PART XVIII.

Government Moneys and Banks - The Currency - National Debt and InterestPublic Credit - Repudiation, etc.

*"To the victors belong the spoils" is the maxim which has controlled the Democracy in all its past history in the matter of appointments. Under President Cleveland's administration, "civil service" has been a delusion and a hypocritical snare. [See Chapter on "Civil Service."]

pledged its faith to make provision at the "earliest practicable period for the redemption of the United States notes in coin." Commercial prosperity, public morals, and national credit demand that this promise be fulfilled by a continuous and steady progress to specie payment.

1880-... It [the Republican Party] has restored, upon a solid basis, payment in coin of all national obligations, and has given us a currency absolutely good and equal in every part of our extended country.

1888-The Republican Party is in favor of the use of both gold and silver as money, and condemns the policy of the Democratic administration in its efforts to demonetize silver.

structed resumption, by wasting our resources, and exhausting all our surplus income; and, while annually professing to intend a speedy return to specie payments, has annually enacted fresh hindrances thereto. As such hindrance we denounce the resumption clause of the act of 1875, and we here demand its repeal.

1880-... Honest money... . consisting of gold and silver, and paper convertible into coin on demand.

1888-Reaffirmed.

The Democratic Party. challenges the most searching inquiry concerning its fidelity and devotion to the pledges which then [1884] invited the suffrages of the people.

CHAPTER III.

The Tariff Question - Its History, Legislation, Votes, etc., from 1789 to 1888 inclusive.

"The fruits of the great political triumph of 1844. . . have fulfilled the hopes of the Democracy of the Union. in the noble impulse given to the cause of Free Trade by the

repeal of the tariff of 1842." - Democratic National Platform, 1848.

"No more revenue than is required to defray the necessary expenses of the Government, and . extinction of the public debt." Democratic National Platform, 1852. [Re-affirmed, 1856.]

"The time has come for the people of the United States to declare themselves in favor of free seas and progressive Free Trade throughout the world.”. Democratic National Platform 1856. [Re-affirmed, 1860.]

"A tariff for revenue." Democratic National Platform, 1868.

"We remit the discussion of the subject to the people in their Congressional districts, and to the decision of the Congress thereon, wholly free from executive interference or dictation." Democratic National Platform, 1872.

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"Custom house taxation shall be only for revenue." - Democratic National Platform,

1876.

"A tariff for revenue only."-Democratic National Platform, 1880.

"Revenue to pay all the expenses of the Federal Government, economically administered reducing taxes to the end that these United States may compete with unhindered powers for the primacy among nations. - Democratic National Platform, 1884. [Re-affirmed, 1888, with indorsement of "the views expressed by President Cleveland in his last earnest message to Congress as to the correct interpretation of that platform upon the question of tariff reduction," and of "the efforts of our Democratic representatives in Congress to secure a reduction of excessive taxation," together with indorsement and recommendation of "the early passage of the bill for the reduction of the revenue now pending in the House of Representatives." See Platform chapters.]

"We are uncompromisingly in favor of the American system of Protection; we protest against its destruction as proposed by the President and his party. They serve the interests of Europe; we will support the interests of America. We accept the issue, and confidently appeal to the people for their judgment. The Protective System must be maintained. Its abandonment has always been followed by general disaster to all interests, except those of the usurer and the sheriff." - Republican National Platform, 1888.

PART I.

The Republican American "Protective"
System Advocated by Franklin,
Hamilton, Washington, John Adams,
Jefferson, Madison, Calhoun, Munroe,
Clay, Jackson, John Q. Adams, Lin-
coln, Dallas, Webster, Taylor, Fill-
more, Garfield, Grant, Blaine, Logan,
Harrison, and Bismarck.

"It seems the interest of all our farmers and owners of land to encourage our young manufactures in preference to foreign ones imported among us from distant countries."

Alexander Hamilton, in 1779, wrote:

"To maintain between the recent establishments of another country a competition on equal terms, both as one country and the long-matured establishments of to quality and price, is in most cares impracticable. must necessarily be so considerable as to forbid a sucThe disparity in the one or in the other, or in both, cessful rivalship without extraordinary aid and pro

tection from the Government."

Alexander Hamilton, in 1790, in his celeBenjamin Franklin, as far back as 1771, brated Report on Manufactures, said: — said:

-

"Not only the wealth but the independence and

of agriculture and of commerce as its handmaid. These principles form the bright constellation which has gone before us and guided our steps through an age of revolution and reformation. The wisdom of our sages and the blood of our heroes have been devoted to their attainment. They should be the creed of our political faith, the text of civil instruction, the touch. stone by which to try the services of those we trust; and should we wander from them in moments of error or alarm, let us hasten to retrace our steps, and to regain the road which alone leads to peace, liberty, and safety."

security of a country appear to be materially connected | sacred preservation of the public faith; encouragement with the prosperity of manufactures. Every nation, with a view to these great objects, ought to endeavor to possess within itself all the essentials of national supply. These comprise the means of subsistence, habitation, clothing, and defence. The possession of these is necessary to the perfection of the body politic, to the safety as well as the welfare of society. The want of either is the want of an important organ of political life and motion: and in the various crises which await a State it must severely feel the effects of any such deficiency. The extreme embarrassments of the United States during the late [Revolutionary] war, from an incapacity of supplying themselves, are still matters of keen recollection. A future war might be expected again to exemplify the mischiefs and dangers of a situation to which that incapacity is still in too great a degree applicable, unless changed by timely and vigorous exertion. To effect this change as fast as shall be prudent merits all the attention and all the zeal of our public councils. It is the next great work to be accomplished."

George Washington, in his first message to Congress, said, of "a free people":

"Their safety and interest require that they should promote such manufactures as tend to render them independent on others for essential, particularly military, supplies.

The advancement of agriculture, commerce, and manufactures, by all proper means, will not, I trust,

need recommendation

...

The very first act of the first Congress excepting that which prescribes a form of oath for Federal officials and which necessarily preceded all else, going, as it did, to the organization of the Government itself - was a tariff act, which opened with the following preamble:

"Whereas it is necessary for the support of the Government, for the discharge of the debt of the United States, and the encouragement and protection of manufacturers, that duties be levied on goods, wares, and merchandise imported."

In his seventh annual message to Congress, Washington thus states the results of the American policy of protection:

...

"Our agriculture, commerce, and manufactures prosper beyond example. Every part of the Union displays indications of rapid and various improvement, and with burdens so light as scarcely to be perceived. ... Is it too much to say that our country exhibits a spectacle of national happiness never surpassed, if ever before equaled?"

In his eighth annual message, President Washington says:

"Congress have repeatedly, and not without success, directed their attention to the encouragement of manufactures. The object is of too much consequence not to insure a continuance of their efforts in every way which shall appear eligible."

President John Adams, in his first message to Congress, strenuously insisted on extending the principle of American Protection to

commerce.

"The commerce of the United States has become an

interesting object of attention, whether we consider it in relation to the wealth and finances, or the strength

and resources of the Nation. With a sea coast of near

2,000 miles in extent, opening a wide field for fisheries, navigation, and commerce, a great portion of our citizeus naturally apply their industry and enterprise to those objects. Any serious and permanent injury to commerce would not fail to produce the most embarrassing disorders. To prevent it from being undermined and destroyed, it is essential that it receive an adequate protection."

In his second annual message Jefferson says:

"To cultivate peace and maintain commerce and navigation in all their lawful enterprises, to foster our fisheries and nurseries of navigation, and for the nurture of man, and protect the manufactures adapted to our circumstances; to preserve the faith of the Nation by an exact discharge of its debts and contracts, expend the public money with the same care and economy we would practice with our own, and impose on our citi zens no unnecessary burden; to keep in all things within the pale of our constitutional powers, and cherish the Federal Union as the only rock of safetythese, fellow-citizens, are the landmarks by which we are to guide ourselves in all our proceedings."

In his second Inaugural, President Jefferson said:

"The remaining revenue on the consumption of foreign articles is paid cheerfully by those who can afford to add foreign luxuries to domestic comforts, being collected on our seaboard and frontiers only, and incorporated with the transactions of our mercantile citizens. It may be the pleasure and pride of an American to ask, what farmer, what mechanic, what laborer, ever sees a tax-gatherer of the United States?" In his sixth Annual Message, Jefferson said:

"The question, therefore, now comes forward, to what other objects shall these surpluses be appro priated, and the whole surplus of impost, after the entire discharge of the public debt, and during those intervals, when the purposes of war shall not call for them?

"Shall we 'suppress the impost, and give that advantage to foreign over domestic manufactures? Or a few articles of more general and necessary use the suppression in due season will doubtless be right; but the great mass of the articles ou which impost is paid are foreign luxuries, purchased by those only who are rich enough to afford themselves the use of them. Their patriotism would certainly prefer its continuance and application to the great purposes of the public education, roads, rivers, canals, and such other objects of public improvement as it may be thought proper to add to the constitutional enumeration of Federal powers."

In his eighth Annual Message, he also said:

"The suspension of our foreign commerce, produced by the injustice of the belligerent powers, and the consequent losses and sacrifices of our citizens, are subjects of just concern. The situation into which we have thus been forced has impelled us to apply a portion of our industry and capital to internal manufactures and improvements. The extent of this conthat the establishments formed and forming will, under version is daily increasing, and little doubt remains the auspices of cheaper materials and subsistence, the tecting duties and prohibitions, become permanent." freedom of labor from taxation with us, and of pro

Madison, in his Inaugural Address, enunciated this as one of the great principles that should govern the American people:

"To promote by authorized means, improvements friendly to agriculture, to manufactures, and to ex

In his inaugural address, President Jeffer-ternal as well as internal commerce." son said:

His special message, May 23, 1809, contains this recommendation:

"The revision of our public commercial laws,

"In adjusting the duties on imports to the object of revenue, the influence of the tariff on manufactures will necessarily present itself for consideration. However wise the theory may be which leaves to the sagacity and interest of individuals the application of their industry and resources, there are in this, as in other cases, exceptions to the general rule. Besides the condition which the theory itself implies of a reciprocal adoption by other nations, experience teaches that so many circumstances must occur in introducing and maturing manufacturing establishments, especially of the more complicated kinds, that a country may remain long without them, although sufficiently advanced, and in some respects even peculiarly fitted for carrying them on with success. Under circumstances giving a powerful impulse to manufacturing industry, it has made among us a progress and exhibited an efficiency which justify the belief that with a protection not more than is due to the enterprising citizens whose interests are now at stake, it will become at an early day not only safe against occasional competitions from abroad, but a source of domestic wealth and even of external In selecting the branches more especially entitled to the public patronage, a preference is obviously claimed by such as will relieve the United States from a dependence on foreign supplies, ever subject to casual failures for articles necessary for the public defence, or connected with the primary wants of individuals. It will be an additional recommendation of particular manufactures where the materials for them are extensively drawn from our agriculture, and consequently impart and insure to that great fund of national prosperity and independence an encouragement which cannot fail to be rewarded."

commerce.

John C. Calhoun, in 1816, said,

present Constitution, the obligation of providing, by duties on imports, for the discharge of the public debts is expressly connected with the policy of encouraging and protecting manufactures. (19) in the year 1790 the Secretary of the Treasury was directed by the House of Representatives to take the subject of manufactures into consideration with a view particularly to report upon the means of promoting such as would render the United States independent of foreign nations for military and other essential supplies.' (20) In the year 1810 the Legislature again manifested a marked solici pendence in manufactures by combining the business tude to ascertain the progress of the national inde. of the census with an inquiry into the state of the several manufacturing establishments and manufac tures within the several districts, territories and divisions of the United States. (21) But it was, emphatically, during the period of the restrictive system and of the war that the importance of domestic manufactures became conspicuous to the Nation, and made a lasting impression upon the mind of every statesman and of every patriot. The weapons and munitions of war, the necessaries of clothing, and the comforts of living were at first but scantily provided. The American market seemed for a while to be converted into a scene of gambling and extortion; and it was not the least of the evils generated by the unequal state of the supply and the demand that an illicit traffic with the enemy by land and by water was corruptly and systematically prosecuted from the commencement to the termination of hostilities.

"The matured state of the first class of manufactures relieves the task of forming a tariff, with respect to them, from any important difficulty. Duties might articles, amounting wholly, or nearly, to a prohibition, be freely imposed upon the importation of similar without endangering a scarcity in the supply; while the competition among the domestic manufacturers alone would sufficiently protect the consumer from exorbi tant prices; graduating the rates of the market generally by the standard of a fair profit upon the capital and labor employed. It is true, however, on the other hand, that, by imposing low duties upon the imported articles, importation would be encouraged and the revenue increased; but without adding to the comfort or deducting from the expense of the consumer, the consumption of the domestic manufacture would, in an equal degree, be diminished by that operation, and the manufacture itself might be entirely supplanted. It is, therefore, a question between the gain of the revenue and the loss of the manufacture, to be decided upon principles of national policy. Under the circum. stances of an abundant market, the interest of the consumer must stand indifferent, whether the price of any article be paid for the benefit of the manufacturer or of the importer; but a wise Government will surely deem it better to sacrifice a portion of its revenue than to sacrifice those institutions which private enterprise and wealth have connected with public prosperity and independence."

President Monroe in his Inaugural, March 5, 1817, said:

"It [the encouragement of manufactures] produced a system strictly American, as much so as agriculture, in which it had the decided advantage of commerce and navigation. The country will from this derive much advantage. Again, it is calculated to bind together more closely our wide-spread republic. It will "Our manufactures will likewise require the systegreatly increase our mutual dependence and inter-matic and fostering care of the Government. Possess. course, and will as a necessary consequence excite an ing, as we do, all the raw materials, the fruit of our increased attention to internal improvements, - a subown soil and industry, we ought not to depend in the ject every way so intimately connected with the ulti-degree we have done on supplies from other countries. mate attainment of national strength and the perfection of our political institutions. He regarded the fact that it would make the parts adhere more closely; that it would form a new and most powerful cement, far outweighing any political objections that might be urged against the system. In his opinion, the liberty and the union of the country were inseparably united; that, as the destruction of the latter would most certainly involve the former, so its maintenance will with equal certainty preserve it."

Secretary of the Treasury Dallas, in a report to Congress on a Protective tariff, in 1816, said,

"There are few, if any, governments which do not regard the establishment of domestic manufactures as a chief object of public policy. The United States have always so regarded it. In the earliest acts of Congress, which were passed after the adoption of the

While we are thus dependent, the sudden event of war, unsought and unexpected, cannot fail to plunge us into the most serious difficulties. It is important, too, that the capital which nourishes our manufactures should be domestic, as its influence in that case, instead of exhausting, as it may do in foreign hands, would be felt advantageously on agriculture and every other branch of industry. Equally important is it to provide at home a market for our raw materials, as by extending the competition it will enhance the price and protect the cultivator against the casualties incident to foreign markets."

In his fifth Annual Message, Monroe said:

"It cannot be doubted, the more complete our internal resources, and the less dependent we are on foreign powers for every national as well as domestic purpose, the greater and more stable will be the public felicity.