The daily Madisonian. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1841-1845, 1842-07-23
REMARKS OF MR.. CUSHING,
or MAssAcIIusErTs,
ON THE TARIFF BILL.


The House being in Committee Of the Whole ON
the bill to provide revenue from imports anu "
change and modify existing laws imposing du'''
duties on imports and for other purposes
Mr. CUSHING said the question, as presented III
the present debate a very general one, not oe's
upon details at all and yet details, after all were
the most material 10 be considered and constituted,
in fact, the real and only question 10 DC aecidoo'
was a vice of the House. in its mode OF discussing
all subjects, which before it, to attempt TOO
much to strike too high, and to cover too much
ground The few suggestions he had to ofer were'
in their nature, wholly practcal-so far, al least s
the state of the question would admit
The basis of this whole discussion was the admit
ted necessity Of raising some twenty-seven mlhohs
Of revenue to carry the Governments and the pre-
else question was, how this was to be raised
That the money was needed, and must be obtained
no one had as yet denied the only question disputed
was the mode of raising it. This was question oil
reyenue-a question of Government. Two oiiis had
been presented TO the House, the one by the Commit
tee of WAYS and Means, the other by the Committee
on Manufactures, and the House was considering
them as in comparison with each other These oliis
contained the only mode yetsuggested for 'he
revenue needed No antagonist proposition had
been started in any quarter for the bill OF the gen
tlemap from Georgia, INF. ilaocIshah,) ohSiS" 90
an amendment was bill to lay duties on imports,
and the gentleman from South Carolina, (Mr Pick
ens) had expressly admitted that he had no opposing
scheme # finance to propose. what amount OF au'y
should be imposed upon woollens, what upon sugar
what upon cotton, were questions OF detail purely
so that on the general state Of the subject there was
in reality, no questonAt all .
Mr. c. knew that all the great questions had been
mooted which had heretofore agltated our councils
the questions of protection and tariff, and OF sec
tional interests Sc. but were those questions really
before the committee Certainly not The question
was, how revenue should be raised! AND on tihs
question it was not allowed to gentlemen to stand IN
negative position it was incumbent on them TO act;
they were bound to provide the means to carry on
the Government. This question OF party no
question between schools OF finance, or schools oil
political economy; neither was 1t question between
sectional interests 1t was purely an American ques-
ton of Government.
Gentlemen who contended that laying duties on
imports was the proper mode of raising the sums
needed were bound to tell the House of some other
mode Gentlemen talked about anti-tarlh princl-
pies what did they mean by anti-tarif' There was
only way of ransaling that phrase INTO English.
When he looked into the Constitution he found Con
gress clothed with the power and charged with the
duty of carrying on the Government, for which pur-
pose they were authorized to levy duties on imports
(Which was the ordinary of tariii) or to lay
direct taxes and excuses. Now if gentlemen denied
the proprety of laying duties on imports, they must
be in favor of excise of direct taxes Ercusio
they must resort to the other
As to direct taxation, MIR. c. would not enter on
that subject till some gentleman proposed the adoP-
ton of that mode of raising revenue
The true and only pertinent question then was,
whether the duties proposed in either of the two bills
before the committee would furnish the requisite
amount of money II was a practical questlon-a
question of Details which could only be settled by
analysis Of the bill, clause by clause 1t could not
be ineligenlly discussed general thesis either in
affirmation denial. If examination should show
that the duty proposed TO be laid certain articles
was so high to be prohibtory, and so to produce
no revenue, that was good reason why they should
be lowered. This separate question arising on
each item To attempt general discussion OF a bill
of this kind, fighting in the dark no logical or
exact disqusition Of was possible in the nature OF
things.
The gentleman from South Carolina, (Mr. Pick
ens in his speech of this morning. had said that the
capacity ofour commerce To afford had reached
its maximua, that could be obtained from
Ms, sonrce But tins, too was question of dela
into Inc ,'med beyond the action of this Government
troe ~ general subject of taxation Il was probablv
revenue which might be filled, ~ d capacity 9l
;o''hg more could be raised by the imuy o"u w"ich
reached ,hs, sapP0s ~ha. S DC ina We
were l,and to resort other means, if more money
was needed There escape from This.
What, then, would be the aspect of the question :
When gentlemen told him that commerce could be
further taxed and asked him not to lay duties i'm
pors, to what did they bring him to what did they
bring themselves
Was the General Government alone which in
this country, imposed taxes on the people All who
understood the theory of our Government must know
that theory, the theory OF liberty the ocaliza-
ton of power, and that the opposite theory this
the Capitalization of power; and could not be ig-
norant that, with US this principle of locaization of
power had July developed itself The larger or ion
OF the whole amount of taxes paid by the Ameri-
can People NOT pad 10 the General Government
More was paid the State Governments than TO the
General Government. On a rough estimate It might
be near the truth to say that for every " paid in
to the General Government, there paid by the
people to their respective Stale Governments in the
form of State taxes, county taxes, ia xes
and other municipal acquisitions, not less than s.
Less than half of what was raised came the Fe-
deral Golfers.
Now, Mr. G. would ask of every gentleman here
not as member of Congress, but the citizen of
one of the States of this Union, how the odina
ny current expenses OF the States were to be met Z
He did not ask how the capital of their existing State
debt was To be discharged the interest on it paiI
but how they we're 10 meet their ordinary annual ex
pendtures' Ii must be by taxing something
taxing persons or commodities. But how 2 Were
they tax commerce2 No. That was inhibited by
the Constitution, which conferred this power exclu-
sively upon Congress Ii must then he by direct Ia
or by an excise. The taxing of commerce BELONGED
10 Congress. But gentlemen said that commerce was
already taxed to It's maximum: here the iaIlacy
OF the whole argument. Gentlemen who had adj
vanoed this proposition looked only the system of
other 1t might probably be that in France
or England commercial duties for revenue had attained
their maximum point. But in those countries gov
eminent power and expenditures were COMPARATIVELY
centazed and therefore the amount of money actu-
ally raised had TO be much larger than with US
Whether the taxation of our Commerce had reached
such point was, as he had before sad a question of
details
In this brief view, Mr.. G. had touched t G subject
only as a Government question. And he would out
II to genie zen whether all the questions which had
been mooted IN this debate--quesoDs of protective
tariff of the mode and degree of protection on yari-
Gus interests OF commerce, agriculture, manufactures
&c wee material 10 be settled 7 Would not the
question passing these bills be just the same if
there were such thing protection 2 The oues