The North-Carolinian., 1851-02-15
VOL. zl-No. e2S.

s.impost' or -ssatlvalorem" resting eitlfCeI
upon p, ',ibition or protection as It's i1ail
feature. bus upon revenue, and a. sutt1
can be exercised without either the revis-,
ion OF contrnI of Congress. -
Now then what is the s.bona fide' object
OF yorr ten per cent. al valorem, uiscrin-
mating taxs You have tot the least conceal
ed 1t; Tor we know that no son of tile Oi IL
/ North State will conceal anything Your
object is openly proclaimed. You avsw 1t
to be a discriminating tax upon the uass.u
featured goods,not only Of partieuiarlye;,u-
merated States. but upon those goods whesl
they shall become even the property uf any
| of i.s citizens. You go farther. and ADMIT
that you do not want it for revenues. for
you append condition upon which conr
tingeney you make void the duty or tax
Such then being your object, we res
pectfulfy submit whether 1t does not come
within the pervicw and meaning of the
clause in question, which to some suall
extent circumscribes the ran.e Of yoar
legislative discretin.. We have said tha.
the clause had a latent meaning, and that
some parts Of it is perfectly inexplicabls,
without giving 1t the Interpretation which
we have placed epon it. The hidden
meaning. SO far at least as provides for the
manufacturing interest Of the States, by
the concurrent history, which We shall
now give and that our Jews are correct
we DEFY any other rational interpretation.
Ihe piece Of history alluded to is an
extract from speech made by Luther
Martin, one Of the delegates of the se.ler-
al convention. The speech was made in
1888, before the Maryland Legislature.
Mr Martin, In common with the other
delegates from that State, were called
upon by the Legislature to give them in
formation in regard 10 the proceedings OF
the late convention.
BY this same section.'' says MIR Mar
TN. alludIny to the constitutional clause,
''every State is prohibited from laying
any imposts or duties on imports or ex-
ports, without the permission of the gem
eral government. 1t was urged by US,
that as almost all the sources Of taxation
were gwen to Congress it would be but
reasonable To leave to the States the power
OF bringing revenue into their treasures
by laying dnty Oh exports If they should
think proper, which might he So lisM, as
not to 'njure or discourage industry, and
yet might be productive Of considerable
revenue Also, that there might BE- cases
IN which 1t would be proper for the pur-
Pose OF encouraging manufactures to lay
duties to prohibit the eNportation Of the
raw material. and even in addition to the
duties lad by Congress on imports for
revenue to lay duty to discourage the
Importation OF particular articles into a
State, to enable the manufacturer here
to supply us on as good terms as they could
be obtained from f"rei On market. How
ever, the most we could obtain was that
this power might be exercised by the States
with and only with the consent Of Con-
5ress aud subject to its control. &C."
here. then, we see that q portion Of the
ie'eSates LII convention asked simply for
ne poor privilege Of taxing mainly their
'wn people to promote their own industry
Tor we all know that tax Upon imports
ais mostly upon the consumer, and that
privilege was withheld, without the :i,ni-
ations alluded to.
Was the protection Of the manufacturing
Industry OF the States by the States them
elves, such a suicidal policy in the estirDa-
ION OF the trainers of the federal Constitu-
ION that Congress should irst"revise. ''and
ben get the nett proceeds in the bargain
,eftainly not. Whence then could such 4
-atchful and dstrnstful vigilance have
r'Stnated From other source than
ell founded apprehension that odious
'scrimlEations might be made. whose ten
tncy was to ALLEVIATE the feelings Of the
tizens OF one State from another and
us estransed. that they would cease to be
hat they started out to be-a band Of
'others. PEDEE.
THE AMERICA