Free Trade
While Mr. Gallatin differed from his early Republican associates in many of their theories of administration, he was a firm believer in the best of their principles, namely, the wisdom of giving free scope to the development of national resources with the least possible interference on the part of government. One of his purposes in his persistent desire for economy in expenditure was to reduce the tariff upon foreign importations to the lowest practicable limit. He was the earliest public advocate in America of the principles of free trade, and an experience of sixty years confirmed him in his convictions.
The extinguishment of the debt rendered a great reduction in the revenue possible. On the other hand, it brought the friends of a low tariff face to face with the problem of internal improvements. As the election of 1832 drew near, the advocates of the two systems ranged themselves in two great parties precisely as to-day: the advocates of the protective or American system with internal improvements as an outlet for accumulations of revenue on the one side; on the other the advocates of free trade. Between his desire for the advantages of the one with its attendant disadvantages of government interference in its prosecution, and the freedom of commerce from undue restrictions, Mr. Gallatin did not hesitate. He threw the whole force of his experience and character into the free trade cause, and became the leader of its friends.
On September 30, 1831, a convention of the advocates of free trade, without distinction of party, met at the Musical Fund Hall in Philadelphia. Two hundred and twelve delegates appeared. Among them were Theodore Sedgwick, George Peabody, and John L. Gardner from Massachusetts; Preserved Fish, John Constable, John A. Stevens, Jonathan Goodhue, James Boorman, Jacob Lorillard, and Albert Gallatin from New York; C. C. Biddle, George Emlen, Isaac W. Norris from Pennsylvania; Langdon Cheves, Henry Middleton, Joseph W. Allston, and William C. Preston from South Carolina; and men of equal distinction, bankers, merchants, statesmen, and political economists from other States. Of this convention Mr. Gallatin was the soul. He opened its business by stating the objects of the meeting, and nominated the Hon. Philip P. Barbour of Virginia for president. A general committee of two from each State was appointed, which recommended an address to the people of the United States and a memorial to Congress. The address to the people closed with a declaration that the near extinguishment of the national debt, which would be discharged by the available funds of the government on January 1, 1833, suggested that the moment was propitious for the establishment of the principles of free trade. Thus the people of the United States, who had successfully asserted the doctrines of free government, might add to its claims upon the gratitude of the world by being the first also to proclaim the theory of a free and unrestricted commerce, the genuine “American system.” Mr. Gallatin was the chairman of the committee of fourteen, one from each State represented in the convention, to prepare the memorial which was presented in their behalf to Congress, the conclusions of which, presented with his consummate ability, demonstrated with mathematical precision that a duty of twenty-five per cent. was sufficient for all the legitimate purposes of government. Here he found himself in direct opposition to Mr. Clay, whose political existence was staked upon the opposite theory. Mr. Clay answered in a great speech in the Senate in February, 1832, and forgot himself in personal denunciation of Mr. Gallatin as a foreigner with European interests at heart, and of utopian ideas; for this he expressed his regret to Mr. Gallatin in an interview arranged by mutual friends at a much later period. Mr. Gallatin’s views were accepted as the policy of the country, and after some shifting of parties, in which friends and foes changed ground in subordination to other political exigencies, they prevailed in the tariff of 1846, the best arranged and most reasonable which the United States has yet seen.
It is certain that Mr. Gallatin was opposed to “protective” revenue. His preference was for an “even” duty on all imports. This is not the place for an economic discussion. The true policy of the United States is probably between the extremes of protection and free trade. The nature of our population has been changed by the enormous immigration of the last fifty years. Moreover, instead of an absolute freedom from debt the nation has had to endure the legacy of debt left by the Civil War, to meet which a development of all its resources of manufacture as well as of agriculture is required.