historical context is important.
hamilton was primarily agruing with jeffersonian faction in that report, who not only believed that an agrarian economy was the ideal, but came to believe that manufacturers and merchants were enemies to be defeated by any means necessary.
as soon as they gained power, they did their level best to destroy merchants and manufacturers with the embargo act, knowing full well it was devastating the nascent american economy in the process. it was also the first time in history that the awesome authority of the central government was used to coerce (read: force them to do something they did not want to do) american citizens.
trying to justify tariffs in 2018 with the decades long death grapple waged by jefferson and hamilton is just wrong, and, I suspect, those making that argument know it’s wrong.
It’s true that Jefferson wanted the US to remain an agrarian economy and buy our manufactured goods from Europe. But Jefferson changed his minds when in his words “the unbelievable happened” and Europe cut us off from manufactured goods.
That’s the point where he realized that America needed a strong manufacturing base to survive as a free state.
That’s a lesson that has been lost on our free traitors. And it’s one of the reasons, I favor having high import tariffs.
Import tariffs lesson our dependence on other countries.