But the great national policy of putting a duty upon imports is, that it either keeps the foreign trade in our own hands, or draws something for the defence of the country from every foreigner who participates in it with us.
In "The American Crisis," Paine explains the strategic national policy behind imposing duties on imported goods, linking it to economic control and national defense.
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Burke's Book is easily accounted for.--When a man in a wrong cause attempts to steer his course by anything else than some polar truth or principle, he is sure to be lost.
The meaning, then, good people, of all this, is: That government is governed by no principle whatever; that it can make evil good, or good evil, just as it pleases.
It was become evident, that no constitution, worthy of being called by that name, could be established on anything less than a national ground.