nless there were two thirds in favor of it.
Why then should the South have insisted upon conferring a boon, which
was not wanted; and how happened it, that _Yankees_, with all their
acknowledged shrewdness in money matters, could never to this day
perceive how they were protected by it? Yet New-England is reproached
with cowardice and ingratitude to her Southern benefactors! If one man
were to knock another down with a broad-axe, in the attempt to brush
a fly from his face, and then blame him for not being sufficiently
thankful, it would exactly illustrate the relation between the North and
the South on this subject.

If the protection of commerce had been the real object of the war, would
not some preparations have been made for a navy? It was ever the policy
of the slave States to destroy the navy. Vast conquests by _land_ were
contemplated, for the protection of Northern commerce. Whatever was
intended, the work of destruction was done. The policy of the South
stood for awhile like a giant among ruins. New-England received a blow,
which crushed her energies, but could not annihilate them. Where the
system of free labor prevails, and there is work of any kind to be done,
there is a safety-valve provided for _any_ pressure. In such a community
there is a vital and active principle, which cannot be long repressed.
You may dam up the busy waters, but they will sweep away obstructions,
or force a new channel.

Immediately after the peace, when commerce again began to try her broken
wings, the South took care to keep her down, by multiplying permanent
embarrasments, in the shape of duties. The _direct_ tax (which would
have borne equally upon them, and which in the original compact was
the equivalent for slave representation,) was forthwith repealed, and
commerce was burdened with the payment of the national debt. The
encouragement of _manufactures_, the consumption of domestic products,
or _living within ourselves_, was then urged upon us. This was an
ancient doctrine of the democratic party. Mr. Jefferson was its
strongest advocate. Did he think it likely to bear unfavorably upon "the
nation of shopkeepers and pedlers?"[AE] The Northerners adopted it with
sincere views to economy, and more perfect independence. The duties
were so adjusted as to embarrass commerce, and to guard the interests
of a few in the North, who from patriotism, party spirit, or private
interest, had established manufactures on a considerable scale