Wilmington Journal

The Beauty of Free Trade.

Never, perhaps, has the 'excelling beauty' of free trade been more conspicuously exemplified than during the past twelve or eighteen months. We of this favoured land can form no idea of the amount of suffering and distress which at this moment pervades the densely populated portions of the Eastern Hemisphere; and may heaven grant that we may always remain equally (practically) ignorant! But suppose the powers that be in Great Britain had held on to the protective policy, which has been the distinguishing feature of that country for centuries past, how much more horrible and distressing would the state of her starving people be at this moment than it even is.

Suppose England now, as formerly, told her starving people, You must pay an enormous duty upon every bushel of wheat and corn, and every barrel of flour imported from America or any other country, before we will permit you to use it, what would be the consequence? Why of course it would produce incalculable misery, but then it would enable the producers of bread stuffs in that country to obtain exorbitant prices for the product of their lands, and thus enrich them at the expense of all other classes.

The benign influence of free trade, however, has broken down the barriers, and now the products of our own happy clime are flowing into England in copious streams. The result is alike beneficent to Great Britain and America. The matchless wealth of our virgin soil is capable of producing a vast surplus of all the necessaries of life, which only require a market in order to make the tillers of the soil the wealthiest and most independent class of people on the face of the globe. Free trade will give them this market. It has already done so. And as its benign doctrines are better understood and appreciated, the demand for the products of the farmers of America will rapidly increase.

For years to come, America must and will continue to supply the deficiencies of Europe. The richness of our soil—the cheapness of our lands, and the smallness of our taxes, must enable us to produce much cheaper than in most parts of Europe. The consequence is, that we can undersell them in their own markets.