The Father of the Constitution Was Also the Father of Tariffs
Daniel Greenfield
The Father of the Constitution was also the father of tariffs. Indeed, the first piece of legislation passed was James Madison’s Tariff Act. Madison, known as the Father of the Constitution, saw tariffs as a driving purpose of the Constitution and a sustaining force of the new government.
The United States was deep in debt after the American Revolution and its previous system of government had made it impossible to either pay its debts or form a national economic policy. And without it, individual states and powerful figures would be corrupted by British and French agents into manipulating the country and eventually doom the nation to collapse in a civil war.
As I described in my book, ‘Domestic Enemies: The Founding Fathers’ Fight Against The Left’, Rhode Island’s radicals had nearly scuttled the Constitution over economic policy. And when the Tariff Act was passed, Rhode Island still had not joined, and some suspected it never would, and instead would go on serving as an entry point for dumping foreign cargoes into America.
That collaboration with British economic warfare against the new country led to threats of annexation until the radicals ruling Rhode Island finally agreed to join the constitutional union.
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