ate defense of the doctrine of
protection to our manufactures.

Mr. Calhoun spoke with enthusiasm, and gave an interesting _resume_
of the condition of the country as affected by the war with Great
Britain. He believed that the vital deficiency in our financial
condition was the lack of manufactures, and to supply that deficiency
he was willing to extend the protecting arm of the government.
"When our manufactures are grown to a certain perfection, as they
soon will be under the fostering care of the government, we shall
no longer experience these evils. The farmer will find a ready
market for his surplus products, and, what is almost of equal
consequence, a certain and cheap supply for all his wants. His
prosperity will diffuse itself through every class in the community."
Not satisfied with this unqualified support of the protective
system, Mr. Calhoun supplemented it by declaring that "to give
perfection to this state of things, it will be necessary to add as
soon as possible a system of internal improvements." Mr. Webster's
opposition to protection was based on the fact that it tended to
depress commerce and curtail the profits of the carrying-trade.

The tariff of 1816 was termed "moderately protective," but even in
that form it encountered the opposition of the commercial interest.
It was followed in the country by severe depression in all departments
of trade, not because the duties were not in themselves sufficiently
high, but from the fact that it followed the war tariff, and the
change was so great as to produce not only a re-action but a
revolution in the financial condition of the country. All forces
of industry languished. Bankruptcy was wide-spread, and the distress
between 1817 and 1824 was perhaps deeper and more general than at
any other period of our history. There was no immigration of
foreigners, and consequently no wealth from that source. There
was no market for agricultural products, and the people were
therefore unable to indulge in liberal expenditure. Their small
savings could be more profitably invested in foreign than in domestic
goods, and hence American manufactures received little patronage.
The traditions of that period, as given by the generation that
lived through it, are sorrowful and depressing. The sacrifice of
great landed estates, worth many millions could they have been
preserved for the heirs of the next generation, was a common feature
in the general distress and de