half-boots, coffee, nails of all kinds, leather of most kinds, flour,
cotton yarn and thread, soap of all kinds, common earthenware, lard,
molasses, timber of all kinds, saddles of all kinds, coarse woolen
cloth, cloths for cloaks, ready-made clothing of all kinds, salt,
tobacco of all kinds, cotton goods or textures, chiefly such as are made
by ourselves; pork, fresh or salted, smoked or corned; woolen or cotton
blankets or counterpanes, shoes and slippers, wheat and grain of all
kinds. Such is a list of but part of the articles whose importation is
prohibited by the Mexican tariff. These prohibitions should not be
permitted to continue, because they exclude most of our products and
fabrics and prevent the collection of revenue. We turn from the
prohibitions to the actual duties imposed by Mexico. The duties are
specific throughout, and almost universally by weight, irrespective of
value; are generally protective or exorbitant, and without any
discrimination for revenue. The duties proposed to be substituted are
moderate when compared with those imposed by Mexico, being generally
reduced to a standard more than one-half below the Mexican duties. The
duties are also based upon a discrimination throughout for revenue, and,
keeping in view the customs and habits of the people of Mexico, so
different from our own, are fixed in each case at that rate which it is
believed will produce in the Mexican ports the largest amount of
revenue.

In order to realize from this system the largest amount of revenue, it
would be necessary that our Army and Navy should seize every important
port or place upon the Gulf of Mexico or California, or on the Pacific,
and open the way through the interior for the free transit of exports
and imports, and especially that the interior passage through the
Mexican isthmus should be secured from ocean to ocean, for the benefit
of our commerce and that of all the world. This measure, whilst it would