The Madisonian. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1837-1845, 1842-07-23
REMARKS OF MR.. CUSHING,
OF MASSACHUSETTS,
ON THE TARIFF BILL

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,, JUNE ~, io7~'
The House being in Committee of the Whole on
the bill to provide revenue from imports and TO
change and modify existing laws imposing du''es
duties on imports and for other purposes
Mr. CUSHING said the question, as presented IN
the present debate, very general one, not peihg
upon details at all and yet Details after all, were
the most material to be considered, and constituted,
in fact the real and only question to be decided II
vice of the House, in its mode Of discussing
all subjects, which came before it, to attempt too
much, to strike too high, and to cover too much
ground. The few suggestions he had to offer were'
in their nature, wholly practicaso far, at least as
the state Of the question would admit.
The basis of this whole discussion was The ADMIT
ted necessity of raising some twenty-seven miiohs
of to carry on the Government ana the pre-
else question was, how this sum was to be raised :
That the money needed, and must be obtained,
no one had as yet denied the only question disputed
was the mode of raising it, This was question OF
revenue---a question of Government. Two bills 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 in comparison with each other. These bills
contained the only mode yetsuggested for supplying the
revenue needed. No antagonist proposition had
been started in any quarter; for the bill Of the gen
tleman from Georgia, (Mr. Habersham,) offered as
an amendment, was bill to lay duties on imports,
and the gentleman from South Carolina, MIR. Pick
ens,) had expressly admitted that he had no opposing
scheme # finance to propose What amount Oh duty
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 question at all.
Mr.. c. knew that all the great questions had been
mooted which had heretofore agitated our councils
the questions of protection and tariff, and OF Sec
tional interests, &C.. but those questions really
before the committee? Certainly not The question
WIS., how a revenue should be raised? And on this
question it not allowed to gentlemen to stand IN
negative position it 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 OF
political economy; neither it question between
sectional interests 1t purely an American ques-
ton of Government.
Gentlemen, who contended that laying duties
imports not the proper mode Of raising the sums
needed, were bound to tell the House of some other
mode. Gentlemen talked about ant-tarlff princi-
pies what did they mean by ant-tarlt? There was
only way of transa ing that phrase into English
When he looked into the Constitution he found Con-
gress clothed with the power and charged with the
duty of carry ing the Government, for which pur-
pose they were authorized to levy duties imports
(Which the ordinary of tarih) or to lay
ii
the propriety of laying duties imports, they must
be in favor of excise of direct taxes Erclusio
a.us est inclusio aherius if they rejected the
they must resort to the other.
AS to direct taxation, Mr.. 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 1t was practical question:
lnto, ~. oh ha Had hx
analysis Of the BILL clause by clause. 1t could not
be ntegenty discussed general thesis either in
affirmation or denial. If examination should show
that the duty proposed to be laid certain articles
was high to be prohibitory, 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 bill
of this kind fighting in the dark: no logical OF
exact disguiston of it possible in the nature OF
things.
ens in his speech of this morning. had said that the
capacity otour afford revenue had reached
its maximum, that no more could be obtained from
that But this, too was question of details
and it looked beyond the action OF this Government
into the general subject of taxation. 1t was probably
true that in every community there was capacity OF
revenue which might be filled, and beyond which
nothing could be raised by the imposing of du-
ties. Now, suppose it to be proved that we had
reached that point, what else proved That we
were bound TO resort to other means, if more money
was needed. There was no escape from This.
What then, would be the aspect the question Z
When gentlemen told him that commerce could be
further taxed and asked him to lay duties i'm
ports to what did they bring him to what did they
bring themselves
Was it the General Government alone which. in
this country, imposed taxes on the people? All who
undersoo the theory of our Government must know
that theory, the theory of liberty, he ocaliza-
ton of power, and that the opposite theory this
was the Capitalization of power and could not be g-
norant that, with US, this principle OF localzation OF
power had FULLY developed itself The larger orion
OF the whole amount of taxes paid by the Amer-
can People not paid to the General Government
More was paid to the State Governments than to the
General Government On rough estimate 1t might
be the truth to say that for every " paid in
to the General Government, there paid by the
people to their respective State Governments in the
form of State taxes county taxes, township ia xes
and other municipal acquisitions, not less than IS
Less than half of what was raised came into the Fe
dera Golfers.
Now Mr.. G.. would ask of every gentleman here
not as a member of Congress- but the citizen o
some of the States of this UnIon how the ordna
nv current ex penses OF the States were to be met
He did ask how the capital of their existing State
debt was 10 be discharged, or the interest it paid
but how they were 10 meet their ordinary annual
pendltures' Ii must be by taxing something-bj
taxing persons or commodities But how? Wer,
they 10 tax commerce? No. That was inhibited by
the Constitution which conferred this power exclu
svey upon Cong II must then be by direct ia
or by an excise The taxing of commerce belonged
to Congress. But gentlemen said that commerce wa.
already taxed to its maximum: here was the fallac,
OF the whole argument. Gentlemen who had adj
vanced this proposition looked only at the system o
other countries 1t might probably be that in Franc,
or Enoa commercial duties for bad attained
their maximum point. But in those countries gov
eminent power and expenditures comparatively
centralized, aud therefore the amount of money actu
ally raised had TO be much larger than with US
Whether the taxation of commerce had reached
such point was, as he had before sad, question OF
details.
In this brief view, Mr.. G.. had touched t. subject
only as a GovernmenLquestIon. And he would put
it to genieien Whether all the questions which had