is perhaps not one American, from the opulent
stockholder of Pit-Hole, down to the poorest vender of matches, who is
not interested in the success of our petition.

"We foresee your objections, gentlemen; but there is not one that you
can oppose to us which you will not be obliged to gather from the
works of the partisans of free trade. We dare challenge you to
pronounce one word against our petition, which is not equally opposed
to your own practice and the principle which guides your policy.

"If you tell us that, though we may gain by this protection, the
United States will not gain, because the consumer must pay the price
of it, we answer you:

"You have no longer any right to cite the interest of the consumer.
For whenever this has been found to compete with that of the producer,
you have invariably sacrificed the first. You have done this to
_encourage labor_, to _increase the demand for labor_. The same reason
should now induce you to act in the same manner.

"You have yourselves already answered the objection. When you were
told: The consumer is interested in the free introduction of iron,
coal, corn, wheat, cloths, &c., your answer was: Yes, but the producer
is interested in their exclusion. Thus, also, if the consumer is
interested in the admission of light, we, the producers, pray for its
interdiction.

"You have also said the producer and the consumer are one. If the
manufacturer gains by protection, he will cause the agriculturist to
gain also; if agriculture prospers, it opens a market for manufactured
goods. Thus we, if you confer upon us the monopoly of furnishing light
during the day, will as a first consequence buy large quantities of
tallow, coal, oil, resin, kerosene, wax, alcohol, silver, iron,
bronze, crystal, for the supply of our business; and then we and our
numerous contractors having become rich, our consumption will be
great, and will become a means of contributing to the comfort and
competency of the workers in every branch of national labor.

"Will you say that the light of the sun is a gratuitous gift, and that
to repulse gratuitous gifts is to repulse riches under pretence of
encouraging the means of obtaining them?

"Take care--you carry the death-blow to your own policy. Remember that
hitherto you have always repulsed foreign produce, _because_ it was an
approach to a gratuitous gift, and _the more in proportion_ as this
approach was more close. You have, in obeying the wishes o