Slavery and Tariffs Are Plunder

by Frédéric Bastiat

　　What are these two issues? They are slavery and tariffs. These arethe only two issues where, contrary to the general spirit of therepublic of the United States, law has assumed the character ofplunder.

　　Slavery is a violation, by law, of liberty. The protective tariffis a violation, by law, of property.

　　Its is a most remarkable fact that this double legal crime - asorrowful inheritance of the Old World - should be the only issuewhich can, and perhaps will, lead to the ruin of the Union. It isindeed impossible to imagine, at the very heart of a society, a moreastounding fact than this: The law has come to be an instrument ofinjustice. And if this fact brings terrible consequences to theUnited States - where only in the instance of slavery and tariffs -what must be the consequences in Europe, where the perversion of lawis a principle; a system?