Clays advocacy of a protective system for America was that it protected Americans against the protected industries of England. He put it upon the ground that. whereas England had a high protective tariff. it was necessary for the development of American industries that the American people should construct a parallel against the citadel which England had erected around her industries. and he put it upon that ground alone. as I have understood. It has been asserted again and again in this debate that the effect of a high protective tariff wasto increase the wages of American laborers. to protect them against the pauper labor of Europe. and Senators cite Germany. they cite France. they cite Belgium. as examples to be followed in the matter of tax laws. and in the next breath they depict in pathetic language the squalid. depraved condition of the European laborer. brought about by what means? I had heard so much of that. that when two years ago it was my good fortune to visit the continent of Europe I went with my eyes and my ears open. expecting to find on every hand. in every direction. among all classes of the laborers of Germany and Belgium and England and France. squalor. degradation. poverty. ignorance. and vice. I had some regard to their condition. in traveling through those countries. and I have never seen in this or any other country what appeared to me to be a more contented set of debauched. degraded people than I found upon the continent of Europe.
Identified stereotypes
Depicts European laborers as squalid, depraved, and debauched.