"
The difficulty is pressing. Do you know how they get rid of it? By
this singular apothegm:
"In political economy there are no absolute principles."
In intelligible and vulgar language, that means: "I do not know where
is the true nor the false; I am ignorant of what constitutes general
good or evil; I give myself no trouble about it. The only law which I
consent to recognize, is the immediate effect of each measure upon my
personal comfort."
No absolute principles! You might as well say, there are no absolute
facts; for principles are only the summing up of well proven facts.
Machines, importations, have certainly consequences. These
consequences are good or bad. On this point there may be difference of
opinion. But whichever of these we adopt, we express it in one of
these two _principles_: "machines are a benefit," or "machines are an
evil." "Importations are favorable," or "importations are injurious."
But to say "there are no principles," is the lowest degree of
abasement to which the human mind can descend; and we confess we blush
for our country when we hear so monstrous a heresy uttered in the
presence of the American people, with their consent; that is to say,
in the presence and with the consent of the greater part of our
fellow-citizens, in order to justify Congress for imposing laws on us,
in perfect ignorance of the reasons for them or against them.
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