The daily Madisonian. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1841-1845, 1842-07-26
Concluded.

LESSONS who will study the general good, and legs
late as periodically the iaraer- certainly there are
and Heaven forbid that II should be otherwisei oo'
for farmers ~ have, IN the genera sense
hare of legislators more essentially OF themselves Cd
this floor and the business of tue country VIII oo
more impartially done, and agricultural interests
which are the primary ones, VIII nave .ha' Jusucs
met, d out to them which they are entitled TO-
How comes IT, IN this Tax BILL that you levy du-
~ ON leather of from SO 40 per cent and the same
on shoes while On dry and salted hides you lay du-
~ only of about fiom 5 to 10 per cent, giving the
tanner Ar advantage him. the farmer Of from 20
TO 30 Der cent? How cones 1t that you lay duties OF
from % To 90 per cent woolen fabrics and only
per cent on wool of cents down, thereby giving me
manufacturer advantage of 10 10 20 per cent. over
the farmer You are aware that the farmer mas
nearly whole OF the taxes that support MS o'a'e
and county governments to pay, yet IN this Oil you
tax the harness leather Tor his horses and MS SHOES
souo 10 per cent? the IRON and steel Tor his Pioushs
and hafrows, and spades and shovels, and hoes ana
pchiorks, and log-chaiDs and holse-shoes, and way
on ire some So per cent his sugar % to 10 per
cent. his we's pots and pans, and cups anu sau-
GERS 30 per cent. the antclimate products tha'
he raise his farm, nor IN his garden, such
tea coffee, and spices lOO 10 100 per cent; even on
the very bullet that he puts his rte Ia shoot per
hops, the enemies Of his country, 100 per cent;
hle on Of his staples, coarse wool and hides,
to be favored with five per cent on the iormer and
from 10 per cent the latter, both at present
duty free. Besides doing injustice 10 the farmer by
importing wool duty Tree, we are doing 1t to the
country by Encouraging IFS increase Look at the
condition of soldiers during the last war on the
Canada frontier IA whole regiment in the dead OF
winter without blankets! WHAT'S the consequence
of this diffcrential duty on wool, in Ohio Nearly
the whole Of the sheep Ia this State are more or less
of The fine wooded breed, the farmer naturally looking
10 the duty favored article above cents. Wretched
policy in legi lation, think. | do not know what SOL
dieis blankets like now but know that years
ago en- had occasion to know them through an ac
quantance with contractor manufacturer, they were
composed chiefly Of heap wool from South AmsTica,
kind of long HAIR might have been called thai mad
to be chopped up with axe containing very little
more warmth than horse hair and these some at
least of the blanket appliances furnls ed at that day
he soldier who fought the battles Of his country to
protect hin from the incle nencies of winter weather
May the farmer, with great prOprieiy, ask the
advocates of such extraordinary dIscrinative taxes
what they mean do they to tax him for them
selves, but moi themselves for him Well be this as
il may, l have no hesitation in pronouncing, that
when he to understand the matter he will, as
SAID before, enforce justice at the baot.box he will
permit no such injurious discriminating diferential
tax alton, matter how specious in pretext He
knows TO be sure, that indirect taxation cannot be
equal its operation or results, but can be in Its
special detail and provisions. He wishes to pay |
cheeriuily his share Of supporting his Govern nent,
but, of course, is unwilling that more should be i'm
posed on him by partial legislation. The farmers Mr..
Chairman in Oaio at least, are making progress in
the investigation of this thing of indirect alton,
devised that will divert them from it their attention
is turned TO the truh-that they the broad indus
trial class OF the community bear the heaviest charges
towards supporting Governments, Federal and State
and that Is therefore, incumbent them to that
the indirect taxes with which they burdened to
that effect, be levied equally and impar,ially, by
avoidance of the dscrmi.. alive sophstry and the i'm
posing iallacies belonging to it.
field of discrimination which occupies Congress at
this moment, but it will be to discriminate between
fact and fiction, soundness and sophstry, practice and
profession between impartial legislation for the
whole, and partial legislation for class and privilege
and local interest and sectional pursuit and between
undisgused direct taxation, and cloaked and hooded
tortuous, insidious, nsnuating, indirect taxation
And they will investigate, too, the principle, "a
ther scheme, of Observation-Disclosures, where it is
special policy, it is not positively opposed to Demo-
cratic institutions, and whether the object of tariff
of protection, it is called has not in all cases been
antagonstical to the benefit Of the whole People of
any country But for the affirmative of all this we
have the experience the positive evidence before our
eyes, in the situation and oppressed condition of the
laboring population Of those countries that have at
all times had the highest rates of duties Ostensbly
the intention held forth to benefit the community
whole, but that object has yet been attain
ed the result is to increase the wealth of the veal
thy 1t has two-fold purpose-to stimulate certain
productions artihcialy, and thereby produce large
surplus and indirectly to increase taxation, while
both inure to the advantage of H. few and wealthy
the labor of the country having to pay all the taxes
and the wealthy being invariably the great tax con-
sumers If there is to be a dominant interest in
Republic the general agrcult Iral is the only one
that should be pernitted-any other would be dam
gerous to free Government and absorb nearly all le-
gisation. In saying general agricultural" mean
as il is in our country indivduaised, not where il
can be controlled in masses.
As a surreptitious dominant interest, we will in
stance banking, which had well nigh corrupted the
whole legislation of the Republic; the mercantile;
q 4. I'll Al
ing, unless controlled in time The general legisla-
ton of the country has been almost exclusively for
these particular interests while the agricultural has
scarcely been thought of.
The American Union, consisting Of such power
full galaxy of sovereign Republics to be really happy
and independent should be neither an exporting nor
an importing People particularly they should in the
aggregate, do every thing whin themselves as far as
opssble The evils accrung from imports are OBJ
vous and those attendant exports beyond the
imports, are the result of improper of soce-
ty for the surplus production of no country will be
very great unless it be arhcally caused by an undue
inequality in the state of its population many
working exclusively for the profit Of the few
Money is power commensurate with its uses mo-
ney In diffusion IS power IN diffusion; that is money
in the Peoples pockets is power dIfused among the
People, therefore the People should not permit one
dollar more to leave their pockets through the scheme
of taxation than will be sufficient for the necessary
expenses of their Government it is abstracting now
from diffusion to concentration taking il from the
People and giving it to the Government-very unwise
in Republic. Above all action towards weakening
difused power in the People and concentrating il in
the Government, the device of indirect taxa ion on
consumption IS the most nsidous in progress and par
tal in operation. But | trust that the farmers and
workers will put all these things to rights for if they
don't, none else will.
1t is somewhat amusing, Mr.. Chairman, to see adj
vocates, and strenuous ones, too of American manu-
features, dressed all the time in foreign fabrics some
i'm fl AMI he Of
Gle so, expahating away in full blow on the neces
sity and wisdom OF protective tariff to save the
country from ruin and lenovate and raise il up to the
very acme of prosperity. However, so it is, and so
1t VIII be suppose yet 1t seems to place such earn
est patriots IN rather an anomalous aspect and the
only of accounting for the