Hey Fedora, are you a believer in free trade?
Or is this more of an immigration thread?
Skimmed your history lessons.
Hi, Sam--nice to see you. I was indeed commenting on the historical significance of the post. I didn't mention anything about free trade or immigration. The immigration tangent was started by a troll who apparently saw a discussion of 19th-century Texas Marxism as an opportunity to use a broad brush to paint all conservative opponents of immigration as racist/xenophobic or something to that effect--how he got from my post to this stereotype, you'd have to ask the troll. As for free trade, generally speaking I believe in free trade, but I have no idea what was meant by the term in the context of Erastus Goodwin's testimony--I'm guessing something related to the mid-century debate over Corn Laws-type legislation in relation to the price of grain and farmers' earnings but I'm not sure because that's not my area of expertise--so not being sure what Goodwin meant by the term in context, I cannot comment on his specific advocacy of "free trade" without further information.