principles. That economic policy is best which works best. But, when I say “which works best,” I do not mean only that which insures the production of greatest wealth; for let us not forget in our economic wisdom that, however necessary bread and meat may be, still they are not all we live for. No, I mean that economic policy which is best calculated to promote, together with the physical well-being, also the moral health of the people, and thus to strengthen the foundations of our institutions of democratic government. There is little danger that this nation will not be rich, but there is danger that it may be rich and rotten.
I have always been in sympathy with some of the objects which the protectionists profess to have in view. I believe in diversification of the occupations and industries of the people as an element of enlightenment and progress. I believe in the establishment of manufactures, and wish to see them grow and prosper. I believe in good earnings for the workingmen, and wish labor to have steady and remunerative employment. I believe also that, as far as we can look into the future, our national government will have to derive its principal revenue from duties on imports. And I am willing to confess that at one period of my public life I came near jumping at the conclusion that, to attain these objects, a high protective tariff was necessary. The history of this country has taught me a different lesson.
Nobody can study that history with an unbiased mind without recognizing the fact that this country, possessing an almost infinite abundance and variety of natural resources, and inhabited by a people so full of intelligence and energy as ours, has been prosperous and rapidly advancing in wealth and well-being under low tariffs, such as that of 1789 and that of 1846, and that it has been prosperous at other times under a high protective tariff.
