The North-Carolina standard., 1843-07-12

what made it worse, the public debt was then re-
duced to small amount; and what remained was
in regular and rapid course OF reduction, which
would in a few years. entirely extinguish the
whole when more than half of the revenue would
have become surplus 1t was under these circum-
stances that the bill of 1925 which so greatly in.
creased the duties, was introduced and became a
law-an act Of legislative folly and wickedness
almost without example Well has the commu-
nifty paid the penalty. Yes, much which it now
SUFFERS and has suffered, and must suffer, are but
its bitter fruits 1t was that which so enormously
increased the surplus after the extingush-
ment of the debt in 1882 and it was that surplus
which mainly led to the vast expansion of the cur
rency that followed, and from which have sr1c-
ceed d so many disasters 1t was that which
wrecked the currency, overthrow the almost en-
tire machinery OF ofcommerce, preciptated hundreds
of thousands from affluence to want, and which
has done so much to taint private and public NOR
ais
But is this revenue bill2 deny it. We
have, indeed the word of the chairman forit-
He tells us it is necessary to meet the expendi-
tures of the Government; of which, however he
gave US but little proof except his word But l
must inform him that he must go step further
before he can satisfy me. He must not only show
that it is necessary to meet the expenditures of the
Government, but, also, that those expenditures
themselves are necessary. He must show that
retrenchment and economy have done their full
work; that all useless expenditures have been
Topped off; that exact economy has been enforced
in every branch, both in the collection and dis
burSement of the revenue; and, above all, that
none of the resources of the Government have
been thrown away surrendered. Has he done
all that? Or has be showed that it has been at
tempted 2-that either he or his party have made
any systematic serioas effort to redeem the
pledge, so often and solemnly given before the
election, that the expenditures should be greatly
reduced below what they then were, and be bTo't
down to seventeen, sixteen, and even as low as
thirteen millions of dollars annually2 Has not
their course been directly the reverse, since they
came into power2 Have they not surrendered
one of the two great sources of revenue-the pub
lie lands; raised the expenditure from twenty-one
or two millions, to twenty-seven annually and
increased the public debt from five and half to
more than twenty milions2 And has not all this
been DONE under circumstances well calculated TO
excite suspicion that the real design TO create
necessity for duti s. with the express view Of af
fording protection to manufactured Have they
not indeed, told US, again and again. through their
great head and organ, that the two great and in
dISpenSable measures to relieve the country from
existing embarrassments were Il protective tariff,
and national bank2 and is it. then, uncharitable
to assert that the expenditures so far from being
necessary TO the just and economical wants Of the
Government, have been raised TO what they are,
with the design Of passing this bill in the on y way
il could be passed-nnder the guse of Il revenue?
But if it were admitted that the amount it pro-
poses to raise is necessary to meet the expendi-
tures of the Government, and that the expenditures
themselves were nccessary-the chairman must
still go one step further, to make good his asser-
tion that this is bill for revenue and not for pro-
lection He must show that the duties it proposes
are laid on revenue, and not on protective princi
pies
No two things, Senators, are more different
than duties for revenue and protection. They are
as opposite light and darkness. The one is
friendly and the other hostile to the importation of
the article on which they may be imposed. Re-
venue seeks not to exclude or diminish the amount
imported on the contrary, if that should be the
result, it neither designed nor desired it. While
it takes, it paronizes; and patronizes, that it may
take more 1t is the reverse. in every respect
with protection. 1t seeks, directly, exclusion or
diminntion. 1t is the desired result; and, if it
fails in that, it fails in its object But, although
so hostile in character they are intimately blend
ed in practice. Every duty imposed on an arti-
Gle manufactured in n4he country, if it be not raised
to the point of prohibition, will give some reve
nue.; and every one laid for revenue be it ever
so low, must afford some protection. as it is called
But notwithstanding they are so blended in prac-
tice, plain and ineligible rules may be laid down,
by which the one may be so distinguished from
the other, as never to be confounded. To make
a duty a revenue, and not protective duty, it is
in the first place. that it should be
necessary to meet the expenditures of the Gov
and, in the next, that the expenditures
themselves should be necessary for the support of
the Government, without the deficit being caused
to raise the duty, either by sur
render of other sources of revenue, or by neglect
or waste. In n"ither case, as has been stated
would the duty be for revenue 1t must in add-
ton, never be so high as to prohibit the importa
ton of the article; that would be utterly incom
patible with the object revenue. But there are
other less obvious, though not less important rules
by which they may be Disseminated with equal
.a .-..s....--.. ..
On all articles on which duties can be imposed,
there is a point in the rate of duties which may
be called the maximum point of revenue-that is,
a point at which the greatest amount of revenue
would be raised. IF it be elevated above that, the
importation of the article would fall off more rap
idly than the duty would be raised; and, if de-
pressed below it, the reverse effect would follow
that is, the duty would decrease more rapidly
than the importation would increase. If the duty
be raised above that point, it is manifest that all
the intermediate space between the maximum
point and that to which it may be raised, would
be purely protective, and not at all for revenue