pecial care. _Markets_ for the surplus products of the farmer of the
North, were equally as important to him as the supply of _Provisions_
was to the planter. But the planter, to be eminently successful, must
purchase his supplies at the lowest possible prices; while the farmer,
to secure his prosperity, must sell his products at the highest possible
rates. Few, indeed, can be so ill informed, as not to know, that these
two topics, for many years, were involved in the "Free Trade" and
"Protective Tariff" doctrines, and afforded the _materiel_ of the
political contests between the North and the South--between free labor
and slave labor. A very brief notice of the history of that controversy,
will demonstrate the truth of this assertion.

The attempt of the agricultural States, thirty years since, to establish
the protective policy, and promote "Domestic Manufactures," was a
struggle to create such a division of labor as would afford a "Home
Market" for their products, no longer in demand abroad. The first
decisive action on the question, by Congress, was in 1824; when the
distress in these States, and the measures proposed for their relief, by
national legislation, were discussed on the passage of the "Tariff Bill"
of that year. The ablest men in the nation were engaged in the
controversy. As provisions are the most important item on the one hand,
and cotton on the other, we shall use these two terms as the
representatives of the two classes of products, belonging, respectively,
to free labor and to slave labor.

Mr. Clay, in the course of the debate, said: "What, again, I would ask,
is the cause of the unhappy condition of our country, which I have
fairly depicted? It is to be found in the fact that, during almost the
whole existence of this government, we have shaped our industry, our
navigation, and our commerce, in reference to an extraordinary war in
Europe, and to foreign markets which no longer exist; in the fact that
we have depended too much on foreign sources of supply, and excited too
little the native; in the fact that, while we have cultivated, with
assiduous care, our foreign resources, we have suffered those at home to
wither, in a state of neglect and abandonment. The consequence of the
termination of the war of Europe, has been the resumption of European
commerce, European navigation, and the extension of European
agriculture, in all its branches. Europe, therefore, has no longer
occasion for any thing