The Whig standard. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1843-1844, 1844-07-01

mise ITSELF was by us regarded 81 part and parcel
of one great revenue and financial system, which
We desired to establish for the benefit of the
whole country. While temporarily surrendering
the Land Fund to the States, to which il right
fully belonged, in the judgment Of the Congress
of 1893, we provided, in the Compromise Act,
that there should be day fixed at which, in &C
cordance with a suggestion previously made by
General Jackson himself, the Land Fund should
for ever cease to be regarded as a source of rev.
enue by the General Government 1t is true,
that we should have acted more wisely, as the
event proved, by incorporating the provisions of
a Distribution bill in the Compromise ITSELF But
who could have supposed at that day, that Pres
dent Jackson would have vetoed bill which
carried out his own suggestion? Nevertheless,
he defeated that great and salutary measure of
Distribution, by means which no end can ever
Justify He refused to return the bill with his
objections, to the House in which it originated
unquestonably because he had reason to believe,
that, had he complied with this, his constitutional
duty, each branch of Congress stood ready, by a
vote of two-thirds to make the bill law, in spite
of his veto. a5t,s
| have said, that the tariff of 1912 is in my
view substantial compliance, in most respects,
with the principles of the Compromise Act, and
the pledges given in that act on the subject of
the regulation of duties from and after the 3Oth
Of June, 1912. But it was not compliance in
all respects. In my humble Judgment, had the
tariff of 1912 been passed strictly in the spirit of
the Compromise itself, it would have been a bet
ter tariff for protection than the law now in force.
1t would have better guarded the revenue against
frauds in the foreign valuation; and it would
more effectually have checked excessive impor-
tation, which is one of the greatest curses of our
country The distribution of the Land Fund
among the States, contemplated by the Compro-
mise, and temporarily provided for by the Land
Bill, would have put an end to the agitation of
the question of protection for ever; and the prn-
ciple avowed and sustained by Mr.. Clay, that, in
laying duties for revenue, discrimination should
always be made in favor of protection an Incl
dent to revenue, would have been The settled doc
| trine of the country.
| TO show that this opinion is well founded, let
| us suppose that Congress, on the 3Oth of June,
1912, had resolved TO make tariff strictly in pur-
suance of the compromise. The latter directed,
that after that day, and not until after that day.
duties should descend by rapid reduction. not of
10 per cent, but of the last half Of The whole en-
cess above 20 per cent? left alter the 3lst of De-
/ cember, 1889, and that reduction be 20 per cent,
on the home value of the imports; unless at that
time, the revenue from that rate of duty should
be inadequate to support the administration of the
Government. Now how stood the facts on that
day? We had actually incurred national debt
Of more than $2O,0O0,OO0 at that very time, I'M
der the operation of higher tariff than ~ per
cent, and that too, with the aid of all the land
fund and bank stocks and bank dividends besides
/ Our revenue had sunk SO low that the credit Of
the nation was, at that very moment, in the most
deporable condition. We had borrowed on that
credit till foreigners would not lend US another
| dollar, and in our own market, the 8 per cent
certificates of the loan redeemable in twenty
years, could not be sold to any considerable
amount, for anything like their par value. We
had approached the very verge of national bank
ruptcy, and but for the Wing revolution of 1910,
which had elected Wing Congress to decide
our fate, we should at that moment have been in
imminent peril of national reputation. The de-
pressed state of public credit was one of the con-
tingencies anticipated by the friends of Mr.. Clay,
at the passage OF the compromise, and we now
kn0iV zoe aoere right We foresaw that the duties
never could descend to 20 per cent; if that
pledge to raise the duties to the standard of the
wants Of the Government, given in the act, should
be fulfilled; and our hope-our belief was that
before they could descend, by the operation of
the law, to 20 per cent, men of all parties, see-
ing that the Government could not be supported
on that principle, would confess old errors, and
join with us, under happier auspices, in so adj
justing the tariff as that, while the wants of Gov
eminent would be supplied from import duties,
ample protection as incident to the revenues would
be freely accorded to us, without further STRIFE
| If, then, Congress had, at that time, raised the
duties to the standard then fixed by the compro-
mise, we should have had tariff which would
more effectually have protected home labor than
the act Of 1912; because, although the duties
would have been for revenue, with only inciden-
tai protection, (the very principle of the act of
1929 yet those duties, without the aid of other
sources of revenue, ,oould hare been sill higher
than those Of 1912, and their collection better
guarded against frauds.
To be continued in our nerk)
II HEALTH FOR THE SICK.
J. OR Bilious Fever Jaundice, Cholic,
And that disease most diabolic