terly ineffectual if the central and critical contest in
Pennsylvania had not resulted in a victory for the Republicans in
October. The tariff therefore had a controlling influence not only
in deciding the contest for political supremacy but in that more
momentous struggle which was to involve the fate of the Union. It
had obtained a stronger hold on the Republican party than even the
leaders of that organization were aware, and it was destined to a
larger influence upon popular opinion than the most sagacious could
foresee.

In the foregoing summary of legislation upon the tariff, the terms
Free-trade and Protection are used in their ordinary acceptation
in this country,--not as accurately defining the difference in
revenue theories, but as indicating the rival policies which have
so long divided political parties. Strictly speaking, there has
never been a proposition by any party in the United States for the
adoption of free-trade. To be entirely free, trade must encounter
no obstruction in the way of tax, either upon export or import.
In that sense no nation has ever enjoyed free-trade. As
contradistinguished from the theory of protection, England has
realized freedom of trade by taxing only that class of imports
which meet no competition in home production, thus excluding all
pretense of favor or advantage to any of her domestic industries.
England came to this policy after having clogged and embarrassed
trade for a long period by the most unreasonable and tyrannical
restrictions, ruthlessly enforced, without regard to the interests
or even the rights of others. She had more than four hundred Acts
of Parliament, regulating the tax on imports, under the old
designations of "tonnage and poundage," adjusted, as the phrase
indicates, to heavy and light commodities. Beyond these, she had
a cumbersome system of laws regulating and in many cases prohibiting
the exportation of articles which might teach to other nations the
skill by which she had herself so marvelously prospered.

When by long experiment and persistent effort England had carried
her fabrics to perfection; when by the large accumulation of wealth
and the force of reserved capital she could command facilities
which poorer nations could not rival; when by the talent of her
inventors, developed under the stimulus of large reward, she had
surpassed all other countries in the magnitude and effectiveness
of her machinery, she proclaimed free-trade and