any branches of the national
industry should not exceed what may be necessary to counteract the
regulations of foreign nations and to secure a supply of those articles
of manufacture essential to the national independence and safety in time
of war. If upon investigation it shall be found, as it is believed it
will be, that the legislative protection granted to any particular
interest is greater than is indispensably requisite for these objects, I
recommend that it be gradually diminished, and that as far as may be
consistent with these objects the whole scheme of duties be reduced to
the revenue standard as soon as a just regard to the faith of the
Government and to the preservation of the large capital invested in
establishments of domestic industry will permit.

That manufactures adequate to the supply of our domestic consumption
would in the abstract be beneficial to our country there is no reason to
doubt, and to effect their establishment there is perhaps no American
citizen who would not for awhile be willing to pay a higher price for
them. But for this purpose it is presumed that a tariff of high duties,
designed for perpetual protection, has entered into the minds of but few
of our statesmen. The most they have anticipated is a temporary and,
generally, incidental protection, which they maintain has the effect to
reduce the price by domestic competition below that of the foreign
article. Experience, however, our best guide on this as on other
subjects, makes it doubtful whether the advantages of this system are
not counterbalanced by many evils, and whether it does not tend to beget
in the minds of a large portion of our countrymen a spirit of discontent
and jealousy dangerous to the stability of the Union.

What, then, shall be done? Large interests have grown up under the
implied pledge of our national legislation, which it would seem a
violation of public faith suddenly to abandon. Nothing could justify it
but the public safety, which is the supreme law. But those who have
vested their capital in manufacturing establishments can not expect that
the people will continue permanently to pay high taxes for their
benefit, when the money is not required for any legitimate purpose in
the administration of the Government. Is it not enough that the high
duties have been paid as long as the money arising from them could be
applied to the common benefit in the extinguishment of the public debt?

Those who take an enl