Nothing was left
to New England but to conform herself to the will of others.
Nothing was left to her but to consider that the government had
fixed and determined its own policy; and that policy was
_protection_.... I believe, sir, almost every man from New England
who voted against the law of 1824 declared that if, notwithstanding
his opposition to that law, it should still pass, there would be no
alternative but to consider the course and policy of the government
as then settled and fixed, and to act accordingly. The law did
pass; and a vast increase of investment in manufacturing
establishments was the consequence."
Opinion in New England changed for good and sufficient business reasons,
and Mr. Webster changed with it. Free trade had commended itself to him as
an abstract principle, and he had sustained and defended it as in the
interest of commercial New England. But when the weight of interest in New
England shifted from free trade to protection Mr. Webster followed it. His
constituents were by no means unanimous in support of the tariff in 1828,
but the majority favored it, and Mr.
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