so we should be listening to the guy who graduated 894 of 899 from that institution?
The guy who wants to fight every war all over the world.
the guy is a genuine moron and he has the history 100 percent wrong.
That guy is disgusting...
We became a powerful nation by protecting our industries. that is what part of the civil war was about.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protectionism_in_the_United_States
According to
Michael Lind, protectionism was America's
de facto policy from the passage of the
Tariff of 1816 to
World War II, "switching to free trade only in 1945, when most of its industrial competitors had been wiped out" by the war.
[3]. It has been argued that one of the underlying motivations for the
American Revolution itself was a desire to industrialize, and reverse the trade deficit with Britain, which had grown by a factor of ten in the space of a few decades, from £67,000 (1721–30) to £739,000 (1761–70).
[4]
According to
Paul Bairoch, since the end of the 18th century, the United States has been "the homeland and bastion of modern protectionism". In fact, the United States never adhered to free trade until 1945. A very protectionist policy was adopted as soon as the presidency of George Washington by Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury from 1789 to 1795 and author of the text "Report on the Manufactures, 1792 "which called for customs barriers to allow American industrial development. This text was one of the references of the German economist Friedrich List (1789–1846). This policy remained throughout the 19th century and the overall level of tariffs was very high (close to 50% in 1830). The victory of the protectionist North states against the free trade states of the South at the end of the Civil War (1861–1865) perpetuated this trend, even during periods of free trade in Europe (1860–1880).
[5]
Beginning with the "
Report on Manufactures", by the first
US Secretary of the Treasury,
Alexander Hamilton, the United States became the leading nation opposed to free trade. The report advocated measures to help protect infant industries, including bounties (
subsidies) derived in part from those tariffs. Hamilton explained that despite an initial “increase of price” caused by regulations that control foreign competition, once a “domestic manufacture has attained to perfection… it invariably becomes cheaper.”
Heeding Hamilton's advice,
George Washington signed the
Tariff Act of 1789, making it the Republic's second ever piece of legislation. Increasing the domestic supply of manufactured goods, particularly war materials, was seen as an issue of national security. Washington and Hamilton believed that political independence was predicated upon economic independence.
[6]
In the 19th century, statesmen such as Senator
Henry Clay continued Hamilton's themes within the
Whig Party under the name "
American System." The fledgling
Republican Party led by
Abraham Lincoln, who called himself a "Henry Clay tariff Whig", strongly opposed free trade, and implemented a 44-percent tariff during the
Civil War—in part to pay for railroad subsidies and for the war effort, and to protect favored industries.
[7]
Southern states[edit]
Historically, slave-holding states had little perceived need for
mechanization because of the low cost of
manual labor. They supplied raw
cotton to Britain, which supported
free trade.
Northern states[edit]
Northern states sought to develop manufacturing industries and sought protections to allow
nascent Northern manufacturers to compete with their more sophisticated British competitors. Throughout the 19th century, leading US
politicians, including
Senator Henry Clay, supported Hamilton's approach within the
Whig Party under the name
"American System."
The opposed
Southern Democratic Party contested elections throughout the 1830s, 1840s and 1850s in part over the issue of protection of industry. However, Southern Democrats were never as strong in the
U.S. House of Representatives as the more populous North. The Northern Whigs achieved higher protective tariffs over the South's bitter resistance. One Southern state precipitated what came to be called the
nullification crisis, over the issue of tariffs, arguing that states had the right to ignore federal laws.
Mostly over the issue of
abolition and other scandals, the Whigs collapsed, leaving a void which the fledgling
Republican Party, led by
Abraham Lincoln filled. Lincoln, who called himself a "Henry Clay tariff Whig", strongly opposed free trade. He implemented a 44% tariff during the
American Civil War in part to pay for the building of the
Union Pacific Railroad, the war effort and to protect American industry.
[8]
By President Lincoln's term, the northern manufacturing states had ten times the
GDP of the South. With this advantage, the North was able to starve the South of weapons through a near total blockade, while supplying its own army with everything from heavy
artillery to
Henry repeating rifles.
With the Northern victory, Republican dominance was assured. Republicans continued to dominate American politics until the early 20th century.
President
Ulysses S. Grant stated:
For centuries England has relied on protection, has carried it to extremes and has obtained satisfactory results from it. There is no doubt that it is to this system that it owes its present strength. After two centuries, England has found it convenient to adopt free trade because it thinks that protection can no longer offer it anything. Very well then, Gentlemen, my knowledge of our country leads me to believe that within 200 years, when America has gotten out of protection all that it can offer, it too will adopt free trade.
[9]
Southern Democrats gradually rebuilt their party and allied themselves with Northern
Progressives. They had many differences, but both opposed the corporate trusts that had emerged. This
marriage of convenience to face a common enemy reinvigorated the Democratic Party, catapulting them to power.
