Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1852-1859, 1858-02-20


TuE License SYsrEA AND THE MERCHANTS
TAx-If there is any remarkable instance to be
found anywhere, of the sanction which use and
habit lend to public acts, otherwise entirely in
dcfcnsible, it may be found in the system of tax
alton in this State, in relation to merchants
An epitome of this system would read thus ::
Every citizen of this State, except the mer-
chant, shall pay into the common revenue, for
the common protection ard benefit, snch per
centage upon his real estate, capital and other
property, forty cents upon every hundred dol
lars of value, it is now.) But the merchant
shall first pay n bonus for the privilege Of puT-
suing his calling at all. And, in addition, he
shall pay on his capital much larger per cent
age than the above. Yet, it shall not be apparent
10 others, however plain it may be 10 him, that
he contributes so large proportion or diSpro
portion to the general fund. The amount of his
sales, and not the amount of his capital shall be
the test by which his tax shall be measured
And whether his means be large or small,
whether his profits losses be greater or less,
upon a certain amount of sales, he shall pay
fixed sum, and he increases his business,
shall meet with increased taxation, from the pa
rental arm of the State, thrown him for his
shield and protection"
If this system were new thing, it wodld be
startling. II, instead Of the cord ''merchaHt,"
tile i0OTd 'fIracr' ''mansf acturer' rsre IN
serted, 1t ,soul1 create such an uproar among tie
constituent body, as could lead to a speedy er-
PH|tSG"y " t'fcS OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES UNty.
Certainly it would have created an uproar-
and the lsst paragraph quoted above is just the
case, in 4 nutshell, as cited and explained By
US at considerable length, the other day. There
are now--have been for sometime, and we don't
know how long in future they will continue
two separate and distinct interests in our Legs
lature There is the planting interest and the
mercantile interest. The former always has
been fostered to the prejudice of the latter, from
the colonial times down to the present. Mer-
camille capital was discouraged and stunted at
the outset and has been merely kept along on
half rations ever since; while capital invested in
lands-in niggers and farm stock generally, has
been carefully sheltered from tax burthens.-
This course has worked out its Legitimate effects
as seen in the dwarfed and backward condition
of mercantile operations in the State. Mercan-
tile wants-energy and patronage made the \.
Y & Erie Canal-and that Canal made New
York what she is. The same energy, wants
and pat onage made those huge arteries of Com
merce, the n Y. Centraland the \. Y. K Erie Rail-
roads-and they and other less prominent lines
of trade arc building up New York to her great
coming destiny. These great improvements
and suggested by Washington for Virginia,
away back at the time when Norfolk had the
start, or at least equal footing in the race with
other seaboard cities. Norfolk, the finest har-
Dor on the Atlantic coast, could have been and
might have been the outlet for all the West and
Southwest, cia the James river and Kanawha
Canul-the Covington & Ohio Railroads.&c. B.
& o. Railroad and other lines of travel and
transportation which were discussed at an early
day, almost as the first projection Of canals and
railroads in the country But Virginia was
content at that time, as She has been ever since,
to ''do" the politics of the country and let them
of more ignoble descent-more sordid aims
and less heaven commissioned natures, ''do"
the foreign commerce and the inland trading
So, while Mr.. Jefferson and Mr.. Madison and Mr.
Randolph, after the other, were theorizing
over the mystiied li5erte, trdternite and egalitc
of the Yoltaire school of French radicals--Alcx-
Ander Hamilton, Dewitt Clinton, ct id omne
genus, were busy at work laying the foundation
Of New York's present name and preponder-
ance.
Thus it has been that we have lost that which
was clearly our birth right and Lave gained in
return, mess of abstractionizedp ottage, in the
shape of n trsdidonary batch OF political dog,
mas. And now, that Mr., Preston has returned
from Europe, and announced that he has a
scheme foot to get French company to run
a line of steamers from New Orleans, France, TO
Norfolk, the Richmond papers are jubilant in
the expectation of seeing the grass grow in
Broadway, New York. Our abstractionized CO.
tempoIaries really seem to think that these
steamers are to make commerce for US, instead
of us making these steamers come to meet an
already msde commerce. It's not steamers that
we have stood in need Of, although considerable
trade might now be done with them, we have
no doubt, but it is liberal and gracious policy
towards all the industrial interests of the
State: and not the poor, lOp-sided system OF
robbing Peter to pay Paul, which this grievous
taxing Of mercantile capital amounts TO-
a TRENESDOrs IDEA.-A member ofthe Acad-
emie DIES Sciences of Paris, who is also an emil
nent chemist, has invented an apparatus, which
he thinks will enable human beings to breathe
ms freely at the bottom of the sea as on the sur
face of the earth He pTOpoScS to form an as