Richmond enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1815-1867, 1841-04-27
TWENTY-sIxTH CoNGREss---2d SESSION

SPEECH OF Nix ALLEN, OF OHlo,
On the proposition Of Mr.. Criendsn TO distribute M
proceeds of the sales of The Public Lands TO e States
submitted amendment 10 the pre-empt.oa o,si
then under conSderation.-Sendte, January -, Io4l
[CoNoLuDEp1
| This illustration would seem sufficient; yet will
push it still further. The people ofOhIo owe debt
and, to pay it, propose to tax themselves, at their own
time, IN their own way, to the amount OF million
through their own Legislature Congress comes ior'h
and says to them, Keep your money; VIII give you
enough to discharge your obligation The people re-
ply BY asking Where will you get it, Congress an
swers, will give yom the million have just received
from the sale of my lands. The people then. ask II
you give US that million, will you not yourself want
| another to discharge your obligations; and, II
so, where will you get the othcr' Congress RI
plies, Yes, that is true; and | shall indeed be cciA'
PEELED to tax you for this last million, before | car
agree 10 give you the first. The people answer
If that be the case, what make we by it, ici
give Us one million, and we give you another; ant
moreover, have TO pay you the costs OF collection
Better, then, that should keep million and
pay our own debt for what you propose is nothing
more than million TO pay it, if, in addition
to this we will reward your trouble. Congress replies
That is even 90 aware must take the million
from you by taxation, before can return in the way
of distribution but STILL you had better submit to this
than to tax yourselves for the payment of the debt
because when taxed by yourselves, you know it; the
tax is paid directly and each man sees what he pays
but when tax you, though you pay even more, you DE-
not exactly see the process as you pay to me, moi
through the collector, but the merchant, IN the IN
creased price of every thing you buy and this call
my indirect tax tariff duty, which the merchant mad
in the first place. pay, when he purchased the goods
at New York To this the people answer 1t is not the
manner of paying, but the payment itself, which
takes money from pockets and your reasons arc,
therefore, insufficient. Congress again replies, That,
likewise is true but the fact is, you, the people OF
Ohio, owe the British bankers debt, and Will not, J
fear, tax yourselves to pay it and wish TO compel
the payment, by myself taxing you for that purpose
The people rejon by saying to Congress You came
here at first, offering money as favor, IN The name
Of distribution, to pay debt you have ended with
impeachment Of our integrity with an attempt TO
usurp the power of State taxation with an mpcrtl-
nent interference in affairs therefore, depart
Thus are the forms of indirect taxation and the
name of the public domain sought TO be made the
means through which this Government may assume
absolute power over the States and the people-oyer
the whole property and labor of the country
And who are to receive the fund distributed: Not
the people, who, in the first place, paid it; but the
States-the Legislatures OF the States. In what would
this result, Extravaganza and waste. Not indeed,
because legislative bodies for they are noO likely
10 be composed of men less vlrtuous than Others but
because body of men, however honorable indvi'
duay, could ever can, with safety, be charged
with the conduct OF public affairs in the absence Of all
responsibility 1t was for this reason, drawn from the
caamitous experience Of the world, that the serious,
the thoughtful the cautious people Of America imposed
upon all the departments OF power, as well as upon
each public unctionary, the most positive restraints
and highest sanctions by their written organic laws
The great the only security the people Of Stale now
have for the economy of lis Legislature in the expend-
ofthe public money, is the responsibility under
which the Legislature acts of having, ITSELF first to tax
its own constituency in order TO raise it. But, BY the
system Of distributions the responsibility OF coHechS
is TO be separated from the power 10 apply II;
Congress is 10 tax the people, the Legislature to ex-
pend the tax Each member Of the latter body, aware,
therefore, lie would be- that, when the Stale ,feasu
nv was exhausted Congress, not he must bear the odi-
UNI of laying a new tax to repiensh IT. would very ma
turay seek TO obtain for all objects in his particular
district or county the largest appropriations possible
considering as he would, every dollar thus obtained
clear gain to that extent, out of the common spoil In
this manner the very desire now so strong with the
and Justly so, to please his immediate
constituents by his economy OF the public money,
would then become reason equally strong Tor MS pro-
hirate waste. Where, in such case, would DC the
limit to expenditure Where to taxation necessary to
meet it, No where, until Government had consumed
the whole substance of the tong multitude, and left
them here, as in England, clad in the ragged livery OF
uperism-breadless and hopeless.
Sir, have already said that the money! if distributed,
will go not the people who the first instance, paid
it, Again, have said that in all Governments pro-
Tossing to be Free this power Of unlimited taxation ever
has divided the mass into classes OF the rich and the
poor and upon such division founded separate orders
in the State-the one who govern and rot the other,
who toll and obey. Such always will be found to be
the result The process which leads to il is plain
The aggregate fund in the hands of Government is
made up of contributions by every citizen In the aP
pcaon of it, therefore, its benefits, justice requires
that each should receive proportion equal 10 'at nc
advanced But is this the case! Never, nor ever Gun
il he II is one of the evils in the best OF Governments,
Jicfr,h uf,n nj
is found utterly impructicabe. And Sir, 1t IS Tor TINS
very reason than for all others together that tax
alton and expenditure should be strictly limited foi
in every tax, some made thus 10 pay unrequ'ted
tribute 10 others The wrong increases with each al
dona assessment until finally, if continued, it breaks
the equilibrium of society The favored class RISES 10
wealth by the very cause that depresses the uniortu
nate Each day separates them more widely from one
another and the former, drawing still nearer TO the 90
yernment whilst the latter is SINKING oeneath II, De-
comes in the end the Government itself-a ruling or
der based upon and sustained BY the pIllage Of the
multitude.
What with us has been the fact and what its results
in The very first instance of distribution To all, IS
known that 2S 0l GA dollars, then called its surplus
revenue were in the year 1887, distributed By tins
Government. in the name of deposte with the States
Where went that money; To the people 10 the
men by whom it had been advanced No; not the
fifth dollar of it but to the legislatures hrst; ana
then chiefly, to banking or to other corporate conipa
MES, and, to the rich, LOT the very ieaSoh 'a' my
And, now that may the more clearly expose this
the fragrant injustice inflicted BY the practical opera
ton Of the distribution principle upon The ax-payihS
mass Of the people, shall trace briefly, yet, with all
the accuracy of which matter SO confused and com com
ucated admits, the progress of this surplus fund.- from
The National Treasury TO its last known destination
But here, before proceeding further, is important to
remark that speak in reference only to the $500,
1871, received by the twenty, out of the twenty-s,S
states. by which, alone, reports have been made to
Ibis Government the other six, to whom s. sG7 9l2
were distributed having made no returns. So Is IT
Likewise material to observe that fractions are, IN all
instances discarded because, anxious to present
merely the general TRUTH desire not to obscure 1t by
immaterial particulars.
In the first place, then, out of the last instalment
Maid as il was in the notes Of suspended banks (worth
on an average, at the time, but about ninety cents IN
the doar those institutions thus maniiestly gained
without an equivalent, near one million OF dollars. do
this. and next in order, to be added SS,3ol Ooo,
which enured to the benefit OF the banks, IN The ,on
Of loans made stock invested, and deposlles mace,
ri mic oft fund,