The spirit of democracy. [volume] (Woodsfield, Ohio) 1844-1994, 1845-06-21

awould raise the price of other commod
lAlties, and tax upon merchants tn
acosts of merchandise. But an argu
Ssment drawn from such state Of thing
5can have very little application to ou
afree and happy country, where ever,
gman is at full liberty to follow whatev
Her trade or occupation he sees fit, ant
awhere competition may be surely reli
Ned on to bring down the plice of com
amodities TO the costs Of production witt
athe addition of reasonable profit a!
Ia compensation for the skill and labol
gof the merchant or mechanic. If the
argument was sound, we ought 10 re
Unit the taxes on the merchants dwell
ding house, ware house, store house
dcarriage and horses for he will just ado
Jlhat tax to the price of his goods anc
make US pay 1t. 1t is amazing that this
principle never was discovered before
I afor the old law attempted TO tax mer
chants capital as we'll as the new, and
fits failure in practice does not alter the
! principle. ltwould puzzle merchant
Ito tell how much tax of one or two
per cen: should increase the price of a
| yard of ribbon, or of coarse cotton Or
Iof a pound Of tea or coffee. A miser.
] Iy neighbor of mine over in Virginia
demanded the interest on dollar which
| he had lent TO poor neighbor for a
few days, the poor man told him that
he would cheerfuIly pay it, if he would
calculate it and let him know how much
lit was!
But we have another remedy, fellow
citizens. lfthis is tax upon as, at all
events it is an indirect tax and we may
pay as much or as little of it as we
please. If the merchant charges US too
much for his supe,huities, we can do
without them. Ifhe piles too much on
| his silks and his broad cloths and his
fnery ve can let them stay in his shop.
we need not purchase. We can re-
l sduce has bills and our taxes at the same
time. Fellow citizens if you find any
man attempting to treat you thus. just
/ quit him and go to those who will use
more fair dealing with you.
We may always suspect some falla-
Icy in this kind Of argument, which
!pretends that direct taxes on one class
.are indirect taxes on another. 1t leads
ito the absurdty that we ought to tax
nobody but the farmer and load him
with the whole burthens Of society,"
How would tits be relished, how would
lit operate? The farmer sells the first
Inecessaries of life! We can do with
out the merchants superAui,ies, but we
:can not do without the farmers bacon
land flour and corn and oats, and if he
] be intolerably taxed for his land, horses
land cattle will he not add the tax into
! the price Of his productions? 1t is said
THAT competition will keep him down;
then competition will keep down ali
other statesmen!
AS to the real state of the c'amor
about this law. The whig news papers
lin CINCINNATI have distinguished them.
selves at it. They have cudgeled their
brains for hard words 10 say about it.
and they have been joined by some pa
pers of both parties in the rich cana
counties. But fellow citizens | ask
lyou one question? When one million
seight hundred thousand dollars were
spent for that worthless speculation.
the Muskingum improvement, and a
million for the Hockhocking and three
quarters of a million for the WaIhond-
ling, and several millions for the Miami
Extension, and an equal amount for the
Wabash and Erie, and when the PLUM
DER BILL opened the Aoodgatss and let
your money out of the treasury by
millions 10 knaves and swindlers of ev-
Jerry description, did these men give
you any warning then? Did they
speak out and tell you how basely you
were wronged? Did they tell you that
"a debt twenty millions was piIing up B
You know that they did not. And you
may rest assured that as they were ST.
lent, when fraud and swind ing and
pecuiation and legalized plunder were
robbing you by the millions, so they are
speaking for their own base and selfish
purposes now. If you join them in
their cIamor, you will be gulled indeed, +,
but have no fears OF such result!
AS to the question whether capital
invested in the purchase Of live stock
is taxable, let the reader proceed with
your quotation to the period instead of
stopping at the semicolon. He will
see that they are not to be considered
as forming any part of the capital in
trade of the person in whose name
they have been listed, COR of any ha-
de,, who may have purchased such cat
tie. horses or other property for the
year for which the same shall have BEEN