If the protection of commerce had been the real object of the war, would not some preparations have been made for a navy? It was ever the policy of the slave States to destroy the navy. Vast conquests by _land_ were contemplated, for the protection of Northern commerce. Whatever was intended, the work of destruction was done. The policy of the South stood for awhile like a giant among ruins. New-England received a blow, which crushed her energies, but could not annihilate them. Where the system of free labor prevails, and there is work of any kind to be done, there is a safety-valve provided for _any_ pressure. In such a community there is a vital and active principle, which cannot be long repressed. You may dam up the busy waters, but they will sweep away obstructions, or force a new channel. Immediately after the peace, when commerce again began to try her broken wings, the South took care to keep her down, by multiplying permanent embarrasments, in the shape of duties. The _direct_ tax (which would have borne equally upon them, and which in the original compact was the equivalent for slave representation,) was forthwith repealed, and commerce was burdened with the payment of the national debt. The encouragement of _manufactures_, the consumption of domestic products, or _living within ourselves_, was then urged upon us. This was an ancient doctrine of the democratic party. Mr. Jefferson was its strongest advocate. Did he think it likely to bear unfavorably upon "the nation of shopkeepers and pedlers?"[AE] The Northerners adopted it with sincere views to economy, and more perfect independence. The duties were so adjusted as to embarrass commerce, and to guard the interests of a few in the North, who from patriotism, party spirit, or private interest, had established manufactures on a considerable scale. This system of protection opposed by the North, was begun in 1816 by Southern politicians, and enlarged and confirmed by them in 1824. It was carried nearly as much by Southern influence, as was the war itself; and if the votes were placed side by side, there could not be a doubt of the identity of the interests and passions, which lay concealed under both. But enterprise, that moral perpetual motion, overcomes all obstacles. Neat and flourishing villages rose in every valley of New-England. The busy hum of machinery made music with her neglected waterfalls. All her streams, like the famous Pactolus, flowed with gold. From her discouraged and embarrassed commerce arose a greater blessing, apparently indestructible. Walls of brick and granite could not easily be overturned by the Southern _lever_, and left to decay, as the ship-timber had done. Thus Mordecai was again seated in the king's gate, by means of the very system intended for his ruin. As soon as this state of things became perceptible, the South commenced active hostility with manufactures. Doleful pictures of Southern desolation and decay were