strong, in some particulars, to be ejected, that foreign producers enter the lists with us, when that system is prostrated; but it is to arrest the growth and extension of our arts, to discourage new enterprises among us, and to supply a vast field of our new and increasing wants, which we ourselves could and should supply, both cheaper and better, under a system of Protection. It is in this latter field, where we suffer most by Free Trade, which being, for the most part, a negative loss, is not so quickly or so easily perceived. Nevertheless, it is a real, a great, an immense loss-a vast and comprehensive depredation on the rights of the community. The principle elsewhere presented in these pages, that social rights extend to all the chances of the future, under an equitable system, as much as to the enjoyment and control of the acquisitions of the past, applies here. Free Trade destroys these chances, and conveys them over to foreign powers and foreign factors. It arrests American progress, cripples American enterprise, embarrasses American capital, discourages American arts, and impairs the rights of American labor. Its march is stealthy; but its aim is sure. Its work of devastation is slow; but in the end it is overwhelming. It is not till years have rolled away, that a nation, guilty of this folly, reaps its harvest of public and private misfortunes.

It requires no little knowledge and much reflection, to appreciate these negative effects of Free Trade. For example, because enterprises, well established, are not broken down by the subversion. of a Protective system, it is triumphantly proclaimed, that the change does no harm; whereas, a just view of its effects can not be had, without considering how many other important enterprises, which would have employed much labor, and brought great wealth to the country, have been strangled in the birth, the contingent benefits of which are not seen, because, not being realized, in consequence of this change of system, the negative loss can never be known, and will not be so sensibly felt as positive losses are.

Free Trade, it will be observed, demands a state of anarchy, of non-legislation, on ground where more and greater interests are at stake, than on any other in the wide domain of civilization, and where the difficulties of securing and protecting the rights involved in them, are more formidable than anywhere else, on account of the imperfection of the law of nations, and on account of the power which, in such a state of things, the commercial agencies of one nation, may have over the commercial rights of another. The

code of international law, important as it is, so far as it goes, does not approach the subject now under consideration, nor does it, in any particular, provide for it. This is a ground, over which Free Trade demands, that there shall be no law whatever, and claims for it the arbitrary sway of unbridled license, where the most selfish passions of the human race are constantly in action, and excited to the highest pitch by the lust of wealth and power. The temptations for depredation in this field are as much greater, as the magnitude of the objects and the chances of success are more considerable than in other quarters. Under the ordinary jurisdiction of an independent state, the relations of society are defined, and the rights of its members, in relation to each other, are protected against offenders. But Free Trade proposes that there shall be no code over these relations between nations, so far as commerce is concerned; though it can not but be seen, that the commercial relations of these great parties, are all that are of any material importance as subjects of legislation. International commerce, be it more or less, is composed of parts, and every separate transaction is independent of every other—is private, and as such, is a transaction of the social state. It can not be said, that it does not belong to the domain of law, of equity, and that it does not require the supervision of authority, and the protection of its arm. But according to the dogmas of Free Trade, one has only to take up the position of "an outside barbarian," and he may with impunity lay his hands upon the commercial rights of the people of any nation whatever, if by any means he can bring a foreign commercial agency to bear upon them to his own profit and their injury. His license is vested in his position as a foreigner. He acquires power, in every country, in an inverse proportion to his rights there; and having no rights at all, his liberty is uncontrolled. chances are a thousand, a million to one, that he will find plenty of commercial agencies in any part of the world, any one of which, according to this system, will be adequate to absorb and swallow up a countless number of commercial rights in any other part of the world. The innocent hen that is industriously scratching the earth to feed her interesting family, is not more exposed to the bird of prey, that is now circling through the air above her head, and which will the next moment bear aloft in his talons one or more of her charge, than is every man within the bounds of civilization, to the Free-Trade rovers, who darken the heavens with their baleful wings, to live on plunder wherever a nation is unwise

The

enough to expose itself to their rapacity; and there is just about as much law in the one case as in the other. It is for want of law, in this particular, and only for that, that any nation, thus exposed, is perpetually robbed. Why should it not be? And who can prevent it, so long as she herself does not? By the case supposed, she has thrown away her shield; or has not taken the trouble to keep it in hand. She has taken the word of the roving bandits, on the highway of nations, that they are all honest men; that they will do no harm; that their law, which is anarchy, is the best law; that the hen and chickens are perfectly safe; that no bird of prey will ever descend upon them; and that, though they propose to come among them, it is only for fair exchange, and to leave a quid pro quo!

Our design, in this chapter, as avowed, is to illustrate a wellknown principle, viz., that of anarchy, in this particular application, and not to enter largely into the details of the general argument, which have their place in subsequent parts of this work. Our wish here is to show the absurdity of making laws for the citizens of a commonwealth, in their relations to each other, and of attempting to do without law, in the relations between citizens of different and independent commonwealths. To maintain that laws are necessary for domestic intercourse and not for foreign; that home trade should be regulated, and foreign not; that a rogue who cheats his fellow-citizen should be punished, and that a foreigner shall be free to come in, and do that indirectly with impunity, which a citizen may not do in any form; that domestic trade shall be taxed for the entire support of society, and foreign trade not taxed at all, even though it has every advantage of the commercial facilities of the country, and deprives home trade of all which itself carries on, and home labor of all which it brings in ;-this, certainly, is a very extraordinary system of hospitality! Is it not one of the most glaring absurdities that ever entered the mind of a man, who did not also, for the sake of consistency, advocate the abolition of all law, that all parties might be on an equal footing?

It will, perhaps, be said we are dealing with a shadow, with a nondescript and imaginary department of the social state. But that can hardly be called imaginery, which impoverishes or enriches a nation, an effect conceded on all sides, inasmuch as the argument between the parties in this debate, is, as to which of two systems will do the one or the other. Nor can it be said, that the ground we speak of is already covered by law, on either system.

That it is covered by law for other purposes, we do not deny; but, quo ad hoc, as to this purpose, the very question is, whether it shall or shall not be covered by such authority. Free Trade forbids, and Protection demands it.

If it be still asked, where is the ground, what is the field, in question? We answer: It is that comprehensive and immense domain of commercial rights, which appertains to every independent state, in its peculiar position, interests, and institutions, so far as they are peculiar, and consequently its own property. But the peculiar rights of this wide and vast field, can not be fully appreciated, for the purpose now in view, till they are regarded as belonging to the individual members of the state, the sum of whose rights of this description constitutes the whole. They are, in the first place, the property of the nation; next, they are the property of the individuals of which the nation is composed. They have cost the nation much, and have cost every individual in it or his ancestors much, or somebody with whom he is connected, in proportion to his stake in the community, and he is perpetually burdened with a system of taxation on their account. The question between Free-Traders and Protectionists, is, whether these peculiar rights shall be maintained, in behalf of those to whom they belong; or whether they shall be thrown open to foreigners, to whom they do not belong; whether, being thrown open, foreigners shall be permitted to enjoy the greatest benefit; whether, indeed, foreigners, from their own peculiar and advantageous position, shall be permitted to make these rights nearly or quite valueless to citizens; whether they shall be permitted even to oppress and enslave, after having robbed, the inheritors and proprietors of these rights. That all this is possible, and that it has all been experienced, none will deny, who have made themselves acquainted with the recorded wrongs of the North American colonists, under the British crown -wrongs which, to be redressed, cost rivers of blood and mountains of wealth. That much of this has been experienced by the people of the United States, even since the achievement of their independence, is made evident enough by the pages of our commercial history, citations from which, for this purpose, are displayed in subsequent parts of this work. It is this vast field of rights, which Free Trade proposes to give back to Great Britain, back to Europe, back to the entire foreign world, by striking from our statute-book the only shield of protection which they have, or can have. It is in this manner, and so far too far, indeed—that the

principle of anarchy applies to this great and momentous subject, and threatens unbridled license to all the world, for depredation on the rights of a great, laborious, long-suffering people.

That the principle of Free Trade is one akin to that of anarchy, it is only necessary to observe, that one of its technical definitions of itself, is, that it is based on the laissez-faire precept: that is, let things alone; let them take their own course; let men, quo ad hoc, do as they please; don't embarrass them with rules. In view of the fact already established, that there is no department of the commercial world, which has so much influence on every other, for good or for evil, as this very ground which is in contest between Free Trade and Protection, of the truth of which this strife itself is a sufficient evidence since men do not usually contend so long and so earnestly for that which is of no consequence-in view of this, we say, one would think it could hardly be pretended, that it is a matter of indifference, whether this ground be, or be not, covered by law; much less, that it ought to have no law at all, which is the claim of Free Trade.

We shall be instructed, not a little, on this point, by a consideration of the objects of all law, and of any laws whatever, of civilization itself, in all its parts and degrees, and of the improvements which are constantly being attempted by legislation. These objects, let it be observed, are always to get away from anarchy -to be further removed from those evils, which, at any given time, are experienced, from defects of law, or the want of it. Even a bad law was never repealed, and society was never dissolved, for the sake of going back to anarchy. Anarchy is that state of things, which all lovers of order, and of the rights of the social state, dread, and fly from, on the principle of self-love and self-preservation; and every improvement of society, by legislation, is attempted, with a view to diminish and remove any remaining evils of this original state of things, of which there are always some, under the present imperfections of the social state. It can hardly be conceived, that society, in its legislation for laudable purposes, could ever have any other object, than to limit the sway of the will of individuals, and to establish the will of the great mass, so far as the former may be opposed to the latter. The first is, perhaps, as good a definition of anarchy as one could give. Nor is it a bad definition of the principle of Free Trade; for, let it be observed, that this principle is not confined, in its applications, to foreign commerce; but it is found everywhere, invading rights of the social state, which are