Yes, and the economy boomed as never before. Now, try and be clever and explain why that was a bad thing in your best Jefferson Davis, Grover Cleveland and Woodrow Wilson Domocratic sing song. Don't forget to praise the incredible accomplishments of Gladstone's free trade policies in Britain which did so much for the English economy that it started out at number one in the world and ended up at number three. Finish on an explanation of how free trade is over producing American jobs during the last couple years.
Dixiecrat heirs may think that just because the now call themselves Republicans that their Democratic history is actually the history of the Republican Party, but this actually nonsense. Go ahead, give some more.
...and that is what these debates always come to, do they not? It's funny how the guy who starts off defending or excusing away the Morrill tariff always ends up revealing that he is, at the heart of the issue, opposed to free trade itself. Call it a case of closet leftism, AFL-CIO membership, steel producer loyalty, or whatnot, but the position is always the same: protection, protection, and more protection. And to substantiate that economically ignorant and wholly leftist call for protection they always turn to post hoc ergo propter hoc nonsense.
Needless to say, son, you've been outed.
Worth repeating.