The platform of the Republican party in the election of 1856 made no declaration for or against free trade or protection.  The results of the election showed that the electoral votes of Pennsylvania and Illinois would have been sufficient to give the party a victory in 1856.  Both party policy and a natural regard to its strong Whig membership dictated a return to the protective feature of the Whig policy.  In March, 1860, Mr. Morrill introduced a protective tariff bill in the House of Representatives, and it passed that body; and, in June, the Republican National Convention adopted, as one of its resolutions, a declaration in favor of a protective system.  The Democratic Senate postponed the Morrill bill until the following session.  When it came up again for consideration, in February, 1861, conditions had changed very considerably.  Seven States had seceded, taking off fourteen Senators opposed to the bill; and it was passed.  It was signed by President Buchanan, March 2, 1861, and went into operation April 1, raising the rates to about 20 per cent.  In August and in December, two other acts were passed, raising the rates still higher.  These were followed by other increases, which ran the maximum up, in 1868, to 48 per cent. on dutiable goods, the highest rate from 1860 to date.  It may be noted, however, that the rate of 1830—­48.8 per cent. on dutiable goods—­still retains its rank as the highest in our history.

The controlling necessity for ready money, to prevent the over-issue of bonds and green-backs, undoubtedly gained votes in Congress sufficient to sustain the policy of protection, as a means of putting the capital of the country into positions where it could be easily reached by internal-revenue taxation.  This conjunction of internal revenue and protection proved a mutual support until the payment of the war debt had gone so far as to provoke the reaction.  The Democratic National Convention of 1876 attacked the tariff system as a masterpiece of iniquity, but no distinct issue was made between the parties on this question.  In 1880 and 1884, the Republican party was the one to force the issue of protection or free trade upon its opponent, but its opponent evaded it.

In 1884, both parties admit the necessity of a reduction in the rates of duties, if for no other reason, in order to reduce the surplus of Government receipts over expenditures, which is a constant stimulus to congressional extravagance.  The Republican policy is in general to retain the principle of protection in the reduction; while the Democratic policy, so far as it is defined, is to deal as tenderly as possible with interests which have become vested under a protective system.  What influence will be exerted by the present over-production and depression in business cannot, of course, be foretold; but the report of Mr. McCulloch, Secretary of the Treasury, in December, 1884, indicates an attempt to induce manufacturers to submit to an abandonment of protection, as a means of securing a decrease in cost of production, and a consequent foreign market for surplus product.