The proceedings of the constitutional
convention were recited to show that a proposition conferring the
alleged power was voted down. To this, Clay gave the reply that the
clause on which the protectionists relied was the power to regulate
commerce with foreign nations.
Even the south, however, laid less stress upon the constitutional
argument than upon the injustice to the section. McDuffie, for
example, replying to Clay, [Footnote: Ibid., II., 2400 et seq.]
argued that no one of the great sections of the country, if it were
a separate nation, could advantageously apply the system of
protection. He warned the western states that the system would make
them tributary to the Atlantic states, [Footnote: Ibid., II., 2423.]
and that they had more to lose by alienating the friendship of the
south for a system of internal improvements which should facilitate
the sale of their meat products to the south than by a union with
the manufacturing interests. With respect to the south itself, he
declared that cotton, which alone constituted one-third of the whole
export of the Union, was in danger of losing the market of England
if we ceased to take the manufactures of that country.
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