The Madisonian. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1837-1845, 1842-08-11


Outlying these imports than in dutying the others that
| IT may consume. There is vast important, oppres-
sve difference. In the first case, the working man
be his means little or much, has resource but to
buy the taxed necessaries do wlthout-he feels
that his free will is in measure, invaded. Not so
| in the last case-here he has resort-hs free
will remains whoe-he may go to his garden, or his
farm, his household manufacture, if he chooses or
thinks proper In the first case, he may be said TO
pay involuntary indirect tax and in the last case,
voluntary indirect sensitive difference in the
sentiment of the freeman, be assured Some sngu-
larly charitable beralists say that those who object
| to paying tax upon those articles which I'M
adapted TO climate, substitute rye coffee, sage
mint, and other herb tea spice wood, and naive red
| pepper, sc. A reference to the taxed tea of the
Revolution, and the battle Of Bunkers Hill, might
perhaps, be an appropriate reply.
In truth, there is no indirect tax in the whole
| catalogue unjust to the working man as that
which is now to be levied on products that do not
belong to our climate, and palpable too that it
| should not be thought of for moment. Let us ex-
pose its partial operation by illustration 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 u.s. evies teas duty of 20, Is, TO- and
cents per pound, and on bohea species similar
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 ;
plmento or aspce, 5 cents pound black pepper
cents pound; ginger, : cents pound camphor
20 cents pound On salt--in this instance | mean
| rock and Island SALT the purest kinds, 10 cents
bushel, of Sc pounds measured bushel of these
kinds weighing much more. On raw sugar q cents
| per pound clayed sugars cents pound refined
sugars, E cents pound moasses 5 cents e lion
The foregoing articles, with the exception of sugar
and moasses-and the duty on that eXorbitant, from
SO to Is cents-are either rejected by or not found
N Our ri Aate and he Int Nov
pose that the duty per annum on the consumption Of
these necessaries should be dollar piece-a mod
crate estimate-to every one about this establish
ment it exhibits the spectacle of congregation Of
IA non-captalist working families around manufac-
turing establishment, and each of such families com
prising ten individuals, paying as much tax inn
ported necesaries, towards supporting their Govern
ment the 100000, dollar capitalists family of ten
persons also, that employs them One specimen
this Mr.. Chairman, OF " taxation labor to the
lief of capital" under this tax bill We will offer
another. Most of us have heard of the sufferings
and privations, and intense wearing labor that the
thousands of destitute females some of the larger
cities undergo, to the miserable pittance that
will barely surtain life in themselves and their
children Let us suppose one of those ware
houses or clothing contractors, with capital of
100000, that employs some hundreds of these
heart.broken females, at mere skin-and- bone pay,
each of them contributing 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, hum
dred and eighty dollars yearly of this kind of tax
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 man in the West,
with wife and ten understanding uncommon
there-will have to pay 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 own country as his
capitalist neghbors of extended thousands of dollars
Such will be the wide disparity of the action Of this
kind of upon labor and capital all over the Union
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 var.
per centages levied on the tax itself by the tra
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 more dollars year of taxes on their consump-
ton OF tea, coffee, Spices sugar. molasses, and SALT
towards supporting their Government, what should
idle family of ten persons, with 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
of the States at once as well as the Government
expenses?
| ask the Peoples representatives to pause before
they inct this anticlmate product tax upon the la
Dor of the country, 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
to the justice and wisdom of the representative, but
appeal 10 his humanity, against exacting duties
from such imports that have become necessaries in
universal request, although choose to call them
Injuries Will he make the toil-worn laborer and
mechanic and the widow and orphan, contribute as
much towards the expenses of Government, through
the action OF necessous consumption, as the indie
pendent and the opulent?
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 work herself almost blind at her needle from day.
light in the morning, to the middle of the night and
longer, to some twenty five cents towards barely
sustaining life in her children and herself? Will he
wiring tax from her scanty ptance of tea, and cof
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 legisated her into her depressed condition,
equally with her rich neighbors, Of thousands upon
thousands surrounded by all the luxuries, 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 immutabe 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
of the West, with this anti-clmate product tax
without hearing from them the occasion The far
mers OF Ohio pay their own State and county taxes
cheerfuly that matter belongs to themselves; but
they will not sit very placdly under this Congresson-
al offspring of special purpose that is going to be i'm
posed on 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 ACKNOWLEDGING wisdom of their Government;
let them have their nutmegs, and cinnamon and pep
per, and ginger, and aspce, 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
sons will make you untax again.
perceive that, according to the report of the Sec
rotary of the Treasury, accompanying bill to pro-
vide revenue from imports, &c., that the impos indi-