Note, 1858.-The more perfect the continuity of motion, the more regular is the action, and the greater is the force, whether in the physical, moral, or social world. How little that regularity is obtained, under the existing free trade system, is well exhibited in the fact, that the revenue, which rose in 1856 to $74,000,000, has already fallen to little more than $30,000,000. The tendency of a dispersive and aggressive policy, to augment the demands upon the public treasury, is also well exhibited in a rise of the expenditures, from $60,000,000 to $90,000,000.

That the reader may now fully understand the figures above given, he should here have placed before him a brief view of the various changes of policy they indicate. The first of the years in

the last of these diagrams-1815-embraced several months of war with Great Britain, when the Atlantic States were blockaded, and when, consequently, the customs revenue was trivial. In the following year, protection was in a great degree withdrawn, and importations rapidly increased, with great increase of revenue, and almost total annihilation of industrial activity. Circulation then almost ceased, and such was the exhaustion of the country that the revenue fell to $15,000,000. With 1824, there came a change, protection being to a certain extent re-adopted; and now, during a period of four years, the stability was such that the greatest variation above the mean sum of $22,750,000, was $2,250,000, or one-tenth; whereas, in the previous period it had risen to $38,000,000 and fallen to $15,000,000. Next came the tariff of 1828, the first that was based upon the idea of protection for the sake of protection; and now we find a steady and regular increase corresponding with those of Germany, Russia, and Sweden-the changes having been as follow :

The power to purchase foreign commodities, and to maintain commerce with foreign nations, was thus growing steadily with the growth of commerce at home; and the result was seen in the emancipation of tea, coffee, and many other articles of import from the payment of any duty whatsoever. Now, however,

there came a change in the opposite direction - the Compromise Tariff, which was to commence to take effect in the fiscal year 1833-4, becoming the law of the land, and providing for the abolition of all protection by gradual steps, the last of which was to be in 1841-2. Forthwith, all order ceased. Imports became large, speculation became rife, and the revenue ran up to $48,000,000, to fall a few years later, after a succession of changes unparalleled in any civilized nation, to $11,000,000. The power to pay for foreign merchandise had passed away. Commerce abroad had ceased with the stoppage of circulation at home; and now, of pure necessity, the protective tariff of 1842

*To this reduction is chiefly due the large decline of customs revenue in 1834.

VOL. II.-15

became the law of the land. Forthwith, the revenue rose from $11,000,000 to $28,000,000, at or near which point it remained until the system again was changed at the close of 1846. Since then, it has been down to $26,000,000 and up to $72,000,000, down to $30,000,000 and up to $64,000,000, down to $41,000,000 and up to $61,000,000-being governed by no law whatsoever; and now, at the close of the decade, we have a period of gigantic speculation corresponding exactly with that of 1836, and promising to terminate as did the Compromise period in 1841-2, when public and private credit had wholly disappeared.

§ 8. From the foregoing facts, the reader will perceive that during the last forty years the rule of the country has been that of encouraging trade, and that it has been only in two very brief periods 1828 to 1833, and 1842 to 1846 — that any effort has been made to promote the growth of commerce. Adding to these the period of the semi-protective tariff of 1824, we obtain thirteen years in which the system has tended in the one direction, against twenty-seven in the other. Next, it will be remarked that all the steadiness of movement is to be found in those thirteen years the difference between the average revenue and the actual amount of any single year being to the last degree unimportant, as here is shown:

Steadiness is an essential characteristic of civilization; unsteadiness, of barbarism. In the thirteenth century, the price of corn in England fluctuated between 6s. and £16 16s. per quarter. In the fifteenth, between 58. and £2 6s. 8d.; and in the sixteenth, between 2s. and £4 12s. In the seventeenth, the greatest difference was between £1 5s. 2d. and £4 5s.; whereas, now, a change

The fiscal year and the calendar one not being the same, it may be proper to state that it extends from July 1 to June 30, and that, therefore, 1844 means properly 1843-44, and 1847, 1846-47.

of 40, 50, or 60 per cent. is deemed a remarkable one. In savage life, there can be no stability, and for the reason, that man is then the slave of nature. With growing wealth and power, he becomes her master; and now it is that society assumes a regular form, and that the movements of each successive day become more and more the counterparts of those which had preceded-being scarcely at all distinguished from them except by a regular and gentle increase in wealth and power, such as marked the three brief periods above referred to. This is advancing civilization. The reverse of all this is seen in countries of advancing barbarism crisis following crisis, each in succession more severe than the last, until at length the machine of society falls to pieces, and chaos universal reigns. So was it in Greece and Rome, and so must it everywhere be-regularity of motion being as essential to the progress of society, and to advance in civilization, as it is to the maintenance of the motion of a steam-engine or a watch. Tried by this standard, the American Union tends towards barbarism, the crisis of 1842, which preceded the passage of the tariff of that year, having been far more fearful than that of 1821, which prepared the way for the tariff of 1824; and that now in preparation being likely as far to surpass that of 1842 in its severity as we know the latter to have exceeded its predecessor.*

In the crisis of 1821, the credit of the Federal government remained entirely unimpaired, although it had just come out of an expensive war, and was burdened with a heavy debt. In that of 1842, the credit of the government wholly disappeared, although the debt had, but a few years previously, been entirely extinguished.

Note, written in 1858.-The author desires again to remind his readers, that the above sketch of the movements of the American Union was written in 1856, in the midst of a glare of fancied prosperity, such as had never before been known.