In all those departments of trade where competition could overcome them, they have been quick to interpose protective measures for the benefit of their own people.
The trade policy of the United States at the foundation of the government had features of enlightened liberality which were unknown in any other country of the world.

The new government was indeed as far in advance of European nations in the proper conception of liberal commerce as it was on questions relating to the character of the African slave-trade.

The colonists had experienced the oppression of the English laws which prohibited export from the mother country of the very articles which might advance their material interest and improve their social condition.

They now had the opportunity, as citizens of a free Republic, to show the generous breadth of their statesmanship, and they did so by providing in their Constitution, that Congress should never possess the power to levy "a tax or duty on articles exported from any State." At the same time trade was left absolutely free between all the States of the Union, no one of them being permitted to levy any tax on exports or imports beyond what might be necessary for its inspection laws.

Still further to enforce this needful provision, the power to regulate commerce between the States was given to the General Government.