first in the order of nature, and first in im- 

 portance of their sources of wealth, and should be considered as em- 

 phatically the primary national interest. The substances and objects 

 required, which we have the natural or acquired ability to produce, 

 must come to us, either by production or exchange. The labor of 

 society may be therefore divided into two departments, the one the 

 labor of production, the other that of exchange ; the former is occu- 

 pied in the growth of raw produce and its fabrication into objects of 

 necessity and desire, and the other in the transfer of these objects, 

 the products of labor from the producer to the consumer. Both 

 these forms of labor are to a degree equally important, but in the 

 arrangement of national policy, the former should take precedence of 

 the latter. In selecting the pursuits of national industry, the objects 

 on which to employ our labor and capital, those should, if practica- 

 ble, be chosen, which, by the general consent of civilized society 



