The surrender of a large measure of sovereignty to the General Government, effected by the adoption of the Constitution, was not accomplished until the suggestions of reason were strongly reenforced by the more imperative voice of experience.  The divergent interests of peace speedily demanded a “more perfect union,” The merchant, the shipmaster, and the manufacturer discovered and disclosed to our statesmen and to the people that commercial emancipation must be added to the political freedom which had been so bravely won.  The commercial policy of the mother country had not relaxed any of its hard and oppressive features.  To hold in check the development of our commercial marine, to prevent or retard the establishment and growth of manufactures in the States, and so to secure the American market for their shops and the carrying trade for their ships, was the policy of European statesmen, and was pursued with the most selfish vigor.

Petitions poured in upon Congress urging the imposition of discriminating duties that should encourage the production of needed things at home.  The patriotism of the people, which no longer found a field of exercise in war, was energetically directed to the duty of equipping the young Republic for the defense of its independence by making its people self-dependent.  Societies for the promotion of home manufactures and for encouraging the use of domestics in the dress of the people were organized in many of the States.  The revival at the end of the century of the same patriotic interest in the preservation and development of domestic industries and the defense of our working people against injurious foreign competition is an incident worthy of attention.  It is not a departure but a return that we have witnessed.  The protective policy had then its opponents.  The argument was made, as now, that its benefits inured to particular classes or sections.

If the question became in any sense or at any time sectional, it was only because slavery existed in some of the States.  But for this there was no reason why the cotton-producing States should not have led or walked abreast with the New England States in the production of cotton fabrics.  There was this reason only why the States that divide with Pennsylvania the mineral treasures of the great southeastern and central mountain ranges should have been so tardy in bringing to the smelting furnace and to the mill the coal and iron from their near opposing hillsides.  Mill fires were lighted at the funeral pile of slavery.  The emancipation proclamation was heard in the depths of the earth as well as in the sky; men were made free, and material things became our better servants.

The sectional element has happily been eliminated from the tariff discussion.  We have no longer States that are necessarily only planting States.  None are excluded from achieving that diversification of pursuits among the people which brings wealth and contentment.  The cotton plantation will not be less valuable when the product is spun in the country town by operatives whose necessities call for diversified crops and create a home demand for garden and agricultural products.  Every new mine, furnace, and factory is an extension of the productive capacity of the State more real and valuable than added territory.