Ypsilanti sentinel. [volume] (Ypsilanti, Washtenaw Co., Mich.) 1843-1900, 1846-09-02
DEMOCRATS READ


DEMOCRATS READ
Democratic FelIo,o Citizens: We have ofen COM
planned of the recent tariff act passed BY yoa Repre-
sentatiyes and signed by your President. gu may
have supposed our complaints were grounded
merely ON asty preference, and not from adesire to
promote the rood ofths country, in which We alike
have comn.sn interest, and with which I'VE mist
suffer common calamities. If sueh5 yoaf opinion,
listen to the language Of one Of your stasvmen,who
attests his sincerity by the resignation OF his ofice
the honorable Mr.. Haywood Of N. c.
OF the capacity Of this act to CREATE REVENUE he
says:
s.First. Or country is involved in an expensive
war; and the wisest among you cannot see Its close
We have LARGE army invading Mexico, and large
navy off her coasts, along the Pacific Ocean and the
Gulf of Mexico. The sum already appropriated by
Congress for the Government expenditures OF the
fiscal year exceeds FIFTY MILLIONS OF dollars Will
the tariff raise sufficient to pay
az we rof' Certainly not. Congress knew that,
and therefore authorized loan OF ten millions, at
the very time we were passing this tariff; and the
first act OF the next session will probably be for
ten millions more! Will it produce revenue enough
to pay one half ofthc. appropriations i am quite
sure it will not, Its advocates did not assert that 1t
works as well IS its warmesf friends have predicted,
the government will fall in debt twenty live millions
this (iscaD year. So long as the war lasts, and Tor
such period of time after IL the war expenses
continue, it will be the same thing But if the ex-
peri,nent works lily its more Violent opponents
have said of it, why then it will hardly 60 at all.
think the truth hes between them. 1t viii work, but
il will work badly, and work you deeply in debit and
IL II ia adhered to ssithout alteration the public
debt will be increased not much short of THIRTY MIL
LIONS the first year, and see way 10 prevent
its yearly BY resort to direct taxes
Offs EFFECT on LABOR he says:
In all great alterations Of the tariff diminishing du
ties. the reductions ought to be made upon reasona
bile notice to the people whose property and business
will he effected by them In that case there may be
Inconvenience to some, but it does bring RUIN down
upon 40 MANY innocent people. Not giving time,
infant factories are destroyed by legslatlon and the
older and more mature establishments are compelled
20 diminish their operations forthwith, and conse-
quentIy to discharge number OF their iaoorers, and
reduce the wages OF all The iaporers suner more
than the owners because they are less able to bear
it. The sudden loss of work will be TO many OF them
and their families loss of food and ranent; and
that which the law maker is commanded to pray for
his ssdaily bread'-he would be thus rudely taking
by law from the workingman OF his country. And
the experimental tariff act was the more objectona-
Bile. inasmuch as many of our countrymen-who are
the beginning of winter, when other empioyments
will be obtained with great difficulty; and at the north
the Door, without labor and wages, encounter de-
gree of suffering in that nclement season which we
have no Just conception of at the South. You must
see it before you can fully appreciate it. Also,
sudden alteration Of the tariff must OF necessity ds-
turb the home market of manufacturers, coaidig
gers and mechanics, and involve hundreds and thou
sands in losses to sone ruin to Others and suffering
to many.
of the principal of AD vALoREM DUTIES ne says:
cit was maxim of the Revolution, that "Repre-
sentation and taxatioR should gotogether" Now,
this is principle of liberty, never to be despsed and
the abrogaon of it cannot be necessary to the inter-
est of the Republic. But it means nothing, unless
il creates the duty of laying taxes by the faio and
not by the officers who collect IT. that the citizen
who reads the law may far as practicable, see IT
in what it taxes him: officers too, whom the people
have no agency in appointing, and cannot remove
officers who in assessing values, exercise their own
discretion, and whose individual judgement, In the
country, as to the market value of property In all
foreign lands cannot be successfully impeached, be-
cause the witnesses to do it lived abroad and cannot
be got here; ana if they could, it would still be al
most impossible to convict the officer OF Intentional
fasehood. 1t must be proved that he was wrongs,
and knew too. Is not this new doctrine then,more
than slight departure from this maxim OF the ko-
publici Shall it be approved, upon the notion that
has become impracticable. Shall We sanction the
pretencethat the peoples representatives will cheat
them in adopting the specific duties, and assume at
the same time that the custombouse officers Will be
more scrupuous ana more Just to you In fixing the
values under system of nd rdlorum duties! Ought
such departure FROM great and fundamental doc
trine of representative government to be tolerated,
much less engrafted permanently into the laws OF
free people, without unavoidable necessity, and sane
tilted as part of our democratic faith, without notice
10 the peoplel A step two further, and we will
be carried to point where Congress can do nothing
but declare theaggregate revenue which may be lev
led for the Government and leave the Treasury Dc
partment to collect them as may seem best to Its
officers, and according to its rules"
HUMBUG.-That the supporters of the new Tariff
regard its effects with the most painful distrust is
evident from the means they te.su 10 dece}e them
selves, and Others into the belief that there is
damage TO be appehended Does H~Y factory,
commenced perhaps two years go,sundey the Tariff
.of4g and Just completed go into operat5n, fhe,a,
once cry out in mock dsrison "more ryfn," and ad-
duce il as evidence that the eeuntrys not to be in
pired by the present most Inqfiitous law. Does a
forge or mandatory discharge aportion OF its work
men; the same papers deny the fact and swear that
the workmcn are kept at teo,k under oover! Does
dealer perfect consistency with the purpose and
intent Of the new Tariff, announce his intention Of
hereafter importing bis goods: these guides OF the
public cry that it Is the sheer pretence OF some
"panic maker
Alas, such shallow citation will not save the la
borer from the distress which he is doomed to feel
tho Ioy IL.