The herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1835-1837, 1837-04-21

Ma. JAMES g. BENNETT, Sir-Our venerable friend
Butler of the Mercantile in an article OF length,
in his paper of the l3th undertakes to refute the doc
trne advanced BY that to the partial repeal Of the
Tariff, connected with the want Of NatORal Bank,
are to be attributed Our present disastrous state OF
Commercial aftairs
Towards the close Of his article he calls spon me to
discard my erroneous views, based, as ne says on ex
plOded hypothesis TO exports and imports land
he advises me to draw my conclusions from expert
ence, and not from books.
All this is very we'll l seriously recommend Mr..
Butler TO read if not what have written what he has
written himself He admits almost as much as
could desire, the position assume; and for the re-
malnder ne wanders round and round IN that sort OF
tangible darkness in which so many OF our statesmen,
Bank directors and Merchants are wandering.
lie admits That the excessive importatons OF last
year resemble those at the close of the last) war,
when British manufactured goods came upon the
country like as flood, and were such drug in the
market that they were shipped back for the benefit OF
return duties"
What are the facts of the two cases By an act Of
Congress the high double duties on imported mer-
chandlze were TO cease az one year afterwards (by
plundering act OF Congress) made two years, from
the date of the treaty OF peace and under this repeal
Of half the duty the country was Hooded with foreign
merchandise; every branch of home industry paraly-
zed the Banks drained of specie; and no ehccual
relief afforded, even by United States Bank, until
the extra Tariff of 1924.
AS TO the shipping back of merchandise fer the be-
net of return duty, that only done in the case of
some goods imported in the expectation that the dou-
BILE duties would cease at the end Of year they
were shipped TO be re imported after the double duties
had ceased under the second Of Congress- al the
end Of tsco years.
Oar excessive importatons n0w, are also cense-
quence of dminution Of duties under the "comprO-
mise act and the Indemnity Treaties, and the pres
ent shipments by the ship Republic, to which our
friend of the Mercantile alludes made with view
to remport in 1885, when further reduction Of duty
takes place under the compromise act.
But in the most direct and plainest terms MI. But
Ter admits all that contend for-he says, eve agree
with the position that diminished tariff, resulting in
part from the compromise act, &c. has led to Excess
slve Importation
The two longest paragraphs in the Mercantile are
OF tia kind of stuff which is prominently calculated
to shed additional darkness midnight. The first
intending TO show that our cotton, tobacco and rice
cost freight, commission, insurance &c. DC. to get
them to foreign markets, and when there, they sell for
profit additional and that these costs and profits are
so much added 10 custom house valsation This may
be all very true at times, but this year, apt to
think, the shippers Of cotton rice and tobacco would
gladly compromise for custom house prices.
But the paragraph intended to shew how we must
make up the value OF our imports must request
you to publish part of 1t is one OF those mysti-
licaons by which men first bewilder themselves,
and then attempt to bewder Their readers. II is thus,
printed upside down, for in that form it will claim
NEST attention. and best represent the standard Of in
tellect that can comprehend IT:
u'IoABJ mo III hl96Iel 90 o. uMoVS 40 IIlM 9ouelpl
9ql pug 'sIodxo o5gluao I5d Jql pun son
mp pua slIodm 10 lunouie aql no iu9o Iod ,cc Auo
81 i! lcql luemn5ID 10 9YDs aql IoJ omnSse IaAsMoq
'IGM oM luoo lod Ayy puu AiIoJ OF unouu ole5oI55u
7q u! AIqnqoId IlM uo!qM I9Is7I pup Ioqqoi IolIod
l9ql el p!od slyoIdJo lunomp 9l a,pIuoleo o. aAeq
GOA 'qoIqM 10 lunonu 7le5sI5Sc 9q uo-lusuuIaAoD
10 Ioddns aql IoJ pied so1np 10 lunome eql tsoo 10
-ulS!Io o. ppu o. oAcq noA 'slIoduu! OF 80 uR5V,
Can you tell sir why we are 10 add forty or fifty
per cent, to the original cost, or invoice price OF
our imports, in order to know how much we owe
abroad? l content 10 take net cost or invoice
prices and thought that large enough. What has the
duties paid at custom house. or the profits made by
merchants and pedlars here, do with the first cost
of those goods abroad 2 Nothing Absolutely moth
ing.
Again, Although imports for three or foul
years past have exceeded exports by thirty OF
forty millions year, grayely told that If
will add just 33i per cent TO each of the sums ii vii
change their relative amounts, to make the ex
ports the largest!!.
Mr. Bennett, VIXEN such stuff as this is admitted
into 50 old and respectable paper as the Mercantile
and that, under the inspection of good, worthy
and amable citizen as Mr.. Butler, am no onge
ri tonished that systems If finance, and banking
| and commerce have fallen into such wild disorder
and are spreading SO far and wide, such dire calam
ity.-