comparison being 22 per cent. on total to 32 per cent. on dutiable for
1833, and 16 per cent. on total to 32 per cent. on dutiable for 1841.
The conjunction of the increase in non-dutiable imports and the approach
of free trade, with general financial distress, gave the Whigs
success in the elections of 1840; and in 1841 they set about reviving
protection. Unluckily for them, their chosen President, Harrison, was
dead, and his successor, Tyler, a Democrat by nature, taken up for
political reasons by the Whigs, was deaf to Whig eloquence on the
subject of the tariff. After an unsuccessful effort to secure a
high tariff and a distribution of the surplus among the States, the
semi-protective tariff of 1842 became law. Its result for the next four
years was that the rate on dutiable goods was altered very little, while
the rate on total imports rose from 16 per cent. to 26 per cent. The
return of the Democrats to power was marked by the passage of the
revenue tariff of 1846, which lasted, with a slight further reduction
of duties in 1857, until 1861. Under its operation the rates steadily
decreased until, in 1861, they were 18.14 per cent, on dutiable goods,
and 11.79 per cent. on total imports.

The platform of the Republican party in the election of 1856 made no
declaration for or against free trade or protection. The results of the
election showed that the electoral votes of Pennsylvania and Illinois
would have been sufficient to give the party a victory in 1856. Both
party policy and a natural regard to its strong Whig membership dictated
a return to the protective feature of the Whig policy. In March,
1860, Mr. Morrill introduced a protective tariff bill in the House of
Representatives, and it passed that body; and, in June, the Republican
National Convention adopted, as one of its resolutions, a declaration
in favor of a protective system. The Democratic Senate postponed the
Morrill bill until the following session. When it came up again