We look upon Public Opinion
with no superstitious reverence,--for Tom's way of thinking is none
the wiser because the million other Toms and Dicks and Harries agree
with him,--nevertheless, even a fetish may justly become an object of
respectful interest to one who is to be sacrificed to it.
However it may be with iron, wool, and manufactured cotton, it is
clear that a duty on books is not protective of American literature,
but simply a tax on American scholarship and refinement. The
imperfectness of our public libraries compels every student to depend
more or less upon his own private collection of books; and it is a
fact of some significance, that, with the single exception of
Hildreth, all our prominent historians, Sparks, Irving, Bancroft,
Prescott, Ticknor, Motley, and Palfrey, have been men of independent
fortune. If anything should be free of duty, it should seem to be the
material of thought.
If Congress be really desirous of doing something for the benefit of
American authors, it would come nearer the mark, if it directed its
attention to the establishment on equitable grounds of some system of
International Copyright. A well-considered enactment to this end
would, we are convinced, be quite as advantageous to the
manufacturers as to the producers of books.
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