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The Hamilton Tariff of 1789 (ch. 2, 1 Stat. 24, enacted 1789-07-04) was the second statute ever enacted by the new United States government. Most of the rates of the tariff were between 5 and 10 percent, depending on the value of the item. As Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton was anxious to establish the tariff as a regular source of revenue for the government and as a protection of domestic manufacture. The former was of immediate necessity; the latter was not. Instead, it established the principle of protectionism that was to become a persistent political dispute throughout the next century and a half.
