After arguing this point, he proceeded to discuss the general expediency
of protection, holding it up as a thoroughly mistaken policy, a failure in
England which that country would gladly be rid of, and defending commerce
as the truest and best support of the government and of general prosperity.
He took up next the immediate effects of the proposed tariff, and,
premising that it would confessedly cause a diminution of the revenue,
said:--
"In truth, every man in the community not immediately benefited by
the new duties would suffer a double loss. In the first place, by
shutting out the former commodity, the price of the domestic
manufacture would be raised. The consumer, therefore, must pay more
for it, and insomuch as government will have lost the duty on the
imported article, a tax equal to that duty must be paid to the
government. The real amount, then, of this bounty on a given
article will be precisely the amount of the present duty added to
the amount of the proposed duty."
He then went on to show the injustice which would be done to all
manufacturers of unprotected articles, and ridiculed the idea of the
connection between home industries artificially developed and national
independence.
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