The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1844-03-27

the exerion OF he taxing power only 10 obtain re-
venue 'o pay the debts, and provide for the com
mon defence and general welfare" of the country |
Both consider duties imposed upon imports as
taxes imposed upon the people for the benefit of
their treasury-not as a bonus conferred upon one
class interest in the community, at the expense
of all the others. And both must concede that |
these burdens should be imposed in manner to be
little felt and to do as little injury possible to
all the citizens and all the interests of the country
Their only differences, therefore, must arise to
the articles to be charged with duty, and as to the
distributions Of the rates of duty upon the articles
to be made dutiable the necessities OF the public
treasury being always, with both, the measure of
taxation.
The extremes in this conference.-the friends of
perfectly free trade, and Of perfect proection-al
though ut an mme asurabe and irreconcilablc dis
lance from each other, far trade:s concerned
are nearer than the means, respects the revenue
as either system is alike perfect destruction to that
Certainly, II no duties Tor revenue are imposed TO
leave trade tree no revenue can be realized; and
isequay certain, If such rates of duty be establish
ed, to secure perfect protection. to prohibit i'm
portations, the same result, as 10 revenue must he
experienced. A trade perfectly locked up by pro-
hlbtOry duties, can no more yield revenue than a
trade perfectly free from duties; and either of these
systems carried perfsctly out, must equally produce
the necessity for internal taxation ts supply the
public treasury It's loss OF the revenue from The GUS
toms. The committee have intended to propose
notifications to the existing tariff law, which, if
adopted would constitute 1t revenue tariff within
the rules they have before laid down Still finding
great proportion of the most important duties
much above what they believe to be the revenue
limit, and anxious not to fall into the onposte ex
treme but to consult all the interests to be affected
by reduction of the duties, as far as that can be
done consistently with bringing back the rates
rather to stop short of, than to fail below The rates
fixed by that principle. Not pretending to be able
to determine the exact point to which the rates Of
duty upon any 81 these articles may be carried be-
Intention to approach that line cautiously. and TO
be sure not to GROSS It, The strong reductions
to be made, In many cases, has seemed to them to
render it expedient and proper that as to those in
terests, the highest rates, consistent with the revc
nue., should be suffered to remaln until experience
under the law so amended, shall determine whe.
ther the necessities OF the treasury are ikely to re-
quire the continuance Of such duties II, with
these notifications, surplus of revenue shallno
be experienced as one OF the practical effects of
the lazy, then will it be far better that these high
reduced them below the requirements of the trea-
sury, again TO be raised at the hazard of renewal
OF prohlbitory duties, and repetition of changes
It, ON 'ne G'ea naad me rates proposed to be re-
for revenue, the ascertainment of that fact must
furnish information upon which further reduction
to the proper revenue point can be much more
safely and certainly made than at present.
The committee desire, however, that their views
Of principle and pslicy upon this point may not be
misunderstood Yielding as they have done. by
high revenue tariff can afford, they must be dis
tinctly understood to assent to the continuance of
that degree Of protection, only upon the condition
that the demands upon the treasury shall require
shall continue to require them. Whenever a re-
ducton of the public expenditures, or the payment
Of such portions Of the public debt as can be paid
off, or both, shall present surplus of revenue
then, without delay, and before the evils attendant
upon superabundantre shall be again visited
upon the country, In excessive expenditures, dam
gerOus and mschevous deposites, or distributions
to the States, further reduction of the duties
should be made, to what shall appear to be the re-
venue standard In this way the proper point for
stable and permanent system Of duties may be
reached, without further fluctuations from extreme
to extreme, and without any future violent change
very materially affecting the course e trade or The
incidentally protected interests. That the com
mittee have mistaken the true revenue point, in
some of the rates of duty they propose, they repeat,
is very possible and experience may. point out
some further moderate changes to bring the law
within the principles to which it has been their OBJ
ect to limit it. The duties proposed to be retained
upon iron and sugar. are retained in specific forms,
and the rates ad vaorem may still be too high for the
revenue rule. If this shall prove to be so, the
of the committee will have proceeded from the
peculiar character of the interests involved and the
very high duties which have been imposed upon
them under former tariff laws: The former is an
article so essentially connected with all the public
defences of the country, and indispen
sary time of war, that the desire not to
diminish the incidental protection which revenue
tariff may extend to 1t may have caused the COM
mittee to err in the opposite direction; while the
latter article has beco essential agricultural
staple in an important section of the Union in adj
dition TO the extensive manufacturing establish
ments connected with It in other sections, as to
have excited the same desire, and perhaps led the
committee into error. Still, independent Of the |
compromises of opinion, unavoidable in framing
bill the object of which is TO lower the rates of duty
and to increase the amount of revenue, the com
mittee believe there no two of the protected |
articles which will bear equal amount Of duty |
without decrease IN revenue, as sugar and iron
The committee have examined the tables Of i'm |
portaons, the rates of duty under the former tariff
laws, and the information they have been able to
collect from the importing merchants, with all the |
care and attention they are capable of bestowing |
upon them, and have acted according to their best
judgments formed upon such information.
1t may be expected of the committee that they |
will make an estimate Of the revenue to be real |
lish but they feel themselves wholly incompetent
to do so to any useful purpose. They have looked |
over some OF these estimates made by their prede-
cessors upon occasions like the present, and COM
pared them with the facts subsequently ascertalned
from the practical operation of the laws in |
reference to which they were made They have
also examined estimates of revenue made by saga
cious and able and experienced Secretaries of the |
Treasury-and that not under new, but unchanging
legislaton--and compared them with the revenue
actually realized; and, in both cases, they have |
found the variations SO wide, the dsappointments
great, and IN directions various and opposite,
that any detailed estimate they could form, in re-
ference to the new rates OF duty they propose,
would not, with themselves have the least autho-
rty, and should not, with the House, pass for any
thing more than vague conjecture. The importa-
tons, since the present law went into operation,
compared with the mportations of several previous
years. satisfy the committee that its provisions must
be extensively prohibitory and the rates of duty
they propose, compared with the rates under for
mer tariff laws, and with the revenue realized I'M
der those laws, have produced the belief in their
minds, that the present law modified as they re-
commend, will, even in the present state of trade,
(now only gradually rising from the most severe
depression,) when it shall have had time for fair
action, yield sufficient revenue together with that
to be derived from the lands and miscellaneous
yernment, and gradually to exnguish the public
debt.
The prominent facts upon which the committee
have based their action, and formed the opinion
last expressed they have placed in tabular FORM as
far as that was susceptible of being done within