ll of Vermont opposed it. The Pennsylvania
delegation, led by James H. Campbell and John Covode, did all in
their power to defeat it. The two Washburns, Colfax, and George G.
Dunn headed a formidable opposition from the West. Humphrey Marshall
and Samuel F. Swope of Kentucky were the only representatives from
slave States who voted in the negative; though in the Senate three
old and honored Whigs, John Bell of Tennessee, John B. Thompson of
Kentucky, and Henry S. Geyer of Missouri maintained their ancient
faith and voted against lowering the duties. It was an extraordinary
political combination that brought the senators from Massachusetts
and the senators from South Carolina, the representatives from New
England and the representatives from the cotton States, to support
the same tariff bill,--a combination which had not before occurred
since the administration of Monroe. This singular coalition
portended one of two results: Either an entire and permanent
acquiescence in the rule of free-trade, or an entire abrogation of
that system, and the revival, with renewed strength, of the doctrine
of protection. Which it should be was determined by the unfolding
of events not then foreseen, and the force of which it required
years to measure.

The one excuse given for urging the passage of the Act of 1857 was
that under the tariff of 1846 the revenues had become excessive,
and the income of the government must be reduced. But it was soon
found to be a most expensive mode of reaching that end. The first
and most important result flowing from the new Act was a large
increase in importations and a very heavy drain in consequence upon
the reserved specie of the country, to pay the balance which the
reduced shipments of agricultural products failed to meet. In the
autumn of 1857, half a year after the passage of the tariff Act,
a disastrous financial panic swept over the country, prostrating
for the time all departments of business in about the same degree.
The agricultural, commercial, and manufacturing interests were
alike and equally involved. The distress for a time was severe
and wide-spread. The stagnation which ensued was discouraging and
long continued, making the years from 1857 to 1860 extremely dull
and dispiriting in business circles throughout the Union. The
country was not exhausted and depleted as it was after the panic
of 1837, but the business community had no courage, energy was
paralyzed, and new ente