possible with interests which have become vested under a protective
system. What influence will be exerted by the present over-production
and depression in business cannot, of course, be foretold; but the
report of Mr. McCulloch, Secretary of the Treasury, in December, 1884,
indicates an attempt to induce manufacturers to submit to an abandonment
of protection, as a means of securing a decrease in cost of production,
and a consequent foreign market for surplus product.

In taking Clay's speech in 1832 as the representative statement of the
argument for protection, the editor has consulted Professor Thompson,
of the University of Pennsylvania, and has been guided by his advice. On
the other side, the statement of Representative Hurd, in 1881, has been
taken as, on the whole, the best summary of the free-trade argument. In
both cases, the difficulty has been in the necessary exclusion of merely
written arguments.




HENRY CLAY,

OF KENTUCKY. (BORN 1777, DIED 1852.)

ON THE AMERICAN SYSTEM;

IN THE UNITED STATES SENATE, FEBRUARY 2-6, 1832.


THE question which we are now called upon to determine, is not, whether
we shall establish a new and doubtful system of policy, just proposed,