e meeting, and addressed the meeting, and what I
said on that occasion was produced here, and read in the Senate, years
ago.

The resolutions, Sir, were opposed to the commencing of a high tariff
policy. I was opposed to it, and spoke against it; the city of Boston
was opposed to it; the Commonwealth of Massachusetts was opposed to it.
Remember, Sir, that this was in 1820. This opposition continued till
1824. The votes all show this. But in 1824 the question was decided; the
government entered upon the policy; it invited men to embark their
property and their means of living in it. Individuals thus encouraged
have done this to a great extent; and therefore I say, so long as the
manufactures shall need reasonable and just protection from government,
I shall be disposed to give it to them. What is there, Sir, in all this,
for the gentleman to complain of? Would he have us always oppose the
policy adopted by the country on a great question? Would he have
minorities never submit to the will of majorities?

I remember to have said, Sir, at the meeting in Faneuil Hall, that
protection appeared to be regarded as incidental to revenue, and that
the incident could not be carried fairly above the principal; in other
words, that duties ought not to be laid for the mere object of
protection. I believe that proposition to be substantially correct. I
believe that, if the power of protection be inferred only from the
revenue power, the protection could only be incidental.

But I have said in this place before, and I repeat it now, that Mr.
Madison's publication after that period, and his declaration that the
Convention did intend to grant the power of protection under the
commercial clause, placed the subject in a new and a clear light. I will
add, Sir, that a paper drawn up apparently with the sanction of Dr.
Franklin, and read to a circle of friends at his house, on the eve of
the assembling of the Convention, respecting the powers which the
proposed new government ought to possess, shows plainly that, in
regulating commerce, it was expected that Congress would adopt a course
which should protect the manufactures of the North. He certainly went
into the Convention himself under that conviction.

Well, Sir, and now what does the gentleman make out against me in
relation to the tariff? What laurels does he gather in this part of
Africa? I opposed the _policy_ of the tariff, until it had become the
settled and established policy of