, 1841-08-07

motive is assumption, as urged BY Mr.. TYLER
himself. He urges it because a portion of
the States are IN debt, and, If not assisted.
must resort to direct taxation, or sacrifice
their credit. If there were no indebted
State, nobody would bring forward, at thi,
day. a proposition for distributing a portion
Of revenue among the States. 1t Is the on.
ly shape in which any body among Us dare,
propose assumption. Assumption 10 unoues-
tionably unconstitutional. The debts of the
States, incurred in their simplesovereign ca,
pacity, are their own, and the Federal Gov.
eminent has no more constitutional right to
assume them than it has the debts Of Francs
or Great Britain. This Mr.. TYLER knows,
and therefore rePudiates the slightest approch
TO assumption. But can he not see that by
distribution he is doing indirectly, covertly,
what he acknowledges he has no right to do
directly. openly! How much more praise
worthy is q secret, subtle evasion Of the
Constitution, than an open and manly viola.
ton Of it, We hold, we confess, in no high
esteem those politicians who think that the
only honorable way to proceed is always to
adopt measures avowedly for one purpose,
but really for another. Honest and patriot.
ic statesmen never resort to arti6ce; what
they cannot do in an open, direct manner,
they will not do at all.
We oppose distribution because it is in.
tended, as far as it goes, as a measure Of re.
lief to the debtor interest. We protest a.
gainst special legislation in favor OF this in.
terest. Debtors can be relieved by Govern
ment only by taxing for their especial bene-
fit either the laboring class, or the creditor
class, or both. Now, we do not understand
the justice or the policy Of laying a tax on
labor, on industry. prudence and economy,
for the benefit of men who have outrun their
means, and whose rash plans for growing
suddenly rich have ruined them. The mea-
sure we are considering is proposed solely
Tor the relief of the debtor States. Mr.. Ty-
ier SAYS, Ill distribution be not made in some
form or other. the necessity will daily be-
come more urgent with the debtor States for
Il resort to an oppressive system of dlrec,
taxation" The purpose, then, evidently is
TO relieve the indebted States. Now. how is
this TO be dune By distnhutionl The mo-
ney distributed is collected from the people
OF all the States. If The indebted States re-
celve as their portion NO more than they had
previously raid into the Federal Treasury,
why collect it in the first instance? Ifmore,
the excess from the non.indebted States
The non-indebted States, that is. the States
which have managed their affairs prudently
and economically, are TO he taxed 10 make up
for the losses occssioned by the extravaganza
and folly of the others. Is this iustl Is
this sound policy!
The money to be distributed is revenue;
it is SO called by Mr.. Tyler himself. This
money has been collected from the people
at an average expense of thirteen per cent.
It you distribute among the non.indebted
an amount equal to that which they
have paid. YOU have OF course no more TO
distribute among the indebted States than
you had previously collected from them.
minus the thirteen per cent. the cost of COL
Now, If you have so much surplus
revenue, why not reduce your taxes, which
would add TO the means Of the indebted
not only the surplus you propose to
distribute, but the thirteen per cent. they
must paw for its collection; for the distribu-
ton, we take it. will cost five per ceni. at
the average expense Of collecting d.
rect taxes. The people are thirteen per
cent worse Of. in those indebted States, az
ter you have collected and sent back TO them
your surplus, than they would have been had
YOU left the surplus in their pockets. Now
a system Of financial operations occasioning,
a loss equal 10 this per cent. is, in our judg-
ment, worthy Of adoption only by the fnan-
ciers connected with the United States Bank
Of Pennsylvania.