infant industry, and unfair dumping of
foreign goods on our shores were also
used to full advantage. The opposition
then contended, as it has in a score of
subsequent controversies, that under free
trade the efficient and advantageous in-
dustries would survive, that free interna-
tional trade would benefit all, and that
protection was merely a device for aiding
particular industries or sections of the
country by levying tribute on others.
None of these positions was entirely new
in the 1820's but each was defended with
freshness and eager conviction by able
political leaders, men like Clay, Webster,
and McDuffie, men whose speeches are
still worth reading. A study of their logic
or lack of logic, their insights and ration-
alizations, their broad visions and their
myopias helps clarify the tariff contro-
versies of today and tomorrow.

The readings in this volume begin with
a brief summary of tariff history from
1789 to 1861 by the editor. This sketch is
designed to place the controversy of the
twenties in the larger setting of early
tariff history. Next, extracts are presented
in chronological order from the cele-
brated debate in the House of Repre-
sentatives on the Tariff Act of 1824. The
protective tariff was, of course, an essen-
tial part of Henry Clay's American sys-
tem; his oration in the Eighteenth Con-
gress set the keynote for the protection-
ists' speeches. Further illustration of pro-
tectionist thinking is given in the state-
ments by John Tod of Pennsylvania, who
was chairman of the House Committee
on Manufactures, and by two other ar-
dent followers of Clay, Andrew Stewart
of Pennsylvania and George Holcombe of
New York. The opposition to protection
by the maritime and commercial interests
of the North is set forth in excerpts from
the speeches of Daniel Webster of Massa-
chusetts and Samuel A. Foot of Connecti-
cut. The position of the Southern planta-
tion interests is ably expounded in the
speeches of George McDuffie of South
Carolina. In order better to present this
Southern viewpoint, there is included not
only a considerable part of McDuffie's
speech in 1824 but also an excerpt from
his remarks made in 1830.

Any adequate survey of the protective
controversy must take account of the
enormous amount of attention it received
from the press. The leading editor-pub-
lisher on the protectionist side was Heze-
kiah Niles of Baltimore. The editorial
from his Weekly Register, which appears
in this volume, is representative of the
life-long crusade for higher duties which
he carried on in the pages of this influ-
ential periodical. Ablest of the free trade
journalists was Condy Raguet. His jour-
nal was first called the Free Trade Advo-
cate and later the Banner of the Consti-
tution ( 1829- 1832). Though his periodi-
cals failed through lack of popular sup-
port, the superior quality of his writing
was widely recognized. A satirical article
from his pen is included in this volume.
It set a style upon which the better known
French advocate of free trade, Frédéric
Bastiat, may well have modeled his ironic
essays.

A popular method at the time for the
expression of public opinion was the
memorial. The two here included express
the economic arguments which had be-
come basic to the two contending groups.

The classical economists, especially
Adam Smith and Jean Baptiste Say, were
frequently brought into the tariff debate,
condemned as impractical theorists by
the protectionists and cited as profound
thinkers by the free traders. How much
they were actually read or really influ-
enced thought on the subject is open to
question. Commenting sarcastically on
references to these authors in congres-

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