Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 October 1891 — The “American System.” [ARTICLE]

The “American System.”

When Henry Clay, in 1828, wanted to make his high tariff policy populaij he cast about for a name that would appeal to the people; he, therefore, called his high tariff bill the “American system,” saying that it was “to lay the foundation of a genuine American policy.” The cheap folly of th's clap-trap was at once pointed out by Daniel Webster. “Since the speaker denominated the policy he recommends,” said Webster, “a now policy in the country, one is a little curious to know why this imitation of other nations is denominated an ‘American policy,’ while, on the contrary, a preference for our own established system is called a ‘foreign policy.’ Sir, that is the truest American policyßvhlch shall most usefully emp oy American capital and American labor, and best sustain the whole population. He seems to me to argue the question as if all domestic industry were confined to the production of manufactured articles, as if the employment of our own < apital and our own labor in the occupation of commerce ano navigation were not as emphatically domestic industry as any other occupation. “One man Lakes a yard of cloth at home; anothir man raises agricultural products and buys a yard of imported cloth. Both these are equally the earnings of American industry. There is no foundation for the distinction which attributes to certain emp’oyme its the appellation of ‘American industry.’ ”