The Folio · 1892 · restored 2025

The Tariff Controversy in the United States, 1789–1833

With a Summary of the Period Before the Adoption of the Constitution

Orrin Leslie Elliott — Originally published by Stanford University Press in 1892, Elliott's thesis is that the early Republic could not have survived without tariffs, because British commercial domination would have strangled American industry in the cradle.

Originally published by Stanford University Press in 1892, Elliott's thesis is that the early Republic could not have survived without tariffs, because British commercial domination would have strangled American industry in the cradle. Every president from Washington through Jackson weighed in, and Elliott lets them speak.

Sourced via Internet Archive.

• retypeset
• new introduction
• annotations

“Free trade and sailor's rights had been the cry — but how to maintain the one and protect the other was a question of grave difficulty.”

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Elliott, Orrin Leslie. The Tariff Controversy in the United States, 1789–1833 (1892). Bulkington Books, 2025.