d to the Treasury
in the collection and disbursement of the public revenues; secondly,
a system of internal improvements to be created at the public expense
and controlled by the National Government; and, thirdly, a tariff
system which should protect the American laborer against the active
competition of the laborers of other countries who were compelled to
work for smaller compensation.

From the year 1834 to the year 1836 the country was engaged in an
active controversy over the policy of the Whig Party, of which Mr.
Clay was then the recognized head. Indeed, the controversy began as
early as the year 1824, and it contributed, more than all other causes,
to the new organization of parties under the leadership, respectively,
of Mr. Clay and General Jackson.

General Grant was educated under these influences, and in the belief
that the policy of the Whig Party would best promote the prosperity
of the country. Those early impressions ripened into opinions, which
he held and on which he acted during his public life. It happened
by the force of circumstances that the Republican Party was compelled
to adopt the policy of Mr. Clay--not in measures, but in the ideas on
which his policy was based. It is not now necessary to inquire
whether the weight of argument was with Mr. Clay or with his opponents.
The war made inevitable the adoption of a policy which Mr. Clay had
advocated as expedient and wise.

The Pacific Railways were built by the aid of the Government and under
the pressure of a general public opinion that the East must be brought
into a more intimate connection with our possessions on the Pacific
Ocean, for mutual support and for the common defence.

The national banking system was established for the purpose of securing
the aid of the banks as purchasers and negotiators of the bonds of the
Government, at a time when the public credit was so impaired that it
seemed impossible to command the funds necessary for the prosecution
of the war.

The same exigency compelled Congress to enact, and the country to
accept, a tariff system more protective in its provisions than any
scheme ever suggested by Mr. Clay. The necessities of the times
compelled free-traders, even, to accept the revenue system with its
protective features; but General Grant accepted it as a system in
harmony alike with his early impressions and with his matured opinions.

It has happened, by the force of events, that the policy of the old