The daily union. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1845-1857, 1846-08-04


and that task by him performed with an ability
and energy which commanded the applause and
congratulations of both political friends and foes
His speech, which was not very long, comprised
mastery view of the great leading features Of the
question. He anticipated the Two great leading OBJ
ecuons of the whigs--that the bill would be made
quate for revenue, and that 1t would ruin the manu-
featuring interest by excessive importatiOns-and
showed that they were entirely Inconsistent with
each other that If the importations were much
augmented the revenue must be ample, and that
if importations we're not much increased, the man
ufseturerer could not be injured by the foreign
competition; that therefore one or the other of
the objections must be abandoned, If either
well founded But the fact that both were insisted
on, proved that neither could be relied on He de-
monsGrated the superiority ot I'D yslorom duties,
which the new bill proposed over the specific duties,
which prevailed in the old, showing that the for
msr were easily understood-the latter obscure,
huctuating and unequal. AID yalorem duties always
bear the same proportion 10 the cost of the imported
articles hat a specific duty Of much yer pound or
yard was sometimes a fourth, Sometimes half OF
the value Of that article its price huctuated in the
foreign market. That manufactured goods were
continually declining 10 price from the effect Of
improved processes of fabrication. An ad valO.
rem duty accommodated itself TO the change,
but a specific duty did not so that specific duty,
which might have been one-fourth the value OF the
article when law passed, might become one-halt
absurdiiy of the pretence that smuggling woud re-
suit fiom ad valorem rather than specific duties
conlendlGg that when duties were low, az they al
ways ought TO be, the inducement for smuggling
was reduced so much as TO be below the risk. Thus
the bill proposed few duties 80 per cent. Sup
pose an Importer desiring defraud the revenue,
undervaued his goods twenty per cent. His article
actually costs one hundred dollars; he presents
false invoice eighty dollars his duty, il he escapes
detection, is only six dollars less in case than
the other, which is gain that will not pay for the
risk Of detection and forfeiture. And as in deter
mining the truth Of an invoice, the collector could
compare il with all the other invoices Of similar
goods imported from the same place at the same
time, IL would be almost impossible for the fraud TO
succeed unless all the parties in that business were
rascals But the great objections to specific duties
were, that they fell the most heavily on the poor.
The present duties on flannel, for instance, were
specifically II cents on a square yard. A poor
person uses Aannes that cost abroad say 80 cents
per yard the duty is the same on the iannels
that cost GO cents which the rich consume The
poor mans tax is 40 per cant. the value Of his
fanne the rich mans only 20 per cent.
These arguments were unans wered and unansweT-
able Mr.. Evans, who undertook to do the distress
for the government, account of the failure of
enue and Mr.. Webster for the manufacturers, on
the score OF foreign competition, were unable to
meet these difficulties, and were brought into con-
hct with each other The free-trade cause is under
on Finance for the zeal, fidelity activity, and ab-
ty with which he supported the measure from the
moment it came into his committee until Its happy
dellverance from the Senate.
Let now the country and the world rejoice. Let
every friend of truth take courage from this event,
and believe that principle, however 1t may be ne
elected in its advent however il may be denounced
and delayed by prejudice, by interest and by power,
must still march on TO victory with a certainty as
great as the 0mnipotence OF the moral ruler of the
universe. Let the labor Of the land rejoice- will
henceforth receive its proper wages and the earth
| ITSELF under the augmented hope Of its tong mil
lions, will smile with luxurisnt verdure and
more abundant haryests.
From the Baltimore Sun
"PILING UP THE AGoNY"-BRE WING THE PANIC
| The thermometer at 80 degrees, we should think
a very serious admonition to keep cool, politically
well physically; yet there are some whose YER
element is excitement, and who, reckless of the sea-
and the risk of coup de Soteil seize upon every
| occasion which presents itself as "god-send" for
the prolongatlon of an existence which is thus made
| to resemble that of galvanized corpse" There
are others who, surprising that nothing short Of the
| extreme measures TO which they are by habit and
hacknled political association nseparaby allied, can
impart nterprise, even fertility to the
soil, walk all their lives through a country blooming
| like the rose and nothing but desolaton from
Dan to Beersheba." An ImpersonatIon of them
according to their own writings would present a
miserable mortal, with lugubrous aspect dank with
t. ars arrayed in sackcloth and ashes, mourning
the sins of legislators, the folly Of the people, and
their ncapaciy for sef-government. Or, like the
witches in Macbeth, stalking round political caId-
ron, fInslng in the choice Ingredients, and brewing
a panic according to the measure of their monstrous
| incantations. This is part Of a system that may be
excused where it is actually referrble ignorance;
but is un pardonable in those with whom it is pre-
| medtated design to promote the very consequences
they predict, and which failing to realize, would be
1 fatal disappointment.
We have before us several papers which contain
articles denouncing the tariff bill in good set
phrase; others show their hostility alike to the bill
and to the popular interests by foreteng disaster,
discharge Of hands, reduction Of prices, depreciation
of wages, breaking of merchants, crashing Of banks,
general desoation, utter run and national annhIa-
ton. But, having survived the cutter ruin" of this
| unfortunate country now some six or eight times,
we are beginning to get used to it, and this png
up of the agony"-a most expressive phrase for the
| occason-has lost something of the stage effect that
| il formerly produced. Admitted to peep behind
| the scenes when the "managers have been mapping,
we have something Of the ropes and pulleys, the
tricks and traps, the preparation Of gaud and tnse,
| the sable 'trappngs and the suits of Wo and all
that sort of thing by which the pit is electrified and
the boxes greatly moved" Another portion Of the
newspaper machinery in reference, besides its own
small effort to work and collects horrible train
| of lamentations from every possible source, and
|
almost irresistible effect These things doleful
| in the extreme, and wo be to that man who does
not join the cry of two" And thus a panic is
made.
| Now let us say to our readers frankly and hon
esty, yield not your judgment, your COED com
mon sense, your manly independence, to such in
fuences as these. Cast them from you with that
energy Of mind and indomable resolution which
| is the very Jewel of the American character Look
upon those who would urge you to such course of
conduct would favor eventual disaster, as the en-
emies of your true interest," let guise of dsinter
es,ed friendship begue you of your property trust
not that man Who while he processes to be actuated
by paramount regard for your interests, is daily
| suggesting some new phase of evil and oppression
as a necessary result a justfable procedure I'M
der the measure which he denounces. And be as
sured that the press which lends itself as facility
for the accomplishment of such ends, is fahess
alike to the interests of the merchant, the manuac-
turer, and the producer. Reflect upon the conse-
yuences which may flow from such course in
another point Of view. Speculation thrives upon
the fluctuations of confidence; and what is so well
adapted to effect this object as the predictions with
/ u of ha ia I,