Raftsman's Journal

A Protective Tariff.—The tariff question is one that has been more extensively discussed than any other; yet neither argument nor experience appear sufficient to convince a majority of our Democratic Statesmen that without ample protection to her industry the country is ever subjected to commercial disasters and financial embarrassment. Amid all the political convulsions through which this country has passed in late years, we, with many others, have steadily adhered to the protective system, believing that encouragement to domestic industry was as essential to true independence as the ascendancy of the American Republican element. This belief we still entertain—though high duties are not as essential now as they were formerly. Indeed, we cannot see how the two can be separated. The great American System, first initiated by Henry Clay, is one of the pillars on which the American Republican party must stand. The protection of free labor and of the ballot box are alike essential to our prosperity and independence. Place us at the mercy of foreign capitalists and foreign voters, and sooner or later we become their dependants. Build up our own industrial interests by our own capital, and make our own laws under the direction of our own people, and we shall ever be secure against financial disasters and political priestcraft.—Indiana Register.