The daily Madisonian. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1841-1845, 1842-08-11

be his means little or much, has but Il
buy the taxed necessafies do without-he feel'
that bis free will is, in measure, invaded. Not Sc
in the last case-here he has some resort-his free
wall remains whoe--he may go TO his garden or ms
farm, his household manufacture, if he chooses OF
thinks proper. In the first case he may be said to
pay involuntary indirect tax and in the last case,
voluntary Indirect taxa sensitive difference IN the
sentiment of the freeman, be assured. Some singu-
larly charitable beralists say that those who object
to paying tax upon those articles which are I'M
adapted TO our climate nsubsute rye coffee, sage
mint, and other herb tea spice wood and native red
pepper, sc. reference to the taxed tea of the
Revolution, and the battle OF Bunkers Hill, might
perhaps, be an appropriate reply
| In truth, there is indirect tax IN the whole
catalogue so unjust to the working that
| which is now to be levied on products that do not
| belong To climate, and SO papable too that IT
| should not be thought of for moment Let us ex-
pose its partial operation 10y illustration or two.
| We will instance capitalist manufacturer with
investment of 100000 having family of nine and
himself and employing IA families of 10 each. The
tax bill of the Committee of Ways and Means, which
is before US, levies teas duty of 20, l5 TO- and
cents per pound and on bohea, species similar to
clover hay cents pound on coffee, 20 per cent
on cocoa cent per pound; chocolate, cents pound;
mace, so cents pound nutmegs, 80 cents pound ;
cloves, cents pound cinnamon, 25 cents pound !;
pimento, or allspice, cents pound black pepper,
| 3 cents pound; ginger, cents pound camphor,
| 20 cents pound On salt--in this instance mean
| bushel, of Sc pounds, a measured bushe of these
kinds weighing much more. On sugar, q cents
per pound clayed sugars, cents pound refined
sugars, 8 cents pound moasses cents z Hon.
The foregoing articles with the exception of sugar
and moasses-and the duty on that eXorbitant, from
so to IS centsare either rejected by, not found
i'm our climate and should be duty free. Now sup
pose that the duty per annum on the consumption of
these necessares should be dollar piece-a mod
crate estimate--to every about this establish
ifs no s IF of
Ia non-captaist working families around manufac
turing establishment, and each Of such families,
prising ten individuals paying as much tax on inn
ported necessaries, towards supporting their Govern
ment the 100000 dollar capitalists family of ten
persons Also that employs them One specimen,
this, Mr. Chairman, of taxation on labor to the
lief of capital" under this tax bill We will offer
another. Most of us have heard of the suferings
and prvations, and intense wearing labor that the
thousands of destitute females some of the larger
cities undergo, to the miserable pttance that
will barely surtain life in themselves and their
children Let us suppose of those
houses or clothing contractors, with q capital of
100000 that employs some hundreds of these
heartbroken females, at mere skin-and-bone pay,
each of them contributing as much tax toward the
expenses of the Government, on the consumption of
the articles have enumerated, as the one hundred
thousand dollars capitalist that employs them the
whole of these, suppose some three hundred that
work for him. paying, at sixty cents each one hun
while he in unrestricted indulgence, pays from five
to ten dollars perhaps, according to the family he may
have another sample of taxation on labor to the
relief of capital" A working in the West,
with wife and ten children-nothing uncommon
there-will have TO pay as much tax in his Govern
ments support on his consumption of those foreign
products which his climate will not permit him to
command from the soil of his country, as his
capitalist neghbors of extended thousands of dollars
Such will be the wide disparity of the action of this
nd of lahn and lalI If,,,,
if Congress persists in imposing it. But it will not
be the tax to Government alone that the consumer
will have to pay, for when he buys the article the du-
ties will have been doubled perhaps, from the yari
per centages levied the tax itself by the traf
fckers through whose hands it will have passed.
Suppose this problem should be submitted to the
tax projectors. If working family of ten persons
with capital at all but their hands, pay from six to
ten or more dollars year of taxes their consump-
ton of tea, coffee, Spices sugar moasses and salt
towards supporting their Government, what should
an idle family of ten persons, with a capital of one
hundred thousand dollars, pay a similar con-
sumption! Would not proportIonate solution, APP
piled to all the capital in the Union, pay the debts
expenses
ask the Peoples representatives to pause, before
they intllct this antclimae product tax upon the la
Dor of the country, as it will have the most of it to
pay, nearly all, from the way have shown it will
work nothing more plain. do not merely appeal
appeal TO his humanity, against exacting duties
from such imports that have become necessaries in
universal request, although choose to call them
luxuries. Will he make the toil-worn aborer and
mechanic, and the widow and orphan, contribute
much towards the expenses of Government, through
the action of necessitous consumption, as the indie
pendent and the opuent
Will he make the destitute heart broken female Of
the city, who has been reduced from more prosper
Gus days, perhaps to distressing indulgence who has
to hars nj ha,, J,r
light in the morning, to the middle of the night and
longer, 10 some twenty five cents towards barely
sustaining life in her children and herselfi Will he
wiring tax from her scany pittance of tea, and cot
fee, and sugar, and SALT 100 to $50 per cent even
from the handful OF coal in her little crate, that she
shivers over while plying her intense labor Of
freezing winters night Will he, say, make this
poor woman assist her Government that has per-
haps legislated her into her depressed condition,
equally with her rich neighbors of thousands upon
thousands, surrounded by all the luxures and COM
forts, and enjoyments of life? If he will do this
thing however, he may yet need her prayers with the
recording angel that the deed be not traced with her
tears in the book of fate, where immutable truth will
appear for and against us all.
do not think Mr.. Chairman, that we will be able
to burden the farmers and mechanics and other work.
ers of the West, with this anti-cmate product tax
without hearing from them on the occasion The far
mers of Ohio pay their own State and county taxes
cheertuly; that matter belongs TO themselves but
they will not sit very placdly under this Congression-
al offspring of special purpose that going be inn
posed them. Let the wives of the Western house.
hold enjoy their tea and coffee in peace, without the
indirect tax accompaniment to remind them of the
benign labor-burdening wisdom of their Government;
let them have their nutmegs, and cinnamon and pep
per, and ginger and alspce which they cannot raise
in their gardens-free; let them have them without
the 100 to $50 per cent. tax abstraction Depend
upon it, if you tax in this instance their husbands and
will make you untax again.
| that, according to the reDort of the
rotary OF the Treasury, accompanying bill to pro-
vide revenue from imports, &C., that the mpost ind
rect tax which would be collected off the anti-clmate
products OF tea, coffee spices, and camphor, by
the provisions of the tax bin of the Committee of
Ways and Means, would be about s4S56 900, and
the indirect tax sugars. moasses and salt about