Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1846-01-29

the poor man was likely to be utterly crushed and
ruined.
Mr. Stewart proceeded to point out some other
extraordinary doctrines Of the Report and espec-
tally, requested attention TO the project Of laying
excise on American manufacturers plan which
might not inoptly be termed plan TO manufacture
poo; men, Such would be its practical result,
and there no escaping it, Another extract
Is all we have room for: -
The Secretary of the Treasury had made other
very wonderful discoveries in finance. What did
ne tell us? Experience prores that, as general
RUE, duty of hreniy per ceni. ad valorem will
yield the largest revenue Yes experience proved
mat an ad valorem duty of twenty per cent would
yield the greatest amount Of revenue. Twenty
per cent yield the greatest revenue WHY, what
was the great, broad universally Unknown experience
OF the country' We had a tariff of twenty per
cent in 1912, and what was our revenue?
Not one-haf of what it was now. The whole
amount Of revenue from imports was then about
thirteen millions, and this year it was twenty seven
millions. Was thirteen more than twenty.seyen?
It So the Secretary is rights if not he was wrong.
And what was the effect of their twenty per cent.
horizontal duty? Under its operation the country
was prostrated the government itself was bank
upt, aud the people were little better Yet this
man could shy, in the face of these well known IA
ces, and Of the American people, any one Of whom
knew better, that an average duty of twenty per
cent yielded the highest amount Of revenue. The
his famous circular he had assumed that ticeire and
n haif per cent horizontal was the true revenue
standard. Some Western scrbbler asked him,
through the press, how much revenue ~ l-2 per
cent would give one hundred millions of I'M
ports THAT being more than the average amount.)
The answer must he twelve and half millions
then deduct three and half millions, the expense
OF collection, and but nine millions of net revenue
would be left to pay twenty-siX millions of eXpen.
ditures To make mp the revenue You must add
more than one hundred millions to our Imports
while your whole specie has never been estimated
at more than eighty-Gvc millions; then all your
specie goes for your first year and where will you
get money for the next year? These questions,
being rather troublesome were never answered.
The truth was, that the revenue resulted from
the tariff, and followed it. When the tariff was
low, the revenue was high. That had been the
uniform experience of the country, and he chal-
enged gentlemen to show the contrary. 1t must
be so it could not be otherwise And why Be-
cause the result of protection made them poor
When the people are rich, the treasury was full
as the country became poor, the treasury was i'm
poverished. The condition of the treasury was in
fact, political thermometer to test the prosperity
of the country. According to the national pros
perty, so would the revenue ever be found When
men were impoverished, could they purchase goods
! freely? Certainly not. When prosperous their
wives and daughters could purchase costly clothing
and rich furniture, and then many goods were al
ways imported. But when the country was i'm
! poyerished, men would wear their old coats. their
wives and daughters stayed at home and mended
them merchants could not get money to import
goods, and the treasury was impoverished.
! Under the compromise law the duties ran down
till they reached the point of twenty per cent;
then the gentleman's Utopia then according
to the Secretary, the revenue ought to have been
abundant; but who had yet forgotten, or could ev-
er forgot, what had been then the condition Of the
treasury and of this entire nation: The treasury
was perfectly bankrupt that it could not borrow
one hundred dollars. The states were every where
repudatng their debts, and the national character
lay PROSTATE and bleeding. That was the condi-
ton and every body knew it, to which twenty
per cent. tariff had brought this land and yet at
this day the first fiscal officer of the Government
had the front to recommend return to that state
of things
In great humiliation and distress the tariff of
~ came in like delivering angel; raised and re-
stored the revenue; it replenisheda furnished treas
ury; 1t brought reputation into dlsrepute it made
a bankrupt law useless in a word it struck the
whole country with the wand of an enchanter,
and brought back plenty and credit and enterprise,
and hope, and public character. Why, then, dis
turb it? What mischief had it done: The Sec
rotary deprecated agitation, but who agitsted the
country: 1t was the Secretary himself and his
friends. The friends Of protection every where
cried out "Give the country repose," Give the
country prosperity and peace under the tariff as 1t
is-'
THE hour here expired, the Chairman's hammer
fell, and Mr. Stewart resumed his seat
TWENTY TWO n Avs 7 ATED pDnMnNC