The New era. [volume] ([Portsmouth, Va.]) 1845-1847, 1845-10-13

domestic article, but diminishes the revenue. il
would be the most b~arefaced mockery-the most
impudent and hypocritical disguise by which a
mercenary and merciless oppression ever attempted
70 conceal It's deiormiiy, to call this a revenue du-
~. Now 1t Is only necessary TO apply these plain,
II not selfevident propositions, to the articles
which. 1t is the supposed intention of tho Admin.
l%stration to favor and protect, by exempting them
from the general rule of reduction. Take for ex-
ample the two leading articles of sugar and iron.
Next to salt, these are articles of the most gene.
raj consumption by all classes of people.
In a great financial and economical reform, re-
duclng The duties upon fnreign imports to a gene
raj average of ~ per cent, upon what principle of
justice. equity or sound policy. upon what shadow
ut constitutional power, can a rate of duty he
Imposed upon these articles, higher Than the gene
raj rate necessary tur revenue, at the same time
adding To the public burdens and diminishing the
public revenue? Is it because sugar and iron are
produced by a few wealthy sugar planters and
iron masters, not equal in number to one in a hun
dred thousand of those who consume the articles
and pay from the pockets of mediocrity and power
ty, the contributions extorted by a free govern
ment-and let me not say-a Democratic Admin
isiratlou--to add TO the fortunes of a moneyed oil
sarchy Can it be believed. that Mr.. Polk,
bound by the united ties of interest and duty to
sustain the great principles of free trade and un-
shackled industry, which he has so ably supported
through a long course of public service, will now,
when elected 10 the highest station to which am
oltion or patriotism can aspire, betray his political
principles and sacrifice thuse popular masses, by
whose voluntary and unsolicited s~uTrages he was
raised to power 81 trust not the tale.'' In his
Inaugural Address he very distinctly laws down
the doctrine that revenue is The object Of all du.
ties upon imports, and protection the incident.
Nothing can be mere plain. Ii protection to
particular classes at the erpense IF all others re-
suits from a revenue duty-as it does from all re-
venue duties--it is an unavoidable incident not To
be desired but regretted. II is impossible to sepa-
rate the protection given to the sugar planter. for
example, by even 4 revenue duty Of 90 per cent,
from the twOinld burlhen imposed upon everybody
else, not only by raising To the consumers the
price of imported sugar which yields Il revenue
equal To the burden. but the price Of domestic
sugar. which imposes an equal burthen and Yields
no revenue. Ii Is this last result, which unjuslly
transfers the money of the many TO The pockets
ot The few. which constitutes the incidental pro-
lection of a revenue duty-a result which 30 far
from being desirable to the people at large. can
only be regarded as a public evil unavoidabiy re-
sulting from an unequal system Of taxation.
Now let us suppose the duties upon all fpreign
imports. including sugar and iron, reduced to a
revenue standard OF ~ per cent, and take up the
case OF the sugar planters and irun masters at this
point. What ground would they have to com
plain of such an adjustment of the duties of i'm
ports? Could they pretend that nne III these du-
ties imposed a hnhhen upon them not equally
impused on the body Of the people The whole
Of these duties would operate precisely upon them
as upon others, with the exception of the duties
npon sugar and iron. and these while they oper-
ae as taxes upon the rest of the people, would
operate as bOunties to them, equal To 20 per cent,
upon the whole amonnt of sugar and iron they
produced for sale. Suppose, for example, a sugar
planter of Louisiana produces sugar annually ,u
the amount OF fifty Thousand dollars-probably a
fair average. and an iron master of Pennsylvania,
iron Ia the same amount. The amount of other
imported and protected articles consumed hy each
certainly would not exceed ten thousand dollars.
Tins under a revenue tariff those injured citizens
would have to pay 20 per cent. on $4,000, equal
to S2.OOO TO the government and to their confed-
crate monopolists, and would only receive &c rer
cent. on $4,000, equal to $4,000, from the
great body of The people! Their ground of CON
plant, then, against the levelling equality of a
revenue tariff, would be that they received under
it, only five times as much in bounties as they
paid in taxes and bouniies united! And what
under these circircumstanceS, do thew mudesily
demand of the federal government and of a free
trade Democratic administration ? Simply that
the bounty of 20 per cent. resulting from a reve-
nue. duty, be raised to fifty by a protecting DUTY.
swelling their clear and real income derived ftom
the system of federal taxation from eight to TWEEN.
ty three thousand d"llarsi This plain statement
literally exhibits the character, not only of the
protective duties upon sugar and iron, but of The
whole system of protective monopoly, and sm
sure no honest patriot can think of the unjust.
iniquitous and audacions demand made by these
blualed and hearless plunderers. That The Admin.
islration should sacrifice their principles and the
vital interests Of The people, TO secure their allie
glance, for the support of the followers and vic
tins, whom they at the same time deceive and
%plnnder, without feeling his blood boil in his veins.
with the warmest Indignation.
Taking a more comprehensive view of the sub.
ject, it may be stated as a fact that the greater
part OF the revenue from imports is derived from
duties on the class of protected articles, PRINCIPAL
Iy sugar, iron, and iron manufactures, cotton man.
~uiactures and wOUIlen manufactures. Now all
these Interests are united tngether in a pluudering
confederacy uPnn the principle, that each may
rob the other, and all may rob the community at
large. AS have before stated, each of them
wonld receive at least five times, some of them
twenty times as much as they pay, even under a
s'TIct revenue system. Is it not appa rent, there
fore, that to permit those interested to control Con.
gress' IN the matter of taxation, would be to put
lhe power OF taxation, the most important of all
political powers, in the hands Of thOse who have
a deep pecuniary interest in increasing the taxes
u The manufacturing nations Of Europe would
$780,