The Massachusetts spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1831-1858, 1831-10-26

are cap1Dle OF estimating the cHectS
{ every measure, not Only as il may affect IT.
elf, but every other class and section; and of
lilly realizing the sublime truth, that tho high
st and wisest policy consists in maintaining
ustce and promoting peace and harmony and
hat, compared to these, schemes of mere gain
re but trash and dross. fear experience has |
Ilready proved that we arc far removed from
uch state, and that we must consequently |
ely on the old and clumsy, but approved mode
If checking power in order to prevent or cor
rect abuses but l do trust, that though far
from perfect, we are at least so much as to
be capable Of remedying the present disorder in
the ordinary way and thus to prove that with us
public opinion is so enlightened, and our poiiti
cal machine so perfect, as rarely TO require, for
its preservation the intervention of the power
that created ii. How is this to be effected?
The application may be painful but the rem
edy. conceive, is certain and simple. There
is but one effectual cure, an honest reduction oil
the duties to fail system of revenue, adapted
to the just and constitutional wants of the gov
eminent. Nothing short of this will restore tho
country to peace, harmony, and mutual atfec-
ton. There is already deep and growing
conviction in large section of country, that
the imposts, even as a revenue system, is ex-
tremely unequal, and that it is mainly paid by
those who furnish the means of paying the for
laid !; and that the case is not varied, taking in
TO the estimate the entire action OF the system,
whether the producer or consumer pays IN the
first instance.
do not propose to enter formally into the
discussion of point so complex and contested
but it has necessarily strong practical bearing
on the subject under consideration, in all IFS re-
lations, | cannot pass it without few general
and brief remarks.
If the producer in reality pays, none will
doubt but the burden would mainly fall on the
section it is supposed to do. The theory that
the consumer pays in the first instance, renders
the proposition more complex, and will require,
in order 10 understand where the burden in re-
atty ultimately falls on that suppostion TO con-
slider the protective or, as its friends call 1t, the
American System, under its three-iold aspect of
taxation, of protection, and distribution; Or as
performing at the same time the several func-
items of giving 4 revenue 10 the government of
affording protection to certain branches of do
mestic industry, and furnishing the means to
Congress Of distributing large sums through its
appropriations all of which are so blended in
their effects, that il is impossible 10 understand
IFS true operation, without taking the whole in
to the estimate.
Admitting, then, as supposed, that he who
consumes the article pays the tax in the in
creased price, and that tho burden falls wholly
upon the consumers, without affecting the pro-
ducers as a class, (Which by the bye, is far from
being true, except in the single case, if there
be such one, where the producers have mo-
nopoiy of an article, SO indispensable to life.
that the quantity consumed cannot be affected
by any increase of price, and that considered in
the light Of a tax merely the impost duties fall
equally on every section in proportion to its
population, still when combined with its other
effects, the burden it imposes, as tax, may be
SO transferred from one section to the other, as
to take it from one and place it wholly on the
other. Let US apply the remark first to its op-
Grafton as system of protection.
The tendency of the tax, or duty on the i'm
ported ARTICLES, not only to raise its price, but,
also, in the same proportion, that of the domes-
tic article OF the same kind, for which purpose,
when intended for protection, it is in fact laid !;
and of course in determining where the system
ultimately places the burden in reality, this ef-
feet also must be taken into the estimate. If
one of the sections exclusively produces such
domestic articles, and the other purchases them
from it, then it is clear that TO the amount of
such increased prices, the tax or duty on The
consumption of foreign articles, would be trans
teired from the section producing the domestic
articles TO the ono that purchased and consum,
ed them, unless the latter, in turn, be indcmni-
he'd by the increased price ofthe objects OF its
industry, which none will venture to assert 10
be the case with the great staples of the coun.
try, which form the basis of our exports, the
price Of which is regulated by the foreign and
not the domestic market. To those who grow
them, the increased price of the foreign and do.
mestic articles both, in consequence Of the duty
on the former, is in reality, and in tho strctest
sense tax, while 1t is clear that the increased
price OF The latter acts a bounty to The section
producing tEom, and that as the amount of such
increased prices @hat il sells to The other
section, is greater or less than the duty it pays
on the imported articles, the system will in fact
operate as bounty or tax; if greater, the diff
ference would be a bounty, if less, a tax
Again, the operation may be equal in every
other respect, and yet the pressure of the sys
tenn relatively, on the two sections, be rendered
very unequal by tine appropriations or dstribu-
ton. II each section receives back what is
paid into the treasury, the equality If it previ-
ousiy existed viii continue but if one receives
BACK less, and the other proportionally more
than is paid, then the difference in relation 10
the sections will be 10 the former loss, and to
The latter gain; and the system in this aspect |
would operate TO the amount of the difference,
rs contribution from the one receiving less |
han it paid to the other that receives more
such would be Incontestibly Its general effects,
AIKEN IN all its different aspects, even on tho
theory supposed to be the most favorable 20
prove the equal action of the system, that the
consumer pays in the first instance the whole
amount of the tax
10 show how, on this supposition, the bur.
den ana advantages of the system would actu-
ally distribute themselves between the sections.
would carry me too far into details; but feel
assured, after full and careful examination, thai
That are such as to explain what otherwise would
seem iDexpicable, that one section should con |
slider its repeal Il calamity and the other bless |
ing and that such opposite views should be
taken by them, as To place them in state of
determined conflict in relation 10 the great fis.
cal and commercial interests of the country. |
Indeed were there no satisfactory explanation,
The opposite views that prevail IN the two sec.
lions: as TO the effects Of the system. ought TO
satisfy all its unequal action. There can be M
safer, or moro certain rule than TO suppose encb
portion OF the country equally capable Of un.
aers'anding their respective interests; and that
zach is much better judge of the effects Of
my system of measures or lis peculiar interest.
han the other can possibly be-
But whether the opinion of its UNEQUAL nc
ION be correct or erroneous, nothing can be
more certain than that the impression is wide.
= extending ITSELF that the system, under all
IL notifications is essentially UNEQUAL and IL
0 that be added conviction still dseper. and
lore universal, that every duty imposed for the
nrp0se ef protection, is MT 0nly anequat, but
fso unconstitutional, il would he fatal error
suppose that any remedy, short of that
llicf have stated, can heal our poliiic.i H. |
ders. c.iI.,,L d;n