national industry. The dollar they have each paid in, well employed by their representative agents, will enable them all to increase their little wealth, some once, some twice, and some an hundred fold. At the same time, the capitalist, unable to make the government his debtor, is compelled to employ the million he would have lent, in industrial projects for his own and their advantage, realizing for them and for himself a much larger return, than if he had lent it; though, indeed, with greater labor. It is better, therefore, to pay a dollar to-day, than two dollars twenty years hence, inasmuch as we thereby enjoy in addition to the benefits of a good and wealthy government, devoted to the protection of industry, the employment offered by the capitalist whose money must now be directed upon private enterprises. We do not mean, by these arguments, to impress the idea, that we have already incurred a great and immediate danger, by the increase of the national liabilities. The commerce of the nation is, doubtless, fully equal, under an equitable system of specific duties, to cancel, by degrees, all our obligations. We would not even propose sudden and violent change of policy, in regard to the contraction of debt. We desire only the gradual payment, not by any delusive system of a sinking fund, which, like a spend-thrift's reservation, puts conscience asleep; but by a method, first, of economical administration, and, second, of direct appropriations, of which the people will see the merit, and feel the force. a On the 1st of July, 1850, by the estimate of Mr Meredith, there will be a deficit of nearly six millions, for which no provision has been made. On the 1st of July, 1851, there will be a deficit of more than ten and a half millions-the total deficit exceeding sixteen millions, which, if provided for by loans, temporary or funded, will be merely an addition to the national debt. The actual public debt already exceeds $64,700,000, the greater portion of which is redeemable before the year 1868. Under the system that has been pursued for the last three or four years, of contracting debt upon debt, and putting the day of payment as far as possible into the future, it is not unreasonable to suppose that the public debt will, within twenty years, have risen to $100,000,000. Mean while the expenses of the government have been greatly increased by additions to the national territory. The great increase of the business of the country, requiring an additional number of inspectors, guagers, weighers, will add considerably to the cost of collecting the revenue. The act of March 3d, 1845, limiting the number of these officers, will need to be revised for the more effectual prevention of breaches or evasions of the revenue laws. The warehousing system, introduced by Mr. Walker, has greatly increased the number of officials required by that service. The necessity of creating new collection districts in Texas and California, in addition to those already established, is also a necessity for new expense. In the jugdment of the Secretary, no reduction is practicable in these branches of service; on the contrary, the force will have to be increased. Nor are the expenses of the army, on a peace establishment, likely to be at all diminished. The necessity of protecting the frontier of Texas and New Mexico, and of maintaining military posts in the new territories, will draw largely upon the public purse, and there is every reason to believe that public opinion will soon demand a large addition to the navy for the protection of a commerce which attracts the attention and excites the jealousy of our commercial rivals. These latter suggestions are not, however, made by the Secretary of the Treasury. In a word, every thing points to a necessity for the adoption of the most efficient and economical means of increasing the revenue. We have our choice among three methods, the imposition of direct taxes, or of specific duties, or the augmentation of the national debt. Concerning the first method, the imposition of direct taxes, it is unnecessary to say much at present. If democratic economists think it a popular measure, they will not fail to propose it to the people. To all the influence and popularity which can be gained by saddling the country with excises, corn taxes, land taxes, taxes on legal proceedings, on churches, school houses, live stock, and the various necessaries of life, they are welcome; we shall not grudge it them; but we confess we are ambitious of the honor, the credit, and the praise which will belong to us if we suc ceed in paying the expenses of the government by the direct and economical method of specific duties. While at the same time we deprecate, nay, earnestly seek to avoid, the odium which must follow, if not in the present, then in the succeeding generation, of that slack, faithless and timid policy which shall content itself with pushing forward the national liabilities into the future, and fix upon us, as a nation, the habit of paying in promises to be kept by our posterity. Not only, therefore, to meet our present necessities and provide for the increased expenses of our government, but to nip this great evil in the bud, to keep our national liabilities within manageable limits, we cannot but give a warm support to the proposition of the honorable Secretary of the Treasury. Mr. Meredith has given us a statement of the excess of army and navy expenditure, occasioned by the war with Mexico. The excess of army expenditure for that purpose has been more than $58,800,000, and to this, added the excess of naval expenditure, makes a total exceeding $63, 600,000. The increase of debt by the use of the public credit, to meet the additional expense, was only $49,009,000; leaving $14,600,000 to be paid out of the revenue. Land warrants to the amount of $18, 000,000 have also been issued; thereby diminishing the sales of public lands, and the revenues therefrom accruing, in the sum of, perhaps, 2,000,000. To this, however, no reasonable objection can be raised, as the issue of a land-warrant is a cheaper process than the sale of as much land at auction. Mr. Meredith estimates that had there been no unusual expenditure, there would have been a balance in the Treasury, on the 1st of July, of more than $12,600,000. The Secretary attributes the deficit declared for the coming years to the extraordinary expenses of the war and treaty with Mexico; and that the justly high public credit of the United States is not endangered by the fact, that a new loan will be required. He proposes, therefore, that a loan not to exceed $16,500,000, be authorized on such terms of interest and repayment as the President, in his discretion, shall, previous to their being issued, see fit to order. Mr. Meredith adds: "To provide for the payment out of the revenue of the instalment which will be due to Mexico in the fiscal year ending 30th June, 1852, to secure the raising of a fund for the gradual extinguishment of our heavy public debt, and to place the revenue on a sure basis of sufficiency for all the expenditures of the Government, it will be necessary to adopt measures for increasing the revenue; and the most available means to that end are to be found in raising the duty on imports. That an economy as rigid as may be found compatible with the necessities of the country will regulate the appropriations, under existing circumstances cannot be doubted." "In proposing some alterations in the existing tariff, with a view, as well to the necessary augmentation of the revenue as the encouragement of industry, I think it right to present distinctly the views entertained on the latter subject, in the hope that a course may be adopted by the wisdom and patriotism of Congress which may tend to harmonize discordant feelings and promote the general prosperity." Under this head, he says he entertains no doubt of the rightful power of Congress to regulate commerce and impose duties in such a manner as shall favor the industry of the country. It will no doubt, at some future time be matter of wonder that it should ever have been necessary for any government, performing its natural duties, to defend such a position. The revenue, in whatever shape, or by whatever means, or under whatever theory it is collected, has to be expended, after, its collection for the protection of the national industry and property. To this end forts are built, an army and navy is maintained, commerce is defended, territories are purchased from foreign nations, post-offices are established, light-houses are erected, and the rights of each and all are defended. By what species of argumentation are we then to be convinced, that these ends are to be thought solely during the expenditure, and never during the collection, of the public revenue. Lighthouses are established in order that those who engage in commercial enterprises may not wreck their property on rocks and shoals. Light-houses are there for the protection of persons engaged in navigation. They could, if they chose, stay at home and live upon the products of the soil; but it is not deemed expedient by Government that men should be solely farmers, or that the profits of the farmer should be limited to an exchange with his immediate neighbors; it is deemed expedient that a new branch of industry should be created and fostered by that beneficent agency which wields the sovereign power of the people; and for this reason light-houses are built and navies are maintained, and as yet our democratic theorists have raised no argument against this wide stretch of sovereignty; they rather seem to glory in it. They have even been at the pains to fabricate a theory for its particular defence; the theory of Free Trade. "I find no obligation written in the Constitution," says Mr. Meredith, "to lay taxes, duties or imposts, at the lowest rate that will yield the largest revenue." Can it be doubted for a moment that an injunction of the kind would directly contravene the intention of the constitution itself, which has provided for the regulation of all things necessary for the public good; or that the power to regulate commerce and enforce duties given by the constitution, was given for the public good? And would not that be, in spirit, an unconstitutional regulation which destroyed a branch of the national industry? Let us suppose that one third of the population were already engaged in manufacture; would not that be in spirit an unconstitutional regulation which impoverished that third in order that the remaining third might be enabled to live, for a time, more economically? And was not the tariff of forty-six opposed to the general spirit of the constitution when it broke down the national industry and threw out of employment the workers in cloth and iron in order that the cultivators of the earth might procure foreign luxuries at a little lower rate? Is it not protection with a vengeance, to make regulations for the little finger of industry which paralyze the right arm? to make regulations for commerce, tending to a lessening of the material of commerce, and to a depression of that power and intelligence through which it chiefly thrives-the power and intelligence of the artizan ? "If it were true, that a duty laid on a given article with a view to encourage our own productions is unlawful, because it may operate, by discouraging importation, as a partial prohibition, the proposition would be equally true of every duty laid with that intent, whether it were above or below the maximum revenue rate. But, as under the power to regulate commerce, it is competent for Congress to enact a direct and total prohibition of the importation of any article, it can be no objection to an act levying duties, that it may operate in partially preventing importation. Whether it be wise or just so to levy duties, is another question. What I mean to say now is, that there is no prohibition of it in the constitution. The proposition is maintained, as universally true, that the express grant of a power to Congress gives to that body the right of exercising that power in such manner as in its opinion may be most conducive to the advantage of the country. "As instances of the exercise of the power of regulating commerce, may be mentioned the prohibition of importations, except at designated ports; the prohibition of the coasting trade to all foreign vessels, and to all American vessels, not licensed and enrolled; the prohibition of certain trade to foreign vessels under the Navigation act of 1817; the prohibition of certain trade to American vessels by the Non-intercourse act, and of all trade by the Embargo act; the drawback on the reexportation of foreign goods; finally, the prohibition of the introduction of adulterated drugs into the country by the act of 26th June, 1848. "Under the power to levy taxes, duties, and imposts, I refer to the discriminating tonnage duties on foreign vessels, the discriminating duties on their cargoes, the preamble to the first law imposing duties passed under the constitution, and the enactments of most of the subsequent ones. "These enactments show that at most or all periods of our history the views which I have expressed appear to have been sustained and acted on." Any provision of the constitution, conferring a certain power, or range of power, upon Congress, is given with the understanding that that power shall be exercised with discretion, and in no instance to the detriment of the national health, liberty, or prosperity. The maxim of Free Trade, that government shall collect its revenues with regard only to its own financial neces H sities, taken as it is commonly understood, | has not only an aspect of inhumanity, but contravenes its own intention; for it might be contended that a system of policy tending to increase the internal resources of the country, that is to say, that a policy established for the protection of agriculture and manufactures, would be of necessity advantageous to commerce. It is hardly necessary to urge, that as the commerce of the country is measured by its internal wealth, its material being the exchangeable surplus of that wealth, regulations for the protection of agriculture and manufactures are effectually regulations for the augmentation of commerce itself. Moreover, as the Secretary shows, the most valuable commerce, in other words, that which yields the largest return to the country which engages in it, is a commerce in manufactured articles. "Great Britain exports chiefly what she has first brought to the form in which it is ready for ultimate consumption; it is at the stage of its highest value, and her market is almost co-extensive with the civilized world. "All history shows that where are the workshops of the world, there must be the marts of the world, and the heart of wealth, commerce, and power. It is as vain to hope to make these marts by providing warehouses, as it would be to make a crop by building a barn." employed would be much more limited in amount and much less profitable to the carriers than what we now have. Yet our commerce is, in fact, of the same nature with that above described. The seed bears to the cotton the same relation which cotton bears to the cloth. If we now export cotton of the value of about sixty-six millions, the same cotton, when converted into cloth, would make an export of some two hundred and sixty-four millions, or some two hundred and forty-five millions after deducting the fifteen or twenty millions which would be required for our own consumption (in addition to the portion of our present manufactures, consumed at home), and our imports would be thereby in like manner increased. England, at this moment, derives a large portion of her power from spinning and weaving our cotWhen we shall spin and weave it ourselves, make our own iron, and manufacture our other staples, we shall have transferred to this country the great centres of wealth, commerce, civilization, and political, as well as moral and intellectual power." ton. Political economy seems to be, with most men, an affair of the imagination; in fact, a department of poetry. We hear much of the white wings of commerce whitening the shores of continents. A ship is indeed a very beautiful object, but so also is a well-cultivated farm, diverAnd again: "Commerce is the machi-sified with grass fields, copses, and slopes of nery of exchange. It is the handmaid of golden grain. Viewed in the purple light agriculture and manufactures. It will not of morning, while the misty hollows are yet be affirmed that it is ever positively inju- fresh with dew, it is a sight that sends the rious-but it will be more or less useful as spirit upward in thankful prayer to the it co-operates more or less with the pro- great Economist, the good Father under ! ductive industry of the country. The whose inspiration Man has accomplished so mere carriage of commodities by sea or beautiful and so good a work. land is necessarily profitable only to the carrier, who is paid for it. It may be useful or not to others, according to circumstances. The farmer finds a railroad a great convenience, but he understands that it is better employed in carrying his crop, than in carrying away his seed-wheat and manure. "The commerce which should consist in carrying cotton-seed abroad, to be there grown, would not be so useful as that which is now occupied in exporting the raw cotton grown at home. We should easily understand, also, that the commerce thus Nor is our wonder less excited and our admiration awakened by that other evidence of the Divine skill guiding the human hand, the workshop of the artizan. Winding by some rugged pathway along the declivity of a mountain, we hear far below a subterannean thunder. The rigid leaves of the pine tremble above us. The forest quivers with the din. We descend, and here, fixed upon rocks, under the spray of a cataract, we discover the shop of the iron forger. A mighty hammer, in shape and bulk like a fragment of rock, leaps frantic at its task, moulding the glowing metal with a terrible facility and precision. The blind forces of nature are controlled and tempered by a little cord in the hand of a child. Here, too, there is room for the mysterions pleasure of contemplation. In all those works wherein reason appears, Divinity also is made evident; and hence our wonder and respect for human labor. But it is a weak and ill-cultivated intellect that suffers its admiration for a particular result of human skill to draw it from the true aim of statemanship, the common good. There is a sublimity in the contemplation of the public good, of the moral and physical wellbeing of a people, far more exalting and satisfactory to the intellect than in these contemplations of art and nature. In the recesses of his heart the sincere and liberal statesman must carry the weight of an awful responsibility, and the latent strength of the man, or if we may be allowed the expression, his nearness to God, appears then most when he is called to guide the opinion and advance the interest of a nation. Of the moral effects of intercourse with foreign nations, much may be said; but the moral effects of intercourse are not measured by the extent of trade. The moral and intellectual power exercised by Germany over America, during the last twenty years, has been so great, it can be compared only with a revolution, and has been in fact, a revolution of ideas, manners and opinions, silent but irresistible and yet the trade with Germany, measured by imports and exports, is so small, its loss would be hardly felt a year or two after its cessation. Were a prohibition laid upon ships from Germany, the mighty industry of America would, in twelve months, supply the void but Germany would not cease therefore to be the intellectual master and teacher of the American people. Were our commercial intercourse with England, even, suspended for a term of years, who doubts that the capital and the energy afloat in that vast and profitable trade, would seek and find new fields of enterprise. Great as such a calamity would indeed be, it would be by no means a permanent or an irretrievable one: not as injurious as the destruction of a single branch of industry: a period of ten years would perhaps be sufficient to heal the wound laid open, to fill up the breach made, to give a new course to power and capital. Imagine, for comparison, the sudden destruction of the cotton plantations, or of the manufactories of Massachusetts. Imagine a blight of corn, devastating one-half the country,-what would be the extinc tion of an English commerce compared with that? We over-estimate the pecuniary advantages of commerce. The Hon. Secretary says that he will not admit that commerce can be ever injurious; but, with all deference, we think it may become so, when its protection becomes a mania with politicians, who, at the same time, are too perversely blind, or too ignorant to see what its true interests are; and who would convert its favor in the minds of the people into an argument for the destruction of that by which it best thrives-for the destruction of manufactures. The industry of the carrier cannot be set up in rivalry against the industry of the producer. The horse who carries flour to market is not more valuable than the horse who carries it to mill. The carrier himself is not a more estimable man, by vocation, than the farmer or the miller. In the whole course of this argument the friends of free trade have either neglected to observe, or have kept out of view, the fact that a commerce is more or less valuable as that which it carries has received more or less value from the industry of those who have sent it forth. A trade in gold may indeed prove a very unprofitable trade, even when it is a monopoly. A varied commerce sustained by manufactures, the ship of the exporter conveying the goods which the capital or the industry of his friend or his brother has created out of a coarse and worthless material, other things being equal, must lead to wealth. Mr. Meredith assumes that all legislation designed to favor a particular class to the prejudice of others, or, worse still, to injure a particular class for the benefit of others, is manifestly unwise and unjust. What then more unjust and injurious than the tariff of 1846, which was enacted, first, to favor the commercial interests to the prejudice of the manufacturers, and, secondly, to injure and depress the manufacturers for the benefit of the agriculturalists and the commercial classes? for though it seem a hard judgment, it is impossible to deny that the advocates of free-trade have discovered a spirit positively and openly |