Alabama state intelligencer., 1831-04-06
VOLUME IIi....NUMBER i.

we should entirely lose the English market, and r. gyptan and Brazilian cotton would constitute her supply, even if she were driven to the necessity of sending annually laborers from home to cultivate it. The consequence would be flat the southern people, with their cotton crops rotting on their hands would be glad 10 sell h at aay price, in exchange for the b0unled products of the north
 But. fellow citizens for the purpose of proving q still more direct operation f the tariff the price of coiton would inquire, for what purpose does the merchant purchase cotton1 Not 10 eat, drink or wear; bul ns a nedium of ereh0nge in purchasing goods from abrodd. Suppose you offer the importing merchant hundred bales of cotton for sale. He calculates its value according nha he IS 10 geceire T0ni n inc ordinary of commercial eTchdRee. Fer instance, he calculates that h the hundred bales of cotton he can bny hundred bales Of clolh and pay the expenses of transportaiion which cloth Is W orth to him at home given Trice. Under this calculation he gives you ten cents for your cotton, The next year you carry 10 the merchant Iun- dred bales of cOtiUn, and under similar calcpfatlOn he offers yon seven cents for your cotton. hou tel him the cotton issequal in quality to wh1S you sold him las winter at ten cents, and nquie oi hlm why he cannot now give the same pGe tiis answer would be, that with tie hundph paies oi cotton l purchased of you last year ye apie t6 import bun- dred bales of cloth which yds wolth to me given amonnt-since that time 2ouy o' 'or't-b'e nef cent. nus D'e1 tfale iR escdns. 5ar toar toni and instead of importing hnndred bales of cloth with your bundled bas of cotton as did last
 
 must take the remaining ioriy-fve bales 10 pay the duty. cannot therefore, gre you much for your cotton.
 That this is the true operation pf tue tatT upon tie price of cotton, think will he manifest from another reflection. The average of duties may be assumed at forty-five per cent. upon the valre of imported goods. What difference is it to the cotton planter whether tie government takes from him lory-ive, out of every hundred bnes of his cotton and gives h to the manufactures, or leyes duty of ory-fiye per cent. on tie vesy article he Is obliged to take ill exchange for his cotton for the exclusive benefit of the manuactrer7 Is it not the same thing in effect whether the duty levied upon the cotton when exported or upon the goods received in ex- change for that cotton when imported7 To use familiar llustlatiOn-does 1t make any difference whether you pay toll in going in coming out of mill. The effect is precisely the same, whether the cnstomhouse officer takes fory-fve out of every hundred bales of my cotton as it lands in Mo bile, require iorty-five per cent duty the very article am compelled to take in exchange for my cotton. It is answer to this argument to say, that he merchant and not the planter pays the duty.- The merchant pays the duty, but all charges and ex penses must ultimately come out fthe price of the cotton.
 This, fellow-citizens, is the secret of most of inc pecuhiary embarrassment which has of late afflicted the southern country in despite oi genial climate, a fertile soil, ana staple commodities equal to those of any portion of the globe and in defiance of all the economy and industry with which we have en- counered our diflicuties-a Government, establish- ed for the protection of equal rights and prvi- leges-has been made an instrument in the hands of q selfish majority in Congress, of lnnctlng pOr- ton of its citizens, greater wrongs and injuries than any people, claiming to be free have ever borne. It only ielow-citizens, that we feel ourselves op- pressed and aggreved by this system of legislative plunder, but that liberties invaded under the sacred forms of law, and that the constitution, the great charter of rights has been invoked to tain the outrage under the power to "1eyy and cof ioUt dats imposts, and exclses, they have claimed the authority of transferring money from the pockets Of the planter, to the manuiacturer; under the pow CT of regulating commerce, they claim tie right by legislative bounties and penalties of dictating to with whom we are to trade although the Cop of na- ture has given a right to trade with whom please, and that we have authorized no Government to deprive of this right. The whole system of tariff exactons is founded the principle, that, by the force of legislation, the government can control the pursults of individuals, although all ireemen must feel that they have yielded this great national 1 right to no government on earth,
 | Having treated, feOw-czens, the operations of the tariff in raising the price of goods and in de- pressing the price of cotton, let inquire into its equal action q system of revenue. The whole revenue collected from the people of the United States, amounts annually to about twentyhree mil- lions of dollars of these twentythree millions (with out pretending to give the exact amount near twen- ty-two millions are derived from duties on im- ported goods What are these duties but tax the foreign trade of the counry7 and what sections of the country furnish fe articles hich constitute this oregntrade? The exports of the whole ofthe States amount annually to fity-eght millions of dollars The exports of cotton and rice alone amount to thr- tymilons of dolIars-considerdbiy morethaa haLf the foreign rade cf the United Sates and yet the popu- laon engaged in the cultivation of these staples, s less than fifth of the whole population of the Uni ted States. If we multiply the thirty millions of ex. ports furnished by the article of cotton and rice alone, l hv tnrtv nor rput that to he the pa of tariff dues after allowing for the excess of i'm ports over exports have the singular spectacle of one fifth part of the United States paying consdera- by more than half of the whole revenue of the go- vernment How unjust, feow-citizens, is system of taxation which is levied exclusively on those whose labor is employed in furnishing the materials | of foreign commerce. while those who are engaged in producing the materials for the internal trade and consumption of the country, are not only exempt | from taxation, but actually bountied in proportion to the burthens imposed upon the foreign commerce. | The internal commerce of the country which is in
 the hands of the northern western, and middle States has been estimated bs le advocates of the tariff at five hundred millions dollars Upon this not dollar in the shape of is pnd-bnt from the fo- reign commerce of ntry, two thirds of which belong to the planting 1S.aes the whole revenue of the country is collected, making the contributions of the States south of the Potomac, equal to fourteen millions, out of revenue oftwentythree millions of dollars In the face of this unequal system of taxa tion the declaration was made on the floor of Con- gress during the last session. by distinguished gem tleman from South Carolina, that on an average, five hundred thousand dollars not annually expended | south of Norfolk. Did the operations of go- vernment more clearly constitute portion of it's citizens tax payers, and the other portion tax recev ersl Does not our money set from us in continued current, like the Gulf Stream, which knows no turni Are not the senthern people bound down by weight of taxation, which has scarcely parallel in