From the article:
“In 1791, Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton wrote in his famous Report on Manufactures: “The wealth…independence, and security of a Country, appear to be materially connected with the prosperity of manufactures. Every nation…ought to endeavor to possess within itself all the essentials of national supply. These compromise the means of subsistence, habitation, clothing, and defence.”
I’m skeptical that tariffs made America great, and Hamilton was a big-gov’t liberal.
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.