CHAPTER of the want of power in the federal government to lay 1. duties for protection, an idea which seems not yet to have 1789. been broached. Another question of great subsequent

importance related to the ability of the United States to coerce foreign nations by means of commercial restrictions, and the policy of resorting to that means. In Madison's opinions upon this subject, so warmly urged, we may discover the origin of that system of policy afterward taken up by Jefferson, pertinaciously carried out twenty years afterward in the embargo and non-intercourse, and ending at last, as its opponents had foretold, in a war with Great Britain. Instead, therefore, of being a mere dry discussion as to what imports should be taxed and how much, this debate, by exhibiting the various ideas which prevailed, is a great help toward understanding many interesting points of our subsequent history.

Fitzsimmons opposed the idea of mere temporary duties. It were better to agree at once on a system adequate in some degree to the present situation of the country, as regarded agriculture, manufactures, and commerce. He proposed to increase the list of articles upon which specific duties were to be imposed, partly with a view to the imposition of "sumptuary restrictions" upon articles of luxury, but principally with the design "to encourage the productions of our country, and to protect our infant manufactures." With the first object in view, he proposed to add as subjects for specific duties spices and fruits, and, with a view to domestic protection, beer, ale, porter, cider, beef, pork, butter, cheese, candles, soap, cables, cordage, leather, hats, slit and rolled iron, iron castings, nails, unwrought steel, paper, cabinet-ware, and carriages. Several petitions had already been presented from the mechanics, manufacturers, and ship

I.

wrights of the principal towns, praying for protection CHAPTER against foreign competition, and others continued to come in during the session.

"I own myself," said Madison, in relation to this topic, "the friend of a very free system of commerce. If industry and labor are left to take their own course, they will generally be directed to those objects which are most productive, and that in a manner more certain and direct than the wisdom of the most enlightened legislature could point out; nor do I believe that the national interest is more promoted by such legislative directions than the interest of the individuals concerned. Yet I concede that exceptions exist to this general rule important in themselves, and claiming the particular attention of this committee. If America were to leave her ports perfectly free, and to make no discrimination between vessels owned by citizens and those owned by foreigners, while other nations make such discrimination, such a policy would go to exclude American shipping from foreign ports, and we should be materially affected in one of our most important interests..

"Duties laid on imported articles may have an effect which comes within the idea of national prudence. The states most advanced in population, and ripe for manufactures, ought to have their particular interests attended to, at least in some degree. Some establishments have grown up under the power which those states had of regulating trade, which ought not to be allowed to perish in consequence of the recent alteration. It would be cruel to neglect them and to divert their industry to other channels, since it is not possible for the hand of man to change from one employment to another without loss.

"There is another exception upon which great stress is laid by some well-informed men, and with great plaus

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CHAPTER ibility. It is said that every nation should have within I. itself the means of defense, independent of foreign sup1789. plies; that, in whatever relates to the operations of war,

no state ought to depend upon a precarious supply from other parts of the world. There may be some truth in this, and therefore it is proper for legislative attention; though I am well persuaded that the reasoning on this subject has been carried too far.

The impost on trade for the purpose of obtaining revenue may be considered as another exception. So far as revenue may be more conveniently and certainly obtained by this than by any other method, I think sound policy dictates to use it."

He did not object to Fitzsimmons's list. "Some of the propositions may be productive of revenue, and some may protect our domestic manufactures, though the latter subject, which involves some intricate questions, ought not to be too confusedly blended with the former." Fitzsimmons's motion was agreed to, and, on Goodhue's proposal, anchors, wool-cards, and tin-ware were added to the list as articles the manufacture of which deserved protection.

Sherman pro

The next step was to fill the blanks. posed to charge rum with a duty of fifteen cents the gallon, adding, for the information of the House, that "he used the word cent because it was a denomination of national coin fixed by the late Congress, ten of which made a dime, and ten dimes one dollar." Lawrence urged the danger of smuggling if the duty were laid too high, and proposed to fix it at twelve cents per gallon. It was answered, that if a high duty were to be imposed on any article, this was the one. The consumption was so great that a large revenue might be expected from it; and even should the duty operate to lessen the consump

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tion, the probability of which was suggested as a reason CHAPTER for fixing the duty at a lower rate, that result, in a moral point of view, was much to be desired.

The great evils attending the free use of ardent spirits had already attracted public attention. A tract on this subject, by Dr. Rush, had lately been republished in almost all the American papers, and had made a strong impression on the public mind. At the federal festival at Philadelphia, of which an account is given at the commencement of this chapter, ardent spirits had been excluded, American beer and cider being the only liquors used. "If we can judge," said Madison, "from what we hear and see, it is the sense of the American people that a duty weighty indeed should be imposed on this article." After a good deal of discussion, the proposed duty of fifteen cents per gallon was limited to rum of the highest proof, other descriptions to be charged twelve cents.

The Southern members favored a high duty on rum with a view to revenue, and the Eastern members with a view to the protection of the New England manufacture; but they separated on the question of the rate of duty on molasses, the New England members uniting with Lawrence, who acted as the champion of the mercantile interests of the city of New York, in favor of a low duty.. Madison suggested that a high duty on molasses would operate as a tax on the rum distilled from it, thus dispensing with the expensive and unpopular machinery which the collection of such a tax by way of excise would require. To this it was answered that in Massachusetts, which imported more molasses than all the other states together, it was used not merely for distillation, but to a great extent as a substitute for sugar. A high tax upon such a necessary of life would be very oppressive. Goodhue put the committee in mind of the British Molasses Act,

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CHAPTER Which had done so much to stir up discontent and to hasten the Revolution. On this unpromising topic the 1789. brilliant eloquence of Ames was displayed for the first time. Following the old colonial line of argument against the British Molasses Act, he insisted that so heavy a duty tended to the ruin of the New England fisheries and commerce; but these arguments were parried by the suggestion that the New England distillers would now have open to them the market of the Union, freed from the state imposts hitherto imposed, and protected by the duty on foreign rum. If, however, this tax bore hard upon Massachusetts, other taxes on the list would bear hard on other states. After a great deal of discussion, the opposers of a high duty only so far prevailed as to have the blank filled with six cents, which they esteemed, however, to be very exorbitant.

On motion of Madison, eight cents a gallon on beer was agreed to, for the express purpose of encouraging the domestic manufacture. A duty on candles was adopted on the same ground. An objection was taken by some Southern members to any duty on steel, as oppressive to agriculture, to which Clymer and Fitzsimmons replied that the manufacture of steel was already commenced with good success in Pennsylvania, and that a moderate protective duty would lead to a great increase of production. Five shillings on the hundred weight, all they asked for, would affect the agricultural interest but very slightly, even supposing the duty to be paid on all that was used. It might be esteemed a partial tax, but was not that objection overbalanced by the establishment of so important a manufacture? The duty was finally fixed at fifty-six cents per hundred.

The duty on cordage being under consideration, Madison questioned the policy of imposing duties on articles