The American Quarterly Review, No. 18, June 1831 (Vol 9)Various
History
The American Quarterly Review, No. 18, June 1831 (Vol 9)
Various
Intellectual life -- Periodicals; United States -- Intellectual life -- 19th century -- Periodicals
In the northern and eastern states, the tariff policy has no opponents,
except in the merchants engaged in foreign commerce; in the western
States, the opinion in favour of the present system, is almost
unanimous. The southern states, and a portion of the mercantile interest
of the north, are alone in direct opposition to protecting duties. The
agricultural interest of the north and west, seeing and feeling directly
the benefits which the establishment of manufactures confers upon it,
has given what is called the American system,--which is in principle, if
it err occasionally in detail, the sound and true policy of the
nation--its full and undivided support. We cannot but hope to see the
day arrive, when the mist raised by designing politicians, and _soi
disant_ economists, shall be dissipated, and when the southern states
will see that they are not merely indirectly, but as directly benefited
by the creation of manufacturing industry in the northern districts of
the Union, as they have been by that part of the system which has
secured them a complete monopoly of the home market for their own
products. Of all the states of the Union, Louisiana has derived the most
immediate and important advantages from protecting duties, but they have
also been shared by her neighbours; and we cannot hesitate to conclude,
that, next to Louisiana, South Carolina has been most benefited. The
cotton of India, which would have been preferred, from its low price,
for the manufacture of the coarse articles with which our factories have
in all cases commenced their business, is in fact prohibited; the
creation of the growth of sugar has occupied land and capital, which, if
applied to the culture of cotton, must have driven the whole upland
staple from the markets of the world; and, more than all, a growing
domestic demand has arisen, which foreign interference cannot controul
or diminish. In return for such advantages, it might fairly have been
expected that some burthen would fall upon the southern states, and no
doubt it might appear to be capable of plausible proof, that a portion
of the increased duties amounted to an actual tax. But this appearance
on which so much stress has been laid, is only upon paper, and does not
exist in reality, for we believe that they may be challenged, and must
fail if they attempt, to prove that the cost of the production of any
one staple has been in the slightest degree increased. We believe that
it has, on the contrary, diminished. It would lead us too far to show
how this has been the natural result: we appeal therefore to the fact
alone.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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