President and Robert J. Walker Secretary of the Treasury, the country entered upon the experience of a different system. Walker, in his first report, laid down these rules:
That no more money should be collected by taxation than necessary for the wants of the government.
That no duty should be imposed on any article above the lowest rate which will yield the largest amount of revenue.
That below such a rate discrimination be made, descending in the scale of duties, or, for imperative reasons, the article might be placed on the list of those free from all duties.
That the maximum of revenue duties should be imposed on luxuries.
That all minimum and all specific duties should be abolished, and ad valorem duties upon the actual market value be substituted.
That the duties should be so imposed as to operate as equally as possible throughout the Union, discriminating neither for nor against any class or section.
The tariff of 1846 was framed substantially upon these principles. Duties averaged about twenty-two per cent. What was the result? The protected interests cried out that American industries would break down; that the laborer would be without work and bread; that the foreigner would have exclusive possession of the American market and levy tribute on the American people; that general ruin and desolation were inevitable. Well, what happened? Let a prominent advocate of the protective system describe the character of that period of low tariff. Mr. Blaine, in his Twenty Years in Congress, speaks thus: “The tariff of 1846 was yielding abundant revenue, and the business of the country was in a flourishing condition. Money became very abundant after the year 1849, large enterprises were undertaken, speculation was prevalent, and for a considerable period the prosperity
