ated, the remarkable conclusion of the "Address of the Society of Tammany, or Columbian Order, to its absent Members, and the Members of its several Branches throughout the United States, New York, 1819," found in the note below,* will sufficiently evince.

The address itself is one of great interest, force, and eloquence. The cause of Protection was never advocated more earnestly, or with more lucid and effective arguments. It is also to be observed, that the letter to Dr. Coleman, cited in the other note, written by the great chief of the "Tammany Society" party, and dated five years after this address, is sufficiently clear and decided in its advocacy of a protective system, as also the extract from his message to congress, in 1830.

There are no facts of history better certified, than, that the necessity of a protective system for the states, was the main subject of deliberation at the first convention of delegates at Annapolis, in 1786, assembled to consider the question of a constitution; and at the second, in 1787, when the constitution was framed; and that, to obtain the power to establish such a system, was a leading purpose of that instrument. General Washington, the president,

conclusion I am confirmed, as well by the opinions of Presidents Washington, Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe, who have each repeatedly recommended this right under the constitution, as by the uniform practice of Congress, the continued acquiescence of the states, and the general understanding of the people.”—1830.

"We recommend to you, brethren, to be examples of moderation and firmness to your fellow-citizens, and to hold fast of those stern Revolutionary principles which gave, and which alone can preserve your independence.

"CLARKSON CROLIUS, Grand Sachem.

"JAMES S. MARTIN, Secretary. "Countersigned by John Woodward, Clarkson Crolius, Joseph P. Simpson, James S. Martin, Benjamin Romaine, Matthew L. Davis, William Mooney, Committee of Correspondence. New York, October 4, 1819.

"Resolutions of the Society of Tammany, or Columbian Order, passed October 11, 1819.

“Resolved, That as friends to our country, we recommend to our brethren of the different societies of Tammany, or Columbian Order, the necessity as well as moral duty, to our country, ourselves, and posterity, of refraining from every species of useless extravagance in our mode of living; especially in furniture, dress, the table, ostentatious equipage, and expensive amusements.

"Resolved, That we will discountenance the importation and use in our families of every species of foreign manufacture or production, which can or may be reasonably substituted by the fabrics or productions of the United States.

"Resolved, That as economy is wealth,' we seriously recommend to our brethren throughout the United States a strict and rigid observance of this great moral duty in their families and social intercourse."

appeared in a domestic suit before the first congress, under the new constitution; their second act, as stated above, was a law "for the encouragement and protection of domestic manufactures ;" and fifteen members of that body, with James Madison at their head, were also members of the convention that framed the constitution, who could not be ignorant of its great purpose, when they assisted in passing this law. The continued action of the government, therefore, upon this subject, for fifty years, as shown without any apparent diversity of opinion-certainly with great unanimity was a natural consequence of such a beginning, stimulated by such powerful causes, derived from the experience of the people.

But the personal strifes of aspirants for the presidency, who have been more concerned for their own success than for the public weal, have, within twenty years, introduced a new era in the political character and tendencies of the country, and put in peril the grand purpose of the American revolution and of American independence. We have witnessed the strange spectacle of public men, occupying the position of leaders, wheeling to the right and to the left, and right about face, and turning somersets, on the most grave and momentous questions of public policy, drawing their devoted followers in their train, without any reason to be accounted for, except that of personal ambition; because such a total change of opinion, so suddenly transpiring, on questions the aspects of which have not changed, may be set down as a moral impossibility with sagacious and far-seeing minds, except in cases where "the wish is father to the thought." Public and ambitious men, seeing that they could not accomplish their ends in one way and by one set of means, would seem to have come to the conclusion to try another way and another set of means, without regard to the good of the country.

The government and institutions of the United States, as we have seen, started into being on the basis of the protective policy -were begotten by it. This policy was the native genius of the people; it was the natural growth of their position, of their struggles, and of their original and subsequent relations. It was a necessity imposed upon them by Providence, from which they could not escape with impunity. It was the natural suggestion of their instincts, as impressed upon them by their history and experience. They were forced into it, and they never could get out of it, except by violence and sacrifice. Everything in nature, everything

in morals, and everything in human prudence and foresight, pointed that way. For this, they were forced into the revolution; for this, they were forced out of the confederation; to secure this, they adopted the federal constitution; for this, they continued to legislate on that platform for fifty years; and behold, in ten years, from 1830 to 1840, this mighty fabric, which had cost rivers of blood, and mountains of wealth, after having occupied more than two centuries in building—for it dates back to the first settlements of the country was all leveled with the ground! It was rebuilt in 1842, and in 1846 is again overthrown! Such is the history of the protective policy in the United States.

CHAPTER IX.

THE DESTINY OF AMERICAN FREEDOM NOT YET ACHIEVED.

The general Desire for Freedom, before and after the Discovery and Settlement of Amer ica-American Independence an Epoch of Freedom." An American System" means much-It is a " Commercial System "-"Political" the Shadow, "Commercial" the Substance. The Responsibility of a Nation that has Freedom in Trust for Posterity and for Mankind.-Faith as a Power in Man for the Attainment of Freedom-The Advocates of Freedom are in general practically Right, though often theoretically Wrong.Freedom yet in its Cradle.-The vacillating Policy of the Country in regard to the Means of Freedom-Seventy Years of the Era of American Freedom gone, and yet Freedom was to be Defined.-The People have much to Learn on this Subject-What Great Britain and Europe Desire.-The Jeopardy of American Freedom.-Free Trade would throw it away would Sell It.

HAVING shown, in Chapter VII., that freedom consists in the enjoyment of commercial rights, and in the independent control of commercial values fairly acquired, we propose, in this chapter, to call to mind the historical facts, that society in Europe, had been tending for centuries toward freedom, before an outlet of its unsatisfied population was opened in the discovery of the New World; that hopes and designs of political emancipation, for the most part, lay at the foundation of the movements of immigrants to this quarter; and that the American colonies, especially in the north, were founded in this spirit. And we refer to these facts for the purpose of showing, that freedom is progressive, and is never gained fully at a single leap.

The royal charters, so far as the influence of those who obtained them could effect it, were studiously framed for the security of rights held dear by the colonists; and the political history of the early settlements is one of perpetual struggle between royal prerogatives and popular claims. The cause of freedom continued to advance, in the minds and hearts of the people of this new world. Events were constantly ripening in North America for an epoch, which ultimately found its date in the establishment of American independence. It was literally, and in the most emphatic sense of the term, an EPOCH OF FREEDOM. It was not an accident of the day; but it was the event of centuries of preparation. All its seeds were transplanted from Europe. Society there had long been laboring for this birth. There was no safety, in that quarter, for the cradle of freedom, in such an enlarged sense; nor could its

swaddling clothes be prepared here, till ages had rolled away. Nevertheless, they were being made all the while by careful hands, from the time when Jamestown, Plymouth, and New Amsterdam, obtained a place in history, till the first blood of the American revolution stained this virgin field. From that hour is dated a new epoch in the history of freedom. From that hour commenced a new modification of society, under a NEW SYSTEM. SYSTEM is the word which denotes this new state of things-THE AMERICAN SYSTEM. Will any American deny, that there is, and that there ought to be an AMERICAN SYSTEM? System of WHAT? Of what principles? What is its foundation, its parts, its structure? Wherein is it peculiar? Does it differ from European systems? And if so, in what? It is called FREEDOM - was, in fact, a great advance in freedom. In what, then, does this freedom, this system, consist? The answer to this question is found in the argument of Chapter VII. - IN COMMERCIAL RIGHTS. It comes, then, to this, that the whole of the American system, so far as it is a peculiar one, is a COMMERCIAL SYSTEM, for the establishment and defence of commercial rights. It is commonly called political. But political is the shadow; commercial, the substance. former characterizes the thing socially; the latter denotes the thing itself. Hence the name most commonly employed to denote the subject in its social aspects-"political economy;" but we have preferred that of public economy, for reasons specified in the first chapter. The system is political, as being expedient, best, in its relations, or designed to be so; but its positive character is entirely a commercial one.

The

An American system supposes relations to something foreign; and it hardly need be said, that these relations, for the most part, have respect to a state or to states of things, in those quarters whence these new and independent legislators came; that is, from the European world. And as a new and peculiar system, it also supposes a new and peculiar state of society-commercial society, be it observed, not meaning, however, anything other thereby than political; for it is both, and in both identical. But having explained the sense in which we use the term, commercial, in this connexion, it is expedient to adhere to it, in the present train of reasoning, that we lose not sight of the fundamental doctrine established in Chapter VII., to wit, that freedom consists in the enjoyment of commercial rights. It is the substance, and not the shadow, which we wish to follow up.