rn again to the system of protection. Whether the
Tariff controversy is permanently settled, or not, is a question about
which we shall not speculate. It may be remarked, however, that one of
the leading parties in the North gave its adhesion to free trade many
years since, and still continues to vote with the South. The leading
abolition paper, too, ever since its origin, has advocated the Southern
free trade system; and thus, in defending the cause it has espoused, as
was said of a certain general in the Mexican war, its editors have been
digging their ditches on the wrong side of their breastworks. To say the
least, their position is a very strange one, for men who profess to
labor for the subversion of American slavery. It would be as rational to
pour oil upon a burning edifice, to extinguish the fire, as to attempt
to overthrow that system under the rule of free trade. For, whatever
differences of opinion may exist on the question of free trade, as
applied to the nations at large, there can be no question that it has
been the main element in promoting the value of slave labor in the
United States; and, consequently, of extending the system of slavery,
vastly, beyond the bounds it would otherwise have reached. But the
editors referred to, do not stand alone. More than one United States
Senator, after acquiring notoriety and position by constant clamors
against slavery at home, has not hesitated to vote for free trade at
Washington, with as hearty a good will as any friend of the extension of
slavery in the country!

All these things together have paralyzed the advocates of the protection
of free labor, at present, as fully as the North has thereby been shorn
of its power to control the question of slavery. Indeed, from what has
been said of the present position of American slavery, in its relation
to the other industrial interests of the country, and of the world,
there is no longer any doubt that it now supplies the complement of that
_home market_, so zealously urged as essential to the prosperity of the
agricultural population of the country: and which, it was supposed,
could only be created by the multiplication of domestic manufactures.
This desideratum being gained, the great majority of the people have
nothing more to ask, but seem desirous that our foreign commerce shall
be cherished; that the cultivation of cotton and sugar shall be
extended; that the nation shall become cumulative as well as
progressive; t