is true, because the
tariff issue was threatening to split the country into parties again.
_The Development of the Policy of "Protection."_--The war of 1812 and
the commercial policies of England which followed it had accentuated the
need for American economic independence. During that conflict, the
United States, cut off from English manufactures as during the
Revolution, built up home industries to meet the unusual call for iron,
steel, cloth, and other military and naval supplies as well as the
demands from ordinary markets. Iron foundries and textile mills sprang
up as in the night; hundreds of business men invested fortunes in
industrial enterprises so essential to the military needs of the
government; and the people at large fell into the habit of buying
American-made goods again. As the London _Times_ tersely observed of the
Americans, "their first war with England made them independent; their
second war made them formidable."
In recognition of this state of affairs, the tariff of 1816 was
designed: _first_, to prevent England from ruining these "infant
industries" by dumping the accumulated stores of years suddenly upon
American markets; and, _secondly_, to enlarge in the manufacturing
centers the demand for American agricultural produce. It accomplished
the purposes of its framers. It kept in operation the mills and furnaces
so recently built. It multiplied the number of industrial workers and
enhanced the demand for the produce of the soil. It brought about
another very important result. It turned the capital and enterprise of
New England from shipping to manufacturing, and converted her statesmen,
once friends of low tariffs, into ardent advocates of protection.
In the early years of the nineteenth century, the Yankees had bent their
energies toward building and operating ships to carry produce from
America to Europe and manufactures from Europe to America. For this
reason, they had opposed the tariff of 1816 calculated to increase
domestic production and cut down the carrying trade. Defeated in their
efforts, they accepted the inevitable and turned to manufacturing. Soon
they were powerful friends of protection for American enterprise. As the
money invested and the labor employed in the favored industries
increased, the demand for continued and heavier protection grew apace.
Even the farmers who furnished raw materials, like wool, flax, and hemp,
began to see eye to eye with the manufacturers. So the te
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