That conviction is this: that to
make taxation the incident of protection to special interests, and
those engaged in them, is robbery to the rest of the community, and
subversive of National Morality and National Prosperity. I believe
that taxes are necessary for the support of government, I believe they
must be raised by levy, I even believe that some customs taxes may be
more practicable and economical than some internal taxes; but I am
entirely opposed to making anything the object of taxation but the
revenue required by government for its economical maintenance.
I do not espouse Free Trade because it is British, as some suppose it
to be. Independent of other things, that would rather set me against
it than otherwise, because generally those things which best fit
European society ill befit our society--the structure of each being so
different. Free Trade is no more British than any other kind of
freedom: indeed, Great Britain has only followed quite older examples
in adopting it, as for instance the republics of Venice and Holland,
both of which countries owed their extraordinary prosperity to the
fact of their having set the example of relaxing certain absurd
though time-honored restrictions on commerce.
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