Portage sentinel. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1845-1854, 1847-06-30

OOls Ds Settu W0 ~GTG iii Wdfs 6f1u Was
the nature Of war to draw all things tosit
self-to absorb all attention--and to cause
other things to be neglected. He meant
what he said more particularly Of the ma
tional councils, charged with the conduct
of the war. Thus it was in congress. DC.
cupied with the. great subject which over
laid all Others it gave but secondary, and
incidental and subordinate attention to other
subjects, though highly deserving the atten-
stion in themselves. The graduation of the
price of the public lands, and the bill for
that purpose, so long brought forward, and
again at the lasf session oIs CONGRESS, ~,vas
an illustration. That great measure, unan-,
imously demanded by the great west, was
victim of the. times, and again lost, tho
powerfully recommended byPresident Polk.
1t will be taken up again, and pushed in
war and peace untilsit succeeds.
Thesalt tax is reduced, butnot abolished;
and while there is any tax at all upon that
necessary Of life, the, evil is nearly the
same to the consumer, while the benefit is
less to the government. Any tax, no
matter how small, is continuation of all
the evils of large tax. 1t begets and
fosters class of regraters and amonopoli.
zers, who get between the importer and
consumer, and buy cheap from the one and
sell dear to the other. = 1t begets an inter-
mediate class Of dealers, not necessary to
the import trade, and oppressive to the
retail. The common law repulses them,
and even gives them a bad name-REeU-
LATREs-or salt tax begets and favors
and feeds them, and thatito enable them TO
monopolize the sale, and to enhance the
price of u necessary Of lile-God's gift to
man and beast for seasoning his food, and
the preservation of health. The way of
the thing is this; while there is any tax at
all, the imported salt has to go to the custom
house, and pay that tax. The less it is,
the more troublesome and yexatious to the
importer to attend. Salt is heavy article,
and expensive and tedious to handle, or
stow away. 1t was brought in as ballast;
and oil the impoter wishes, is to get rid of
it, like other ballast, for what it cost him.
But now comes the regrator; he takes all
the trouble Of the custom-house off the
hands Of the importer, pays him the cost of
the article, advances the tax to the govern
ment, gets all the salt into his hands; and
then comes, double and triple price to the
retail dealer, and all the beauties of rnonopo-
ly in an article Of prime necessity to man
and beast. Our twenty per cent salt tax
begets this evil almost as much as the old
twenty cents bushel did it. The twenty
per centum is wrong on salt-there should
be no tax on it at all 1t should be free
in the United States as it now is in Great
Britain; and then the steamboat would
receive it from the. ship, and pass it direct
to the place of consumption, without paying
tribute, and greater than is paid to the
government, to the monopolizer. The
abolition of the salt tax, total and complete,
immediate and unconditional, should take
it's place in the American Democratic cate
chism, and every candidate for Congress
should be catechised upon it, until he could
answer straight, and from the heart as
well as the book. -; x - zss-A ss..- a
The twenty per centum tax on salt was,
in itself, and per Sc, vice and crime IN,
our national legislation; it was a tax and
restriction upon the useiof a gift OF God to
man and beast, necessary to their health
and life, and the next greatest gift after
bread and grass, and without which even.
bread and grass could not be eaten with
comfort and advantage. The twenty per
cent was a tax upon thai. gift, and restric-
ton upon its use. But that was not all, nor
hardly the beginning Of the evilofthe tax
as it now stood. Another evil Of unPrece-
dented existence-of extra enormity-and
almost incredible monstrosity made
to accompany it! and that was the total
payment of the entire proceeds OF the tax,
and about half as much more out OF this
treasury. into the hands of particular
class, and that class o small body OF our
fellow citizens The practical operation
of the twenty per centum, and Its accom-,
naniment, was to tax all the salt consumed
in the United States-sny all, for the tax
raises the price of the domestic as well as
of the imported-to tax the whole to raise
revenue for few thousand persons, and
that, not producing enough, about nall as
much more was taken out OF the treasury
to make up the deficiency. The resolu-
ton Of the enigma is thus; when the salt
tax was. first imposed, in 1879, draw
back of the duty paid on salt which was
put upon that part of pickled beet and pork
and picked fish, and dried fish which was
exnorted from the United States, was PAID
to the exporter, or to the pickler Or drier
1t was called bounty, or allowance on the
expectation, and was wholly drawback
Of the duty paid on the exported salt,
incorporated with the exported meat, or
fish. and as such the bounty or allowance
fell or rose with every raise or fall in the
salt tax; and, in 1907 ,awhen Mr.. J Jefferson,
as one of the blessings Of his isadministratlon,
caused the whole tax to be abolished, the
whole superstructure of bounties and allow
ances on the expectation of picked beef
and pork, picked fish, and dried fish, were
swept away along with 1.-The tax on which
thew we're founded. The salt tax was alter
wards revived, as temporary war ia tax
during the war with Great Britain, and
with It the bounties and allowances to pick
led fish. and to dried fish exported, We're
temporarily revived. Not so to picked
beef and pork; for the act, and superstruc'
ture being limited to the war r,andthe farming
interest not expecting to carry en- foreign
trade during foreign war with Great
Britain, did not ask the continuation Of
;bounties and allowances on their beef and
II II the act had heen rIermitted to