СНАР. ХІІ.

THE MISCHIEFS OF PROTECTION.

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most in the United States-such as machinery, agricultural implements, and tools—are those which have never been protected at all.38 Production has been limited to an extent which alarms some of the Republicans themselves.39 The foreign trade of the country has declined with incredible rapidity. In 1853 the amount of American tonnage engaged in foreign trade was about fifteen per cent. in excess of that of Great Britain; at the beginning of 1867 it was more than thirty-three per cent. less. The decrease was thus nearly fifty per cent. The decline in the coastwise and inland trade, has been about twelve per cent. Shipbuilding has been almost wholly transferred to the British Provinces. "Our finances," remarks a competent writer in an American journal, "have been managed in ignorance or in defiance of fundamental law. There is a universal torpor creeping over the industrial energies of the

38 See a pamphlet on 'The Collection of the Revenue,' by Edward Atkinson (Boston, 1867), p. 37.

39"Mr. Atkinson obtained some statistics from Deputy-Commissioner Harland touching the number of persons in the United States paying income-tax, or, in other words, having an income of over six hundred dollars a year, in 1866; from which it appears that not over half a million out of a population of thirty-six millions have more than enough to support a family in the plainest way; of course, of these a large number must find it difficult to make ends meet at all. As long as America, although the richest country in the world, and that which presents fewest inequalities of fortune, has this story to tell, it can hardly be said that it does not need to produce more rapidly, or in greater abundance."— North American Review,' July, 1867, pp. 210, 211.

nation. Manufactures are being rooted out, every department of trade and industry is languishing, the public revenues are being destroyed, and a huge debt accumulating abroad." So dear are all the necessities of life that the labouring man who emigrates to the United States scarcely ever improves his position, unless he has been unable to find regular employment in his own land.40 When the Federal government required only 60,000,000 of dollars a year, and obtained it chiefly by customs and land sales, the deductions from the earnings of the working man were inconsiderable. But now the central government raises over 500,000,000 by customs and internal revenue alone, and taxation, as we have seen, is very little lower than it is in England, while every article required for the household or the person is immensely dearer.

It would be idle to suppose that these circumstances will not have any effect upon the future of the country; possibly they may be henceforth a fruitful source of bickering and strife between the various States whose interests are most injuriously affected. But the national debt was contracted for an object of which all approved, and all will aid in honourably discharging it. The poorest native-born American in the country would not willingly attach

40 "The industrial classes have been growing worse off, able to purchase less, and to save less; this poverty re-acts on both traders and manufacturers."-American Annual Cyclopædia,' 1866.

CHAP. XII.

ELASTICITY OF THE PEOPLE.

283

to the national name the everlasting stigma of repudiating liabilities which were incurred for the preservation of the Republic. If the day should arrive when their legislation is conducted by men of character and principle, their eyes will be opened to many of their present mistakes and delusions on questions of political economy. At present the people are saved from serious commercial troubles chiefly by their boundless confidence in themselves, and by their elastic temperament. They recover so soon from a blow that they never seem to feel it. Their business men marvel at the recurrent "panics' which are so common in England, and are accustomed to say that the English merchants are losing their ancient courage. A banker once remarked to me, "If any people in the world are fairly entitled to a financial panic once a week, we certainly are that people. But we do not have it, because we know that we shall pull through." While they have this faith, they will be able to conquer their difficulties, or at least to meet them with spirit.

The

There are no dangers from without to threaten the Union, but it may be justly questioned whether the present generation have been so careful as their forefathers tried to be of the securities within. era of general agreement, and deep-seated satisfaction with the government, is more remote than it was in the days when the founders of the Constitution committed it with affectionate solicitude to the care of

It

their posterity. It has been shown in the foregoing pages, and the proofs might have been multiplied indefinitely, that a great minority of the people chafe and fret under the yoke of a government which, in theory, affords perfect freedom and satisfaction to all. It is still common to find Americans writing of their country in terms like these: -"The career of the Republic has thus far consisted of two steps. first became, in practice, a pure democracy, and then an oligarchy of demagogues; the worst of all possible forms of misgovernment." 41 But, in addition o this kind of dissatisfaction, there are numberless Americans who have no sympathy with the wishes or designs of that class of their countrymen who maintain that the democratic theory can never be carried too far. They are far from believing that an unchecked democracy is the best and soundest form of government. They would place some limit upon the exercise of the franchise, and they insist upon the inexpediency of allowing incapable and inexperienced persons to vote. But what present hope is there for men who hold these opinions? The course of national "levelling" is swift and irresistible, and what is once yielded to clamour can never be withdrawn. Only in countries where a rule of Democracy has never been tried is it praised and coveted. The American is as much attached to class

41 Southern Review,' vol. i. p. 350. (Baltimore, 1867).

CHAP. XII. CONSERVATISM OF AMERICAN OPINION.

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distinctions as the citizen of any other country. He does not consort by preference with those beneath him in station. He does not ask the ignorant to sit by his fireside, and he would not allow them to neutralise his influence in political life if he could avoid it. But he knows that one of the results of eighty years' trial of republican institutions is the transfer of power from men of the character of Washington to men of the character of Butler and Thaddeus Stevens; and this has been effected by the agency of the needy and illiterate orders. The great men of his country who have passed away were not those who filled the highest post in the government. Daniel Webster and Henry Clay were men too greatly gifted to be taken up by party intriguists, and supported by the numerous classes. The Americans do not pride themselves upon a democratic government, except when they are sometimes writing or speaking for foreign readers. They wished to keep many things which they have lost, but the tide of popular will quietly defied their control. We find American writers dwelling upon the "dangers of democracy" with an earnestness which ought to convince theorists elsewhere that there is, after all, some danger in intrusting the larger share of political power to the least educated classes. In America the truth has long been admitted that Democracy is insatiable. Its demands increase in volume and vehemence with every attempt to set them at rest.