They admit that the low scale of duties in the new tariff perhaps may have added to the distress, by the very rapid increase of importations which it invited; but they declare that its period of operation was entirely too brief to create a result so decided, if all the elements of disaster had not been in existence, and in rapid development, at the time the Act was passed.

The tariff of 1846 therefore under which there had been a very high degree of prosperity, was, in the judgment of the protectionists, successfully impeached, and a profound impression in consequence made on the public mind in favor of higher duties.
PROTECTION IN PENNSYLVANIA.
The question of the tariff was of especial significance and influence in Pennsylvania.

Important in that State, it became important everywhere.

Pennsylvania had been continuously and tenaciously held by the Democratic party.

In the old political divisions she had followed Jefferson and opposed Adams.