Litchfield enquirer., 1829-12-24

coIn MoWev," t was lnlnndCd to ensure the result that this should be hard money Government ,-and what is hl It Is n papcr. .monry Government, lf,hiS be the result, tn spite of Nll precautions to the contrary--(Sir, this Is no time, as the late illslrious President oF the Court of Ap- peals wus won't to say, to mincG wordS,) and lhcsn governments have turned out to be two most corrUpt papcr-money yovern- men,s, and you could not prevent h,--how can we expect, now, to deGno and limit tho operation of new and unlried priuci. plos For now and Untried they are and tt God londs mo strength, win prove it.
 The Federal Government was intended to be charged only with external relations or tho country <, but by a strange transtor- nation, it has become thu regulator (aban- doning tho coloniOl trade by negligence, or incaraci,y, or both, and crippliMg all other Gado,) 1t has become the regulator of the interior of tho country; it's roads ; it's canals and, moro than all, ofits produc- tive, or rather it's mproductive labor, (tor they have made 1t so.)
 Wha, provision is there, Mr. Chnirman, either In the constitution ofVirgina or the constitution ofthc United States which es- tablishes it us a principle ,iNt. tho Com- monweuth of Virginia should, Do the sole restraining and regulating p5wer on the mad and unconstitutional uSuWN,ionS oI the Federal Governmen, 2 [, T'horc is no such provision tn either yet, in practice, and tn fact, the Commonwealth of Virgin. ia hns been to my certain Knowledge, for more thnn thirty years, the sole counter poise and check on the Usurpations of the Federal Governmcnt--So far as they havo been checked at alL I wish they had been checked more elloctuNlly.
 1 For long time our brethren of tho South, because we were tho frontier State of the great Southern division of tho Un- ion, were dcud to considerations tO which they have, | fear, Owaked too late. Vir- ginia was loft alono and unsupported, un- less by the feeble aid her distant offspring Kentucky. It is because l am unwilling to give up this check, or to diminish it's force, that am unwilling to pull down the odificC of our state government from. tho garret to tho cellar; aye, down to the toun- daiiOn stone. will Ectput in hazard this single good, for all tl'b benefits tho warms est advocate of reform can hope to derive from the results ot this body.
 The gentleman from Augusta told US, yesterday, believe, or the day before that, q really do not remember which, 1 that slaves have always heen subject of taxation in Virginia ; and, that long while ago neat cattle had also been taxed. h regard to these horned cattle, think they have occupied full as much attention as they are entitled to in this debate. But let it be remembered that we were then not taxing cattle of the Wcst, for there was no west, but few scattered settlements beyond the mountain and what we have been discussing was the proportion of tax cs paid by the cast and the west. No sooner was an interest in this subject es- abolished beyond the mountains, than the tax was laid aside. At that time, sir, the Commonwealth of Virginia was througl- out, slave holding commonwealth ;-- (would to God she were now.) And is it then SO wonderful that slaves should have been a subject of taxation? 7? Yes, sir, Vir- ginia was then not only throughout slave holding, but tobacco planting common- wealth. You can't open the statute book -I mean ono ofthe old statute books, not those that have been defaced by tho finger of reform-and not sec that tobacco was, in fact, the currency, as well as staple of the state. We paid our clerks fees in tobacco; verdicls were given in tobacco 1; and bonds were executed payable in tObac- co. That accounts for all. While a large portion of the state has ceased to be sIave-holding, and a still larger portion has ceased to be tobacco planting com munity, the burden has rested on tho necks ofa comparatively small, unhappy, and I will say it, prescribed caste in the com munity. Not that any such effect was in- tended, when all were tobacco planters taxes on slaves and tobacco were fair and equal. But time, the greatest of innova- tors, has silently operated to produce this great and grinding oppression. My na'iv- fly cast my lot there. l am one of them. I participate in all their interests and feel iues. Aud if had been told, until had the fact to prove it--that one fthc great slave holding and tobacco districts, would lend itself to the supper. of tl'e report of tho Legislative committee, unmitigated, or, to use a term for which am indebted to the 1 --..---.. c--... Cro.tsvlvaniu s,n,.alf:G Gasf