writer endeavored to prove that to them the tariff act was a benefit. The effect of the tariff upon prices, the writer held, was incapable of calculation, but he contended that it only steadied prices at the outset, and invariably resulted in a reduction ultimately, as had been established by experience everywhere. The aid of a reasonable tariff to support manufactiurers in the competition to supply a pre-occupied market was indispensable, he argued, and in the end would fully indemnify the consumers, for it contained in itself a counteracting influence, which, by exciting competition, secured the community against increase of price, and furnished an indenmity by communicating a value to labor of every description. Beyond all question the power of Congress had been constitutionally exercised in this instance.
This was typical of a number of pro-tariff arguments,[1] of more or less merit, all of which were characterized by writers in the Mercury as anything but convincing.[2]
A planter near Augusta, who saw at least one phase of the situation clearly, wrote that
