Bartlett's revisionism.
In fact, it was under Free Trade that it came to dominate the world economy.
Only so long as there were no real peer competitors who played by the same rules. They soon didn't. Just like China isn't now, and never will, but will give free trade only lip-service.
Adam Smith showed the means by which Free Trade INCREASES the Wealth of Nations. You should read it sometime.
Probably read and digested it long before you. But it was never a definitive work for the U.S. Alexander Hamilton's Report on Manufactures was.
Even his enemies largely concede the economic edifice we have today is largely one that Hamilton and those who followed the resulting "American System" of Henry Clay and later of Lincoln and all Republicans can take credit for.