HISTORY OF TARIFF LEGISLATION IN THE UNITED STATES. The earliest tariff in the his tory of the United States was that approved July 4, 1789. It is interesting to note that the preamble of the act establishing it states that one of its objects is "the encouragement and pro tection of manufactures," at this early period laying down a principle afterwards adopted as the tenet of a political party. In 1817, at the beginning of President Alonroe's administration, Congress abolished the internal taxes that had been made necessary by the cost of the War of 1812, and in his message the President recom mended the imposition of a protective tariff pure and simple. A temporary protective duty had in 1816 been laid upon cottons and woolens, and in ISIS this was continued for a period of eight years. The rise of the party of Loose Construc tion, headed by Henry Clay, was favorable to the principle of protection, as the Strict Constructionists held that Congress could im pose a tariff only for revenue. In 1819 a pro tective tariff bill passed the Lower House, but was rejected by the Senate. The election as Speaker, in 1820, of John W. Taylor, of New York, a declared high-tariff man, gave great en couragement to the Eastern manufacturers, and indicates the increasing influence of the protec tionists, although in 1822 the Strict Construc tionists were able again to defeat bills embodying the protective principle. In 1824, however, the friends of that principle secured a working ma jority in Congress, and after a prolonged debate adopted a bill whose essential principle was the exclusion from the American market of such foreign goods as competed with those manufac tured in the United States.
In 1S27 a convention held at Harrisburg, Pa. (July 30th), discussed at length the principle of protection. Only four of the slave States sent delegates. The result of the convention was a petition to Congress praying for an increase of duties on certain articles then manufactured in the United States, a request which the Secretary of the Treasury made prominent in his report of the following December. By this time a strong party had been founded to support the protective system, or the 'American system,' as it was popu larly called. The famous 'Tariff of 1828,' adopted by Congress after a debate of six weeks, was the immediate result of this party's propaganda.
This went further than any act had previously done in the direction of prohibitive duties. The chief articles on which protective duties were laid were woolen and cotton fabrics. At that time the value of the cotton goods annually im ported from Great Britain was fully $8,000,000, and that of woolen goods about the same. The exports to Great Britain, on the other .hand, of rice, raw cotton, and tobacco (the chief prod ucts of the South), reached the sum of $24,000, 000 per annum. The Southern producers natu rally feared that if the United States should by a high tariff practically prohibit the importation of a large proportion of British goods, retalia tory measures might lead to a diminution of the Southern exports to Great Britain. It was dis satisfaction with the tariff that led to the fa mous nullification movement in the South in 1832, in which year Congress, while modifying the act of 1828, distinctly recognized and re tained the protective principle.
On March 3, 1833, the so-called Compromise Tariff, introduced by Henry Clay, was passed. It provided for the gradual reduction of the ex isting tariff until 1842, after which year the duties on all goods were to be 20 per cent. This measure for the time allayed the excitement in the South; but by the year 1842 it was seen that the financial eons-equences of the steady re duction of the tariff were extremely serious, since the Government revenues had decreased to such all extent as to be less than the expenses, A new tariff was manifestly necessary. The majority in Congress passed a bill which eontinued the du ties imposed by the tariff of 1833, and provided for the division of any surplus revenue among the States. This was vetoed by President Tyler as being a violation of the compromise reached in 1833. A revenue tariff was also vetoed, be cause it contained the distribution clause, but on its being again passed. with this clause omitted, the President signed it (August 9, 1842). In 1846 a revenue tariff that eliminated altogether the principle of protection was passed, its aim being merely to provide an adequate reve nue for the expenses of the Government. A still further reduction of duties was made by the tariff of 1857, which fixed them at the lowest figures shown by any tariff since that of 1816.