No. 2 16. J 381 



of the great interests of the nation, the iron, the woolen and cotton 

 manufactures, or all of them received the same real and permanent 

 protection; the currency would have been preserved, and the nation 

 saved from the terrible revulsions which have so often overthrown 

 its industry. 



The currency therefore is the interest requiring " protection for 

 the sake of protection," and not the manufactures; and in the pres- 

 ervation of that great national interest, the South^ the West, the Middle 

 and the Eastern States are equally interested, since without its pre- 

 servation neither can prosper in their pursuits. The currency can be 

 protected only by making the tariff a barrier of defence to the arti- 

 zan, whose labor is the principal source of national accumulation. 

 Agriculture, though a necessary is not a profitable employment — 

 commerce is comparatively a non-productive pursuit, merchants are 

 the mere brokers of society, useful within proper limits, but there is 

 wisdom in the Chinese estimation of pursuits, which assigns to them 

 the lowest place. The artizan is the source of national wealth, and 

 his encouragement should be the leading object of national policy. 

 "Whenever the nation shall have learned to appreciate his import- 

 ance and given him security for the protection of his labor free from 

 the inteference of European rivalry, then will be seen what twenty 

 millions of freemen can accomplish under the circumstances in which' 

 Providence has placed the American people. 



