Richmond enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1815-1867, 1842-02-17

dopnd 10 The peculiar b. sell, NJ each when one or me
o,her must b. dsappo,u,et aud when neither would
sustain II, L it an,ciraisd sueh disappointment:
The urrunent thus i"r IS placed upon the highest
,onnd for II goes upon The suppcslion that the Stale
will receive as much the form of distribution Us will
he collected from her By thu Tarit But will such BE-
the case: Before gentlemen answer this question they
must estimate the enormous EXPENSES oil collecting the
revenue by the General Government, which Is TO he
deducted and the unequal operation Of the Tariff upon
tho staole States Bu,she would not he enced INTO
,b; yinw of the case lie d1d mean, unprepared
~ bc was for the discussion, 10 70 into full review
the Distribution policy. lie should Only advert 10 is
mos, obnny ious effects upon our State interests.
Gentlemen nss, that the reception Of the Dstribu.
ton fund will obvlue the Necessity Of increased taxa
ton by the State Waving ~ the presenta discussion
Of which will be most oppSs'Ise 10 Virginia an increase
of indirec, taxes BY the General Government, in the
form of an increased TARIFF increase Of her State
taxa,on he would enquire whether the increased Fe
de raj taxation will obviae theneccss,y Of increase
Of State taxation. To guide in ihis discussion we
are not left merely to speculaon-we have experience
to light up our path
In the winter of 1867, we made provision for re-
ceivng large deposite il called but in fact
donation of money from the General Government ii
was in fact the success, in another FORM OF Mr. Clay
Distribution bill, which Gen Jackson vetoed 1t CO.
vered abou. the same amount OF money which that bill
did; and the receipt Of the State under measure
was about what II would have been under the other
the only difference beng the provided for the dls-
trbulion OF the fund rs it accumulated, and the other
distributed after it had accumulated. The Stale
| received under that deposit about S2,500,00O Our
portion under the Distribution Law is not estimated al
over 5000, 900. So il will be many years before we
will receive as much under the Distribution Law, as
we did under The Deposile Law. Indeed, the interest
Of the money received deposie, will very nearly, u
not quite amount 10 much as our share, UNDER Inc
Distribution Law. But did that large amount OF money
received into the Treasury go to prevent resort TO
taxation So tar from that being the case the very
verse was the fact II the nest egg OF extra
yaoance Like the dollar gwen TO The spendriit, II
had not heen applied TO the discharge oil old debts but
il had been the excuse and the smulan 10 contract
now ones This was 10 have been expected. II is an
in6rmty of our nature, to squander away money sud-
de nly and unex pectedy acquired Legislative oodies
o,e nrone TO cxlravagance, aud The moment you re-
move the only restraint upon them, The fear oil raising
taxes upon the people, you make II ooundless,
As he had already said provision to receive the de-
posi, of the surplus revenue OF the Y. States, was
made by the Legislature Of Virginia, at the session OF
1886 At The comm sncemen; of that session, on the
! Sin of December 1886, our public debt amounted to
81, 727 e39 IL The money received on depose, was
not applied 10 the payment OF this debt, which II
would have discharged; but It was vested IN Bank
Stock Nevertheless, at the session of the lie.
rislature of 1867 certain and contingent Liabilities
were incurred to the amount OF S4,ol3,0O0 And al
The next session of 1885 before the impetus ofextrava
uance which the depose had gwen was ell, they were
deposite 81 ll2 400 He made this sa'endnt from
paper prepared for him by the Pad Auditor in March,
lo40. Extravagant these appropriations were, Mr.
B. spoke from his recollection when he stated
that the friends of Internal Improvement, as they
claimed especially to be- considered the nselves as hav
nu been defeated by the narrow minded economists o
the House. as we were then called and the
bills came up and it objected to then, that they
would make resort TO heavy taxation necessary, WI
were pointed by their friends 10 this very fund.- which
IN dpp,a Il
and all seemed think, like Foruna,us purse, coult
meyer be exhausted. To say n-thing about on
liability TO refund the deposi,e 'tselS we have incur
red independent OF il, public debt OF near sever
millions Of dollars. And since II was made, we har,
been compelled twice TO resort 10 an increase OF taxa
.iop amounting in all TO an increase Of about 80 pc
cent: and we have now a sad detcis in the Treasury
And will any body, said Mr.. Bayyr point TO III,
good which has been effected by those appropriation
which have sadd!ed with a heavy deb, and imposed
upon us the necessity o! resort 10 taxation; All G
our improvements which cost large amount Of mo
new were made before the time TO WHICH allude. n,
appropriation which is charge upon the Treasury,
which is included in our State debt, has been made Il
the James River Company since that time The Ere
dercksburg, Petersburg and Roanoke and Ports
mouth Railroads were already constructed. Mo
ncy was brought into the Treasury without any re
sponsihiiy Of the representatives, and II was reck
lessly souandered This had not been the in V,r
gna alone, it had been the same in New York, Penn
IN nearly all the States Mr.. b Yves, into statement
IN relation to all these States t. prove his assertion
New York's debt in 1887, was abou,:1 Millions
is upwards of 20. Pennsylvania and Maryland's hat
doubled The debt Of Ohio in 1896 was about mil
lions. now it is upwards Of To- The debt of lndian
in 1896 was little upwards OF millions, now i
nearly as much as Ohios. These facts he had ascer
tanned from correspondence with the financial officer
of some of these States but they were also TO be foun
in the American Almanac for this year. But HI
sha NJ Da,1
repeated that this result not the effect of acct
dent 1t had lis origin in hr rperiectlon OF on
nature The only protection Of the people ugains
extravaganza was, that the Represe.ta who made
the Appropriation, should also .lays the taxes IT
avoid his odious act, they would be forced TO OBJ
strongest objections TO The distribution policy 1t wou
PROSTATE the last barrier Of extravaganza. 1t wou
break down the direct responsibility Of the Represen
tative to his constituents.
There were many other objections 10 the distribution
policy II would reverse the constitutional relations
the States and the General Government. Instead o
the States being soyereigns, and the General Govern
only their creature, the fornrr will become th
absolute dependents OF The ia.'et the States depend
ing upon The General Government for their dali,
bread, as 1t were, viii lose all their pride ane
independence, and become lis mere dependents. -
But as bad as this was, it not the worst
1t would not only make them the dependents o
the General Government, but absolutely of the Pre-
q
iect but he believed we'll founded Each State quo
Ia under the Distribution Law, would depend upon TIT
amount of land sold. Under land laws the Presi
dent regulates the time of lie sales, and the quantity
of land 10 be brought into market Upon his gooe
WILL therefore, will depend tn" s.m Of money which
the States TO receive To-day, he people of ht
States their Legislatures ore very complying, ant
its largess is great ", they recusun
they are put ON short allowance. The gentleman from
Fauqnler (Mr. Scott,l few days ago, Id evinced
bnrrr pf uftyp mi. Ila
ed the study of the operation Of this distribution
policy TO the gentleman, for il augmented Exc
cntise patronage in greater variety of ways
and TO greater extent than my measure whcl
had ever been proposed in his day. But he was no
prepared do justice TO this branch of the subject -
fle should have gone at large into il, upon the resolu
tons of bis friend from Louisa, (Mr. flolladayD bu
surprising that those resolutions woc.a share the fate
of the others against the dongs If The Extra Session
of Congress and be kept by the Wings upon the table
he had dismissed the subject from h:s mind. And he
did wi, less reluctance, lie lad discussed the
subject fully in lcSJ.