Page:Life of Henry Clay (Schurz; v. 1).djvu/227

Rh of things he counted “the ravenous pursuit after public situations, not for the sake of their honors and the performance of their public duties, but as a means of private subsistence.” “The pulse of incumbents,” he said in his picturesque style, “who happen to be taken ill, is not marked with more anxiety by the attending physicians than by those who desire to succeed them, though with very opposite feelings.” (To “make room” for one man simply by removing another was at that time not yet readily thought of.) The cause of the prevailing distress he found in the dependence of this country on the foreign market, which was at the mercy of foreign interests, and which might for an indefinite time be unable to absorb our surplus of agricultural products; and in too great a dependence on foreign sources of supply. It seemed to him necessary to provide a home market for our products, the superiority of which would consist in its greater steadiness, in the creation of reciprocal interests, in greater security, and in an ultimate increase of consumption, and consequently of comfort, owing to an increased quantity of the product, and a reduction of prices by home competition. To this end the development of manufacturing industries was required, which could not be accomplished without high protective, in some cases not without prohibitory, tariff duties. No country had ever flourished without such a policy, and England especially was a shining example of its wisdom. British statesman-