The Evansville journal. (Evansville, Ind.) 1834-184?, 1844-07-18

0ntNn PdSSCQ UOlu HOUSES III SOl01SSS q UOul4
the same time with the Compromise itself,
was by us regarded as part and parcel OF
one great revenue and financial system which
we desired to establish for the benefit OF the
whole Country. While temporarily surren-
dering the Land Fund to the States, TO which
it rightfuly belonged, in the judgment oftle
Congress of 1888, we provided, in the Com
promise Act, that there should be a day fix
ed at which, in accordance with a suggestion
previously made by General Jackson himself
the Land Fund should for ever cease TO be
regarded as a source o revenue by the Cen
eral Government. 1t i%strue, that we should
have acted more wisely, as the event proved
by incorporating the provisions ola DIstribu-
lion Bill in the Compromise itself. But
who could have supposed, at that day, that
President jackson would have vetoed a bill
which carried out his own suggestion? New
ertheless, he defeated that great and %salutary
measure of Distribution, by means which no
end can ever justify. He refused 10 return
the bill with his objections, 10 the House in
which neutrality-suspicious. because
he had reason TO believe, that, had he compli-
ed with this, his constitutional duty each
branch of Congress stood ready, by a vote of
two-thirds, TO make the bill a law, in spite of
his veto.
i have said, that the Tariff of lS42, is, in
my view, a substantial compliance, in most
respects, with the principles ofthe Compton,
Use Act, and the pledges given in that act on
the subject of the regulation of duties from
and after the 30th of June, 1912. But it
was not a compliance in all respects. In my
humble judgment, had the Tariff of 1912
been passed strictly in the spirit of the Com
promise itself, it would have been a better
Tariff for protection than the law now in
force. Itwould have better guarded the rev.
enue against frauds in the foreign valuation;
and it would more efectually have checked
excessive importation, which is one of the
greatest curses of our country. The distri-
button Of the Land Fund among the States,
contemplatedby the Compromise, and tenn
porarily provided for by the Land Bill, would
have put an end to the agitation ofihe ques
ton of protection for ever; and the principle
avowed and sustained by Mr.. Clay, that, in
laying duties for revenue, discrimination
should always be made in favor of protection
as an incident to revenue, would have beer
| III ~ AAO vi III OOlAtl
To show that this opinion is well founded, lie
us suppose that Congress. on the Both of June.
t34i, had resolved TO make a tariff strictly il
. feefsd! ffaS 81 a fhs ffRa aa daygna and h hd. uh lnfte af q
that day, duties should descend by a rapid reduc
ton, not of 10 per cent, but OF the last half o
the whole excess above 20 per cent lief alter til,
, 3lst Dec. 1889 land that reduction be 20 per cent
on the home value of the imporiS,sunless at tha
time, the revenue from rate OF duty should be in
\ aaaouato IN Of tho Envarnat Non
how stood the facts on at that daya We ha,
) actually incurred q national debt Of more thal
&C, 000.000 at that very time, under the opera
tions oil higher tariff than 90 per cent. and thai
too, with the aid of all the land fund, and banI
stocks and bang dividends besides. Our reven
he had sunk so low that the credit of the nation
was, at that very moment, in the most depiora
Fl BILE condition. We had borrowed on that cred
it Till foreigners would not lend US another dol,
lar. and in our own market, tlIe-6 per cent. Ger
5 tlticates oil the loan r~edeemabie in twenty years
could not be sold TO any considerable amount
Tor any thing like their par value. We had ap
preached the very verge Of national bankruptcy
= and but Tor the Wing revolution of 1910, whicl
| had elected a Whlg Congress TO decide our fat e
we should at that moment have been in immi
: nent peril OF national reputation. The depress
ed state of public credit was one OF the contin
gencles anticipated by the friends of Mr.. Clay
II al the passage OF the compromise and we nov
Y KNOW WE ARE RIGHT. We foresaw that the du
{ ties never could descend to 20 per cent. { tina
n piedg e to raise the duties 10 the standard of TIA
the-wants OF the Government, given in the aci
: should be fulfilled; aud our h0pe-our belle
+, was that before they could desc end, by the op
: GRAFTON of the law, to % per cent. men of all par
. Ties, seeing that the government could not b
supported ON that principle, would con TESS oil
errors. aud join with US, under happier auspices
S in 50 adjusting the tariff as that, while the want
e OF Government would be supplied from impor
: tduneS. annie projections. as incident IN the rev
enue, would be freely accorded to us, withou
further strife. 1T, then, Congress had, at tha
time, raised the duties TO the standard th en- fix
ed by the compromise, we should have had
tariff winch would more 'effectually have pro
tected home labor than The. act of 1912; bee aus
although the duties would nave been Tor revenu
with only incidental protection, (uhe very priu
e ciple OF the act of 1922 yet those duties, with
out the aid OF other sources OF revenue, woul,
!; have been still higher than those OF 1912, an
their collection lar better guarded against frauds
e But the compromise act caused a gradual re
ducIon OF duties until the Goth ofJune, 1912
IS and the question remains to be answered-swh.
did the friends of protection TO home labo
consent TO such a reduction. even for a Unite
period"
The answer might be a very short one. Unde
the circumstances in which we were then placed
il was paipable To the minds of those who vote
. for the compromises, that. unless we accepie
, that, we should have TO submit TO the speed
destruction of the whole manufacturing intel
is est. But it is due TO the subject, that, in the al
swer 10 this question, the circ umstances to wnIc
| have alluded should be briefly explained. A
: the time OF the passage of this law, the vlolei
III opposition OF many of our felle w-cliiZens of I'll
b. South, and of not a few elsewhere, TO the whol
protective policy was unparalleled in the hist
ry oil this country. South Carolina, by hero
nance Of Notification, had openly dehed III
y General Government, and resolved that no d.
he ties should be collected within her limits. 1t
err easy, at this day, alter the storm has Passe