548 [Assembly 



price of food. A less rate of wages may be sufficiently remunerating 

 if food is made cheaper. 



If Mr. Cobden were now in our councils he would, according to 

 his own recent delarations, be a supporter of the tariff of 1842. In 

 this he shows the distinction which a clear mind is capable of mak- 

 ing, and that he can discern differences in things, though they bear 

 the same name, and resemblances in things, though they are classed 

 under different heads. 



A tariff man of the United States is to his country what a free 

 trade man in Great Britain is to his, a friend to the labor of his 



FELLOW CITIZENS. 



With us free trade means an abandoment of all provision by the 

 supreme power for the welfare of the several great interests of the 

 country, leaving each to struggle as it may, single-handed and un- 

 supported, against every competitor from all other countries, and as 

 much indebted for protection and fostering care to our own govern- 

 ment as was Robinson Crusoe to his, when planting grain and catch- 

 ing goats on his desert island. 



The farmers of the United States, more than any other class, 

 hold in their hands the great interests of the country; they out- 

 number all the rest, and to them, their intelligence, their honesty, 

 their liberality and their patriotism, we must look in all emergencies, 

 for the support of the government and the protection of the great 

 interests of all. On the farmers, who compose the great mass of 

 the people, we rely for the maintenance of good government, free 

 principles, and correct political opinions, for the preservation of 

 morality and the laws, and to them we look, in the last resort, for 

 the defence of the land to which they are attached. 



It may be well expected, that, as a soil always kindly, if not 

 everywhere extremely rich, a climate most propitious, and insti- 

 tutions of government of his own making and own choice, bless the 

 agriculturist, and insure him from all danger, protect him so that he 

 need fear nothing for himself, he will be ready, while th'us fortunate 

 and secure, to aid in protecting those classes of his fellow-citizens 

 who need protection, against those dangers, whatever they may be, 

 that threaten their interests and prosperity, whether those dangers 

 come from without or within. 



