Both were developed in harmony, while agriculture, the indispensable basis of all, was never more flourishing.

The farmers and planters at no other period of our history were in receipt of such good prices, steadily paid to them in gold coin, for their surplus product, which they could send to the domestic market over our own railways and to the foreign market in our own ships.
COMPARISON OF REVENUE SYSTEMS.
Assertions as to the progress of manufactures in the period under discussion are denied by the protectionists.

While admitting the general correctness of the free-trader's statements as to the prosperous condition of the country, they call attention to the fact that directly after the enactment of the tariff of 1846 the great famine occurred in Ireland, followed in the ensuing years by short crops in Europe.

The prosperity which came to the American agriculturist was therefore from causes beyond the sea and not at home,--causes which were transient, indeed almost accidental.
Moreover an exceptional condition of affairs existed in the United States in consequence of our large acquisition of territory from Mexico at the close of the war and the subsequent and almost immediate discovery of gold in California.

A new and extended field of trade was thus opened in which we had the monopoly, and an enormous surplus of money was speedily created from the products of the rich mines on the Pacific coast.