[Twenty Years of Congress, Vol. 1 (of 2) by James Gillespie Blaine]@TWC D-Link book
Twenty Years of Congress, Vol. 1 (of 2)

CHAPTER XII
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His early instincts and declarations in favor of a protective policy doubtless aided him in a conclusion which a year before he could not have reached without a conflict in his Cabinet that would probably have ended in its disruption.
The passage of the Morrill Tariff was an event which would almost have marked an era in the history of the government if public attention had not been at once absorbed in struggles which were far more engrossing than those of legislative halls.

It was however the beginning of a series of enactments which deeply affected the interests of the country, and which exerted no small influence upon the financial ability of the government to endure the heavy expenditure entailed by the war which immediately followed.

Theories were put aside in the presence of a great necessity, and the belief became general that in the impending strain on the resources of the country, protection to home industry would be a constant and increasing strength to the government.
On the passage of the bill in the Senate, on the 20th of February, the yeas were 25 and the nays 14.

No Democratic senator voted in the affirmative and no Republican senator in the negative.

It was not only a sharp division on the party line but almost equally so on the sectional line.


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