ved in the strictest construction
of granted power, was a zealous Republican in the partisan divisions
of the day, and was always opposed to the more liberal, or, as he
would regard them, the more latitudinarian views of the Federal
party. In regard to the protection and encouragement of manufactures
there seemed to be no radical difference between parties in the
early period of the government. On that issue, to quote a phrase
used on another occasion, "they were all Federalists and all
Republicans." Mr. Hamilton's celebrated report on Manufactures,
submitted in answer to a request from the House of Representatives
of December, 1790, sustained and elaborated the views on which
Congress had already acted, and brought the whole influence of the
Executive Department to the support of a Protective Tariff. Up to
that period no minister of finance among the oldest and most advanced
countries of Europe had so ably discussed the principles on which
national prosperity was based. The report has long been familiar
to students of political economy, and has had, like all Mr. Hamilton's
work, a remarkable value and a singular application in the developments
of subsequent years.

MR. HAMILTON'S PROTECTION VIEWS.

Mr. Hamilton sustained the plan of encouraging home manufactures
by protective duties, even to the point in some instances of making
those "duties equivalent to prohibition." He did not contemplate
a prohibitive duty as the means of encouraging a manufacture not
already domesticated, but declared it "only fit to be employed when
a manufacture has made such a progress, and is in so many hands,
as to insure a due competition and an adequate supply on reasonable
terms." This argument did not seem to follow the beaten path which
leads to the protection of "infant manufactures," but rather aimed
to secure the home market for the strong and well-developed
enterprises. Mr. Hamilton did not turn back from the consequences
which his argument involved. He perceived its logical conclusions
and frankly accepted them. He considered "the monopoly of the
domestic market to its own manufacturers as the reigning policy of
manufacturing nations," and declared that "a similar policy on the
part of the United States in every proper instance was dictated by
the principles of distributive justice, certainly by the duty of
endeavoring to secure to their own citizens a reciprocity of
advantage