Cooper's Clarksburg register. [volume] (Clarksburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1851-1861, 1852-06-09

Election was gratuitous and, after a
of the question as tits present
ed, it requires. at my hand, no further
Mr.. Chairman, will not endeayor to
prove that live stock belong to the vegeta
Bile kingdom. This ridiculous posotion has
not been assumed by any Western gen.
tleman f; and l beg leave here to say,
that the criticisms INDUCED in by several
gentlemen upon the terms used by some
of the friends of this amendment, SAVIOR
more of captiousness than fairness of ar
gument but do say that the political
economist and statesman, must regard
live stock as agricultural productions for
all governmental purposes. So far as the
agency of man is concerned, live stock is
the production of the field. The rearing
of live stock, considered as an industrial
pursuit, is the application of capital and
human labor to The culture of land IN such
manner as may best promote the object
and, in this sense, were l to call live stock
agricultural productions, no violence would
be done the term, whether we look to its
derivation or its acceptation. Whatever
is produced by the culture of land, l ap-
prehcnd may, with propriety be called ag-
rcultural productions. We have in Wes-
tern Virginia some farms exclusively de-
voted to the raising Olive stock, and 9TH
ers devoted exclusively to the raising OF
grains of different kinds. The former
produce neat cattle, hogs and sheep, and
the latter produce cerial grains. The farm
devoted exclusively to grazing, produces
something. Now, if its productions are
not live stock, what are they? And what
produce would the farmer sell at the end
of the year to compensate him his labor T?
l am not singular in the position have
taken on this question. For government
tai purposes, live stock should be
considered as agricultural productions. 1
have before me the Congressional Globe,
containing the Report Of the Sxpsrinten-
dent Of Census, and according to his elias
sifcation, live stock arc agricultural pro-
auctions. In table GA" headed AGRr-
CULTURAL PRoDUCT1oNs, we find these
items, and in this order-AcREs OF LAND
EMPRovED-VALUE OF FARMING IMPLEMENTS
AND MACHINERY-VALuEo OF LIVE STOCK
BUSHELS OF WHEAT, and so on. This is a
natural and proper classification, and a
classification which no political economist
would ever think of Directing to. l would
advise those fastidious gentlemen, who
have thought proper to lecture Western
gentlemen upon the proper use of terms,
TO write treatise defining the scope and
meaning Of the term Agricu2t,Tal prodUc-
honS for the benefit of the Secretary of the
Interior and his officers. have no doubt
the yotaries of Wayland, Say and Adam
Smith, would peruse such volume with
an unteigncd and curious interest.
The analogy between live stock and
wheat, corn and tobacco, as products Of
industrial pursuits, is too palpable to adj
nit of argument. They arc composed of
the same elements, dedicated to the same
purposes, and have common destiny
Land, labor and capital enter as clements
into both, and arc the only elements to be
found in either. They are all equally to
be regarded as necessaries of life, and are
dedicated alike to human consumption
and sustenance. If the profits arising from
the application of capital and labor to the
cultivation Of land, in one form, should not
be taxed, it is difficult to sec the propriety
or justice of taxing the profits arising from
the application of the same elements to the
cultivation of the same subject in differ
ent form. Eastern gentlemen, borne down
and staggering beneath the weight of this
striking analogy, in their efforts to dem
onstrate that the one should be taxed and
he other exempted, have fallen into eyre
yous errors on questions of fact, and have
manifested lack of knowledge concern
ng Western Virginia and the pursuits OF
her people, which, if it serve their present
purpose, cannot administer to their future
fame a stranger, listening to the speech
made a few days since by the gentleman
from Fauquier, (Mr. Scott, } would have
supposed that wild herds ofhorscs, cattle,
sheep, hogs and buffalo, were roaming at
hills and valleys of the West, SO numer-
ous and untamablc that the commissioners
IF the revenue could not run them down
20 list and value them. And hence, he
,rgued, if l understood him, they could
lot be taxed, even should we provide for
/ in the bill. The gentleman form Rock
ngham, (Mr Martz,) enlightened the
committee, few days since, with the
sage announcement that he had been told
hat Pennsy!vanians herd large hocks of
sheep upon vacant and unapproprlated
and--land held by the commonwealth in
The Northwest; and that one object with
him was to get at these Pennsylvanians !
And the fanciful Chairman of the Com
nittce of Finance, leaving the dull and
prosy field of statistics and argument to
he uninspircd, draws upon his fertile and
vivid imagination, and pictures to the COM
mittee scene Of rural contentment and
reposc, and applies it to the farmers of
Western Virginia, of which the Pastoral
poets of olden times never conceived or
sung, and with which even he who sought
a speedy deliverancc from the happy val
ley, might have been we'll pleased and
eontented, His fancy has wrought beau