Page:Life of Henry Clay (Schurz; v. 1).djvu/370

358 without legitimate employment. A reduction of the revenue was therefore necessary, and lively discussions were going on among the people as to how it should be effected. In September and October large popular conventions of free traders had been held. One of their principal spokesmen was the venerable Albert Gallatin, who insisted on lower rates of duties throughout. The protectionists, fearing lest the reduction of the revenue should injure the protective system, were equally vigorous in their demonstrations.

Jackson's views with regard to the tariff had undergone progressive changes. When first a candidate for the presidency, in 1824, he had pronounced himself substantially a protectionist. In his first message to Congress, in 1829, he recommended duties which would place our own manufactures “in fair competition with those of foreign countries, while, with regard to those of prime necessity in time of war,” we might even “advance a step beyond that point.” He also advocated the distribution of the surplus revenue among the states “according to the ratio of representation” in Congress, and a reduction of duties on articles “which cannot come into competition with our own production.” This meant a protective tariff. In his second message, December, 1830, he expressed the opinion that “objects of national importance alone ought to be protected; of these the productions of our soil, our mines, and our workshops, essential to national defense, occupy the first