Speech #510059090

I have no hesitation. however. for myself. in saying that I have never been in sympathy with those radical advocates who insist upon so narrowing the practical question now presented to the American people. To reduce the revenues to the wants of an economical administration of the Government. make free the raw materials of manufacture. and so adjust the duties on manufactured articles as to beget fair competition and prevent monopoly. these seem to me the practical phases of this question demanding immediate action to relieve an oppressed and overburdened people and to restore a decaying commerce. The policy now proposed is evidently intended to make foreign commerce all but criminal. beget a carnival of selfishness among the unduly protected beneficiaries. and provoke retaliation in the end against American products. force unnatural immigration. tempt foreign capital. and be followed by dangers to our system of government. There is no argument. to my mind. against the theory of freedom of commerce. no more than against universal peace. This millennium era of universal peace and freedom can only be reached in the highwater mark of advanced civilization and the leveling up of the general average of human intelligence. coupled with universal emancipation.