shared and showed it in the increased energy with which he entered into the labors of the House.

An opportunity came for the use of his special training, when toward the end of the year a tariff bill, afterwards known as the Tariff of 1857, was introduced. The motive of the bill was to check the flow of revenue with which the Treasury was glutted-for the country was very prosperous - by reducing the taxes on imports. It was a very moderate measure, making as a rule only slight and unimportant changes and was generally acceptable, the only active opposition coming from the manufacturing States of Pennsylvania and New Jersey and from some of the woolgrowers. Morrill was one of the very few Republicans who opposed it and this on the ground that it did not give sufficient protection to Vermont wool. On January 14th, he proposed an amendment increasing the tariff on wool; on February 6th, he returned to the charge and declared himself "in favor of a protective tariff," whereas "under the proposed tariff wool would be imported duty free." He must therefore oppose it, but "if certain amendments were agreed to he should vote for the bill."

This declaration he expanded into a formal speech in which he defended the general principle of protection and urged its application, not only to wool, but also to hardware, sugar, cotton, and American products in general: "I confess," he said in opening his speech, "that any bill which reduces our present enormous revenue must be a very bad one, in my judgment, if I cannot give it my vote. . . . An overflowing Treasury contains but one drop less of misery than an empty one. A surplus of money, or of health, oftenest seeks a cure by vicious and riotous dissipation.... Let us, then, all agree to curtail our revenue, and thereby check the imperial extravagance which is involving all branches of the Government." He cast a passing but a searching and half

prophetic glance at business conditions. "If no revulsion should occur in the commercial world (which is not to be wholly unapprehended)" — the panic of 1857 was only half a year away "it is probable that the reduction will not be so great as estimated."

Then he turned to the special interests of Vermont: "My constituents... are more largely engaged in the woolgrowing business than in any other one pursuit which can be affected by the tariff. In 1850 there were 1,014,122 sheep in my State, producing 3,400,717 pounds of wool - my district contributing over one third of the amount."

To the argument that it was to the interest of the woolgrower to have free wool, he made a vigorous reply.

But who is it, Mr. Chairman, that comes here and asks for the repeal of the duty on wool? Certainly not the wool-growers. Whatever they may think about it, they are at home feeding their bleating flocks, and protecting them from the wintry blasts; but the agents of the large manufacturers and importers are here, bleating like lambs, with persuasive tongues and curious figures, in favor of free wool, and disinterestedly endeavoring to protect the wool-growers from their ignorance and folly in not recognizing their benevolence. At their own cost they are here trying to prevail upon Congress to pass a law which, they say, will give the farmer a higher and more permanent price for his wool than he had ever yet received! "The Trojans feared the Greeks, even when they made presents." The Trojans had reason to fear a wooden horse, but here is quite as alarming an exhibition of the woolly horse.

He concluded his speech with a general argument for protection as a means of attaining true independence - "that we shall be independent in peace as in war. . . . Such articles, then, of primary necessity as there is any hope of successfully producing, should be waked into life-nursed into perennial vigor-by moderate and steady discriminations in their favor so long as their condition makes it proper, or so

long as there is a probable chance of ultimate success. I trust we shall be able to harmonize all interests by being just and liberal to all, and check the unprofitable accumulation going on in the Treasury. With these objects in view, I shall vote for such amendments as the line of my argument would indicate, and, if they are adopted, I shall then vote for the bill." On February 18th he took the floor again in behalf of the Vermont wool-grower and showed so thorough a knowledge of the conditions in Vermont and, moreover, stated his position with so much moderation and cogency, that he gained the day by a vote of 85 to 39.1

We have quoted thus fully from Morrill's first speech on the tariff because it marked the beginning and laid down the principles of a course that was maintained for many years and had a powerful influence on the fiscal policy of the country. It served also to fix the attention of his fellowmembers on the representative from Vermont who stood so stoutly to his guns and so thoroughly knew what he was talking about.

Meantime he had given faithful and assiduous service to the Committee on Territories of which he was a member and had kept a jealous eye on both Utah and Kansas. On January 19th he moved a resolution asking the President to inform the House whether armed resistance was offered in Utah to United States officers, and on February 23d he delivered a formal speech on "Utah Territory and its Laws — Polygamy and its License," a sober but earnest indictment of Mormonism and its leaders. He denounced the "Church" for its practice of slavery, both of negroes and Indians, and for polygamy; he pointed to the general suspicion that it condoned or directed bands of assassins. Of the Indian he said: "However cruelly we may have treated the Indians... no party and no government in this country has for ages

1 Morrill's amendment was lost, however, in the final stages of the bill.

sanctioned the idea of reducing the red man... to slavery. However bitter may be the ultimate fate of the American Indian... this is a dreg placed in the bottom of the cup by Utah alone."

Polygamy stirred him to greater depths:

Stealthily at first, but now openly, the practice of polygamy has become a deep-rooted and notorious institution of the Mormons.... Under the guise of religion, this people has established and seek to maintain and perpetuate, a Mohammedan barbarism revolting to the civilized world. It is polygamy in its most revolting form, including in its slimy folds sisters, mothers, and daughters, and in order that no element of cruelty and loathsomeness may be wanting, it includes facility of divorce... it is not enough to usurp the complete sovereignty over woman, and degrade her to the level of a mere animal; but the Mormons, when their appetites become sated, through the intervention or favor of their high priests, are enabled to indulge their caprice.... As well might religion be invoked to protect cannibalism or infanticide.

In speaking of the Danites, or Destroying Angels, believed to be employed by the "Church" as assassins, he contented himself with stating the evidence and enumerating the crimes:

The murder of Governor Boggs by Porter Rockwell, then and now a Danite... in good standing it is said, in the Mormon Church. The murder of Secretary Babbitt, for no known reason save that he was suspect of being an insincere Mormon, has been attributed to the same hand. The murder of Gunnerson's party -charged upon the Indians-is quite often placed to the account of the "Destroying Angels" as aiders and abettors.... Jacob Lance was slain, as is believed by many, by a Danite.... The horse of one of Colonel Steptoe's men came back from a short trip out of the city, with no rider in the saddle. The loss was never satisfactorily explained. Mr. Hartley, going out one day with Bill Hickman, a Danite, has not been heard of since. Many California emigrants have disappeared on the Utah route.... All these charges may be slanderous stories; but if they are, they are

lies with many circumstances tending to arouse suspicion... these Mormon prophets and apostles, if they do not mean anything... should be more wary about talking of unsheathing the sword, fixing the place, and the shedding of blood in word and deed.

It was a solid, weighty speech, and as it became widely distributed served as the armory for many an attack on the Mormon power.

Looming over this and all other questions was that of slavery: it would not down; it could not be ignored; its influence permeated every discussion. On March 4th, the day of Buchanan's inauguration, Morrill returned to the issue of Kansas which had smouldered since the session began. As a member of the Committee of Conference he reported disagreement with the Senate conferees on the reference to Kansas and moved that the House refuse to yield, but adhere to its position.

Two days later a new aspect of the whole question was forced upon public attention by the famous Dred Scott decision of the Supreme Court. It had been long awaited and not a few forecasts of its terms had been made, but when it appeared and when it was seen what a position Chief Justice Taney, supported by a majority of the Court, had taken, the North was astounded. The popular version of the decision was "negroes have no rights which the white man is bound to respect." What Chief Justice Taney said was that negroes "were not intended to be included under the word 'citizens' in the Constitution and therefore can claim none of the rights and privileges which that instrument provides for and secures to the citizens of the United States." The doctrine was so repugnant to the feelings of Northern men, so inhuman, so stark in its brutality, that it produced an immediate and violent revulsion. Instead of putting an end to the discussion, as it was expected to do, it inflamed and exacerbated public feeling. To Republicans it was a clear