168 Transactions of the American Institute. 



this great question of public and economic policy, their own people or 

 foreigners shall be first considered. Let it be remembered, however, 

 that equality is all we ask. 



Congress has, we think, wisely entered on a protective system. 

 To give it a fair trial, w'e need only confidence in its stability. A 

 changing and uncertain legislation disheartens the producer, and is a 

 constant check on enterprise. The talk about free trade would be 

 harmless enough, but for the doubts and the fears of possible change 

 which it inevitably excites. "Weighed by its real merits, seen in its 

 true light, it seems hardly possible that such a scheme should find 

 favor with the American people. Unfortunately, as our history 

 shows, and as we witness daily, other considerations, wholly irrele- 

 vant, are too often brought into the discussion of questions which are 

 purely economic. What liave party politics, what have benevolent 

 efforts at reform in morals or manners, to do with measures which 

 relate directly and solely to the industrial interests and policy of the 

 nation ? 



There is, undoubtedly, something plausible in the general idea, 

 something attractive in the mere name of free trade. It assumes the 

 tone of cosmopolitan good will, and professes to aim at perpetual 

 harmony among the nations. Eegarded abstractly, its theories are 

 charming, and promise us " a consummation devoutly to be wished." 

 But the question is: Can we confide in the promise ? There is a 

 class of amiable enthusiasts who believe in the possibility, as we all 

 believe in the desirableness, of universal, peace. Would the nation 

 but listen to them, she would forthwith raze every fortification, freight 

 her war-ships with corn, and cotton, and melt her great guns into rails 

 and plows. Why does she not listen ? Why does she, why mvst 

 she still fortify her harbors, replenish lier arsenals, and keep up her 

 navy ? Because the arguments and exhortations of the peace society 

 are founded on human nature not as it is, but as it should be. 

 Because they strangely underrate the ever-present, though sometimes 

 dormant power of selfishness and passion. When " the wolf shall 

 dwell " peaceably " with the lamb " — Avhen the nations shall all see 

 eye to eye — the pleasing dream of the non-resistant may become a 

 blessed reality. 



Of kindred origin and character, as it seems to me, is the illusive 

 notion of free trade — very fair in theory, but wholly unsatisfactory in 

 practice. Ignoring, as it were, the great law of self-interest, and the 

 lesson of all history, it goes upon the absurd assuinjitiim that henceforth 



