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And here, I tliiiik, we see the error of those who have looked 

 at this subject merely from the economic point of view. Adam 

 Smith began by treating on '' the Nature and the Causes of the 

 WealtTi of Nations,"' and he proved to the satisfaction of many, 

 looking at the question merely in the money light, that it is the 

 interest of every people to buy where they can buy cheapest, witk 

 certain modifications of the doetrine in the cases in which its ap- 

 plication interfered with British supremacy in manufactures. He 

 made it the great business of mankind to drive good bargains, re- 

 gardless of every thing but present cheapness. of the commodity 

 purchased. If clothing could be bought for less money in Paris 

 than in New York, every citizen of New York, according to thi* 

 view, should buy of the Frenchman— otherwise New York loses 

 the diiference in the price, and is by so much impoverished. 

 Many are convinced by this reasoning. They say it is unanswer- 

 able, that it is evidently the interest of every man to buy where 

 he can buy cheapest — that any system which interferes M'ith this,, 

 is oppressive and unnatural, and results in a dead loss to the 

 country. 



I desire for the purpose of the argUQient, for a single moment, 

 to concede all this. Grant that a nation of men, who buy in a 

 foreign, because the cheapest market, do in the outset procure the 

 greatest possible amount of commodities for their money, and are 

 enriched to that extent. It follows, then, that every article which 

 can be obtained cheaper abroadishould be there purchased. The 

 theory applies as well to agricultural products as to manufac- 

 tured articles. If, by any possibility, wheat couW be brought 

 here cheaper from the Baltic than from Illinois, it would be for 

 our interest to' eat foreign bread, and leave the wild flowers to 

 wave over the western prairies. It is impossible by any reason- 

 ing to distinguish the products of the earth from the manufac- 

 tured articles, which our pecuniary interests as a Nation should 

 lead us to buy where we can buy cheapest, if tliis be the true doc- 

 trine. 



Let us suppose this system adopted to its full extent. Picture 

 to yourselves a nation acting upon this theory. The employment 

 of their industry of every description depending upon the ques-., 



