Sentinel of the valley. [volume] (Woodstock, Va) 1841-1848, 1844-04-25

q
Musical instruments e23.o24
Carriages and wagons. .0,89l,s8
Flour, 37,O228lO
Other produce of mills. 75,54s,245
Ships built, -,ol6,094
Furniture, ?,555.4o5 234,zS5
All other manufactures, S4,785.3 53 100000
Aggregate value, $685., 832,614 s5l,l45,7I1
| The total import, it thus appears. is about
! IL l-2 per cent. on the same description of
goods manufactured in this country Now
one OF two things is certain; either in
creased duties do or do not raise the pri-
ces of goods TO the consumer. If they
do beyond that which is absolutely ne
cessary to the support Of the government,
they are manifestIy unjust. inasmuch as
they tax the many for the benefit Of the
few. 1t they do not raise the prices, as
is alleged by the advocates of a tariff, but
that the revenue is paid by the foreign
manufacturers, the home manufacturers
can derive no benefit whatever from a
tariff; and 1t must be the same to him
whether there is duty Or not. The
fact is, however, and admits of no cavil,
that prices are increased by the duties.
If on the above imports of ISL, O00 900,
a revenue of 100000 is to be raised to
refund the proceeds of the public lands
voted away, it will amount to an advalo-
rem duty of 9 per cent. which will not
only raise the price of the imported goods
to the same extent, but those Of the home
manufacture also. The consumers will
then have to pay an additional 6 per
cent. on SAG, 900, 600 of goods annual
~, which amounts to $15, 600, 900. of
which the government will get S5,ooo.-
! 900, and the manufacturers S1O,6OO,o0O.
The relief offered TO the States by the
distribution act,to The extent Of $1,000
600, will thus cost the masses of the peo-
pie $l2, 600. 900. A most singular man
ner of comforting 'the greatest good upon
the greatest number
And now sir, in connection with this
subject, and in order to show that, indie.
pendently Of the immense loss which [
have proven the people sustain in this
operation, there is vet another source of
loss to them in the fact that the money
distributed will not go to the men who
were taxed for it, in the proportion they
paid, ! will, in conclusion, read an ex-
tract IRON some remarks of my own,
made in this body on the 25th January,
lo4l. OA that occasion, said:
And who are to receive the fund dis
tributed? Not the people, who in the
first place, paid it; but the States-the
legislatures of the States. In what
would this result? Extravaganza and
waste. Not indeed, because legislative
bodies are (for they are noD likely to be
composed of men less virtuous than 9TH
ers,but because no body of men, howev-
err honorable Individually, ever could, or
ever can, with safety, be charged with
the conduct OF public affairs ir the alb
sence of all responsibility. 1t was this
reason, drawn from the caamitous ex-
perience of the world, that the serious
the thoughtful, the cautious people of A
merica imposed upon all the departments
of power, as we'll as upon each public
tunctionary, the most positive restraints
and highest sanctions, By their written
organic laws. The great, the only secu-
[ rity the people of State now have for
the economy oflts legislature in the ex-
penditure of the public money, is the re-
sponslblity under which the legislature
acts, of having, itself, first to tax its own
constituency, in order to raise it. But
by the system of distribution, the respon-
sibility OF collecting revenue is to be sep
grated from the power to apply it; Con.
gress is to tax the people, the legislature
to expend the tax. Each member of
the latter body, aware, therefore, as he
would be, that. when the State treasury
was exhausted, Congress, not be. must
bear the odium of laying a new tax to re.
plenish it, would very naturally seek to
( obtain for all objects in his particular dis
trict or country the largest appropriation
possible; considering as he would, every
dollar thus obtained clear gain, to that
extent, out of the common spoil. In
this manner, the very desire now SO
strong with the representative. and Just
ly SO, to please his immediate cobstitu-
ents by his economy of the public mon
ey, would then become reason equally
strong for its proffigate waste. Where,
in such case, would be the limit to ex-
pendlture? where to taxation necessary
to meet ia No where, until government
had consumed the whole substance of the
toiiing multitude, and left them here, as
Yin England, clad in the ragged livery OF
pauperism-b readess and hopeless.
Sir, have already said that the mo-
ney, if distributed, viii go not to the
people, who in the tlrst instance paid it
Again, have said that in all govern.
ments protesting to be free, this power
of unlimited taxation ever has divided
tie mass into classes of the rich and
the poor, and upon such division found
ed separate orders in the State: the one,
who govern and riot; the other who toll
and obey. Such always will be found
to be the result. The process which
leads to il is plain. The aggregate fund
in the hands Of the government is
made up By contributions by every cI-
tizen. In the application of it. there
ffore, or its benefits. justice requires that