I way does me mos say is? what money He means coin, had be this team he would perhaps, have shrank from his own positions. 50 THE NEW POINTS OF THIS WORK. representatives, are the "tools of trade," all the world over, in commercial transactions. And yet the Free-Trade economists tell us, that it is no matter if these "tools" be sold; that it is just the same to the party, as if anything else were sold; that they are only commodities, and occupy the same position as all other commodities, in trade; that he who sells his money, gets an equivalent, and therefore can not be injured; and that it is a positive benefit to both parties. 10. The appropriate functions of money, in defining and making them palpable, whereby it may clearly be seen when money is a subject or the instrument of trade, constitute another point of this work, not before made sufficiently clear, if made at all, for the practical purposes required. We have defined them as constituting the faculties of expressing commercial values and of negotiating exchanges, and we have not been able to find any others. When money is bought and sold, as a subject of trade, it occupies a distinct field, and the same position as other commodities in trade. It is this position of money that has led the Free-Trade economists astray; or it is this, in the use of which, by their mode of reasoning, they have led others astray. They have not passed from this field, as they should have done, where money, as a subject, is merely on its march to the field for which it is destined as the instrument of trade, and for which only it has any value at all as money; they have not, we say, passed to consider its position and functions in this latter field, where it acts as money, and constitutes the great moving power of the commercial world; but they have only speculated on money, while in its passive condition, before it has begun to do its work-the very work for which it is invoked from the great mass of the precious metals. They have considered it only while on its way to this destination. In all these stages, it is merely a subject of trade. But, when it comes to discharge the appropriate functions of money, it occupies a very different position, to wit, that of the "tools" of trade. 11. Akin to this, also, is another new point we have been obliged to make, viz., that price is not an attribute of money, does not belong to it, while employed as the instrument of trade; but that its appropriate functions, as money, are to prize everything else that has a commercial value, or to express that value, and to move such values, or the things in which they are inherent, forward, in the field of trade, to their destinations. We have found it absolutely necessary to make this point, in order to rescue that part of про the argument on which it bears, from the profound and interminable confusion, into which it has been thrown by the Free-Trade economists, by ringing the changes for ever on the price of money, as high or low, dear or cheap, when, as the instrument of trade, it has no price, and no measure but that of the scales, or of coins, which is the same thing. The world, by irrevocable law, and for sufficient reasons, has agreed to gold and silver as the common medium of trade, and in all commercial transactions, when it is employed as such, the question is, how much money shall be given for such or such a thing?. And when the trade is concluded, that is the price. Of what? Of the thing. Price belongs to the things for which money is given in exchange; and not to money, while in the discharge of this office. The confusion is endless, and without hope of relief, when price is made the attribute of both, as the Free-Trade economists do; and they do it, apparently, evidently, Simindeed, for not having made the distinction between money as a subject and as the instrument of trade. That this practice is an artifice, to make the mind contented, after having been forced over a sea of doubt and darkness, to land anywhere, we do not pretend to say. But such is the natural effect. 12. We have endeavored to show in this work that an American protective system is identical with Free Trade in its operation and results, as the latter is generally understood by the people who go for it. This is a point of supreme importance. It is impossible that the masses of the people should understand this subject theoretically; they can only understand it as they feel it in experience. They know when they are blessed with prosperity, and when they are oppressed for the want of it, or by positive commercial evils, which cluster around them, and bear heavily upon them. But they can never understand, scientifically, how these different states of things are brought about, and they are governed chiefly in their opinion, as to the causes, by the authority of their party leaders. All they want is, their rights; and under the captivating name of Free Trade, they are often led astray. They think that in this, as greater amount of freedom; the name seems to import, they have a Sancta policitas! ! ing in their products, to throw American labor and American capital out of employment. As to the alleged advantage to consumers, we have shown, too, that even they are sufferers. We say, then, that the very objects which most people are in pursuit of by Free Trade, are only attainable by Protection. 13. We have endeavored to show in this work that the destiny of Freedom generally, and particularly of American Freedom, is yet in the earlier stages of its career, and that, for the people of the United States, it turns chiefly, if not entirely, on the Protection of American interests against the effects of Free Trade. This is a position which, with the light that is capable of being thrown upon it, makes a point of great interest, and can hardly fail to ar rest the attention of profound thinkers and enlightened statesmen, who love their country, and who appreciate the means by which its Freedom has been acquired, and by which alone it can be retained and perpetuated. 14. We have, also, endeavored to show that the entire struggle of the American revolution was based on the same principles as, and that the controversy between the British crown and the colonies was identical with, that which is now carried on between Free Trade and Protection. This is a point which, we think, can not but be appreciated; and if so, it is of itself a decisive argument. If the objects contended for in the American revolution are indeed the same as those contended for by Protection, and if Free Trade is but another name, under which the claims of the British crown are revived, it ought to be enough. 15. We think we have seen good reasons for the suggestion made in this work of a state policy existing in Great Britain for nearly a century past, the object of which has been to sow the seeds of Free Trade over the world, that Great Britain might reap the harvest. The history on this point is curious, and full of instruction. The case supposes, that British statesmen, having observed the benefits of Protection, after they had adopted that policy, and foreseen the rapid relative advancement of their own manufacturing arts to a position that might bid defiance to the rest of the world under a system of universal Free Trade, did conceive and put in execution the far-reaching purpose of employing the most eminent talents of that empire, beginning with Adam Smith, and continuing it from age to age in the hands of different persons, making the duty imperative on the Universities, and bringing about a general sympathetic action among their own writers of ability, to propagate this faith, and to impose it upon other nations for the benefit of Great Britain. The point is this: That the British government, through agents presenting themselves to the world, in the garb of scientific men, the better to command respect and attention, has, for nearly a century, preached Free Trade, not from a conviction of its truth, but as a state policy. So far as the evidence of probabilities can go, the sum of which, when they are chiefly moral, is often the strongest and most conclusive possible, amounting to what is called a moral certainty, this case is one which, when the facts are considered, can hardly fail to make an impression, and peradventure command belief; more especially as, on any other supposition, the facts could not be accounted for, and as, with this interpretation, they stand in the clearest light. It has, without doubt, been one of the best cards of statesmanship ever played in the councils of a nation. If the world had not been duped, the conception would have been stultified. That it has commanded so much attention, is credit enough for its authors and agents, however it may not be a very great compliment to those who have surrendered themselves to this influence. 16. Akin to this, and involving this, we have also made a distinct point of the reasons of the rise and progress of the theory of Free Trade, which is the leading topic of the chapter which treats of the abovenamed point. These reasons, as they have presented themselves to us, and as we have endeavored to present them to others, are not more curious than instructive. The transient prevalence of this false theory, is no more wonderful, than that false theories of astronomy should have prevailed for ages, for centuries even. The history of error is often as necessary to truth, as that of truth itself. 17. Another new point in this work is, that freedom consists in the enjoyment of commercial rights, and in the independent control of commercial values fairly acquired. The public mind, for centuries, has been rife with the vaguest notions of freedom, and was, perhaps, never more so, than at this moment. Under its sacred and attractive name, men, to a great extent, have been chasing a phantom-an impalpable abstraction. We do not mean, that none even of them have had any just notions of it. In that case, we should This beats predespair. We only tell what they themselves do know; we give a vies copy of their experience; we define the thing, that they may not err in the pursuit. Is it not singular, that freedom has never been defined, so as to be palpable, that one could lay his hand upon it? follis равний Nevertheless, we have shown, that the American fathers had just notions of it, as a practical affair, and that the controversy between them and the British crown, was about commercial rights and commercial values, exclusively; that no people, in modern times, have ever complained of their government, or risen up against it, except on these grounds, as will be found when the reasons are sifted to the bottom; that the object of every species of despotism, even spiritual, in all times, has been to rob the people of their commercial rights and values; and consequently, that freedom must consist in the enjoyment and independent control of them, by those to whom they fairly belong, who, each one for himself, can say to all parties, to all the world, to unjust claimants especially, they are mine, and not yours. We have endeavored to show, that this is the great question at issue between Free Trade and Protection; that the former is identical with the claims of the British crown against the American colonies, and that the latter occupies the same position with the Declaration of American Independence, as made on the fourth of July, 1776; that Free Trade proposes to revive and continue the same old system, and that Protection asserts and vindicates the rights of the new; that these rights were the objects of pursuit by those who aspired to Freedom, for centuries before they were gained; that the epoch of American independence was the opening of a new and important era as it relates to freedom; that more than seventy years of that era have elapsed, and the question supposed to have been settled at the beginning, is still in debate, and unsettled; that the freedom since enjoyed, is rather one of form, than of reality; that the agitation can only result in its final and complete establishment; that experience alone, long protracted and disastrous, can settle the question; that it is not, properly, and can not be, except unnaturally, a question between domestic parties of this country, but that it is an American question; that it is purely a question of freedom; and that every approximation toward Free Trade, in the United States, is a breach in the ramparts of freedom. 18. Akin to this definition of freedom, is the necessity of an American system to protect it, as another new point in this work. We do not mean an American system, in the common sense, comprehending a policy for domestic purposes; nor do we pretend, that an American commercial system for foreign purposes, is a new idea: for that is the necessary character of any protective system; but we mean a system adapted to the position of those things in |