Nor will I say any thing as to the increase of the crime of smuggling under protection, a crime which has done incalculable harm to honest dealers, particularly on the border, and a crime out of which some of the largest fortunes in the country have been made.

There are many who will admit the abstract justice of much that I have said who profess to believe that it will not do to disturb the tariff now.  But for the protectionist that time never comes.  When the depression in business was universal, they said you must not disturb the tariff now, because the times are so hard and there is so much suffering.  Now, when business has improved, they say you must not interfere with the tariff, because times are good and you may bring suffering again.  When the present tariff was first levied it was defended as a temporary expedient only, required as a necessity by war.  Now that a quarter of a century nearly has passed by and peace has been restored for fifteen years, the advocates for protection are as determined to hold on to the government bounty as ever.  If they are to be consulted upon the subject as to when the people shall have relief, the system will be perpetual.

It is said we must not disturb the tariff because we must raise so much revenue.  I do not propose to disturb it to diminish revenue, but to increase it.  The plan I propose will add one fifth at least to the revenue of the country.  It is protection I propose to get rid of, not revenue.  It has been well said that revenue ceases where protection begins.

It is claimed that by taking away protection you will embarrass many industries by compelling them to close up and discharge their employees.  I do not believe that the changing of the present tariff to a revenue tariff will produce this result.  I believe that at once every manufacturer will make more in the diminished cost of production than he will lose in the taking away of protection.  But if there should be danger to any industry I would provide against it in the law which changes the tariff so that if there should be any displacement of labor there will be no loss in consequence.

No more perfect illustration of the effect of free trade has been shown than in the history of the United States.  Very much of our prosperity is due to the fact that the productions of each State can be sold in every other State without restriction.  During the war the most potent argument for the cause of the Union was found in the apprehension that disunion meant restriction of commerce, and particularly the placing of the mouth of the Mississippi River under foreign control.  The war was fought, therefore, to maintain free trade, and the victory was the triumph of free trade.  The Union every day exhibits the advantages of the system.