Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1858-1860, 1858-10-01
SPEECH OF MIR. BELL.
OF TENNESSEE,
ON THE FIFTEEN MILLION LOAN

sum of SIS 600 00O the pending question being
on the amendment of Mr.. SIMMONS to provide
for the home valuation of all foreign imports
Mr.. BELL said: Mr. President, perceive
the anxiety of the honorable Senator from
Virginia, (Mr. HrNTER.) and the disposition
OF the Senate generally. 10 vote upon this
subject without further debate. aud it is GER
tainiy with great hesitation that / obtrude
myself on the attention OF Senator's by
making any remarks on the subject; but 1t
strikes me as one that deserves more consld-
Grafton than it has yet received, and one
4 that from its peculiar, and in some respects
extraordinary character. calls for scrutiny
such as, under ordinary circumstances, loan
bill might not require.
What is this measure. Mr.. President Here
is proposition for loan of Sl5.000.0O
within little more than four months from
the date of former one of 100000. 600, both
of which being sums declared to be necessary
to carry on the Government until the end of
the present calendar year. or until the next
session of Congress; thus increasing the
public debt within single year to the amount
of S35.000.000: and yet no plan is proposed
or provision made for it's redemption, and
none to increase the receipts of the Treasury
from the ordinary sources of revenue; and
this, too, in a time of peace. But so little I'M
pOrtance appears to be attached to these
striking facts by the administrators OF the
Government that they scarcely condescend
to give an explanation of them. Even the
Senator from Virginia himself (Mr. HUNTER)
has touched very lightly and given appar-
emily but little attention to the important
questions which lie back of the present one.
| pass by all that, however, for the present. l
suppose there may be some considerations OF
policy or interest connected with the Admin
istration which dictate course SO unusual
| on such subjects.
But. sir. it is not easy to pass without
| notice another circumstance connected with
| the measure now before the Senate. The
tables of the trade of the country and other
| well authenticated facts show that the frauds
committed upon the customs revenue, sup
posing the imports in future to be as large as
they have been in the last seven years, will
amount annually to a sum equal to the pro-
| posed loan, and even exceed that amount, II
the Senator from Georgia (Mr. TooMBs) is
| right in his estimate These frauds have
| been practiced ever since the passage of the
tariff Of 1916. and chiefly in consequence of
| the policy of levying the duties under that
| act on the foreign value. 1t is estimated by
the honorable Senator from Georgia that the
custom-hOu>e returns do not show the real
amount of importatiOns. and that the def
| cheney last year was not less than one hun
dred million dollars. Estimating the average
duty under the act of 1857 on the whole
amount of the imports at fifteen per cent, 1t
! will be seen that a saving could be made oil
the amount of the proposed loan In one year.
| by providing a remedy against frauds in the
collection of it. But supposing the annual
amount of imported merchandise exhibited
| in the custom-hOuse accounts to be less than
the actual value imported by S50,000,000
one-half the deficiency estimated by the
Senator from Georgia, still ii will be seen
! that a saving in the revenues might be effect
| ed in two wears, under fair and honest
| system of collection, to the amount of Sl5,-
! 000, 900, the sum proposed to he borrowed.
Another view of this subject will show
results not less striking. Taking $500 0OO.-
600 as the average amount of importatlons
! for the last ten years, aud that is under the
average. and further estimating S50,0OO,00O
as the difference between the value of the
the imports taken from the custom-hOuse
| accounts and the actual value annually i'm
ported, in will be seen that S5O0OO0OO OF
foreign goods have been imported into the
country in the last ten years beyond what
appears in the tables reported by the Secre-
tary of the Treasury, and that in the same
| period the frauds upon the public revenue
| have been upwards of seventy-hVe million OF
dollars Under such circumstances l am
surprised that the honorable Senator from
! Virginia should interpose any formal or
| technical objection to the amendment offered
| by the Senator from Rhode Island, (Mr. SIM
! MoNs,) by which many or all the devices by
which such extensive frauds have heretofore
| been practised upon the revenue may be cor
rected and the wants of the Treasury be
amply supplied without the slightest change
| of the duties authorized by the act of 1916.
! Does not the long continuance of these frauds,
| and no remedy proposed for their correction,
| present most extraordinary state OF the
] public councils and administration of the
| Government?
That is not all. The international trade
of the country has become demOraliZing i'll
| its tendency, the tone and character of the
American merchant is lowered, and the hon
est importer is driven from his employment.
undertake to state that three-tourths of the
foreign trade of the country is now in the
hands of foreigners, their agents or factors.
If am wrong in my estimate | would thank
nv friend from Rhode Island to correct me.
Mr. SIMMONS You have not overstated it.
Mr. BELL. These are important cOnsidera-
tons of themselves; but the main point Is,
That at "a time when the Teasury is annually
defrauded of from ten to fifteen million dol
lars by under-valuations and other devices
and when a loan is proposed of $4,000, 900
beyond the current receipts to carry on
the Government until the next session OF
Congress. in itself revenue measure. the
honorable Senator from Virginia objects to
an amendment which proposes no new duties,
but simply to enforce the collection of those
now authorized by law, on the ground that 1t
is unconstitutional. On the same principle.
it would seem to me that exception might be
made to the bill as it now stands. What Is
that bill but Il measure TO raise revenue? As
to the objection of the cOnstitutionality OF the
amendment offered, will not say that there
is no plausible ground upon which that OBJ
lection may be urged. 1t is true that, if the
amendment should prevail, the receipts of the
Treasury will be Increased; and that is the
extent of the argument. The objection can
only be defended upon narrow and technical
principles There is not u single item of I'M
ports upon which the rate of the existing du-
ty is proposed to be raised by the amendment.
There are no new articles of commerce emu
merated in the amendment on which duties
are proposed to be levied. Ohe would sup
pose that a bill To raise revenue within the
meaning of the Constitution, in the clause re-
curing all such bills to originate i'll the
House of Representatives,, should propose to
lay duty upon some article of foreign growth
or manufacture not already subject to duty,
or to increase the existing rates or by iInpos-
ing excise duties or internal taxes IN some OF
the hundred different ways in which revenue
may be raised; but there is no such provision
in the amendment of the Senator from Rhode
Island, as understand it. Ii is in effect and
substance, simply To secure the falthlul col
lection of the amount of duties aud revenue
contemplated by the aot of 1876, according
to fair and Just construction of its provi.
sions. No further duties or charges are i'm
posed upon imported merchandise than they
would be- subject to il the existing laws were
executed in good faith. That is substantially
the proposition OF the Senator from Rhode
Island: and yet it is OH, cted 10 as unconsti-
tutional. Taking these circumstances into
view, the case does furnish the test which /
said last evening when l rose to address the
Senate, wanted to see applied and exhibited
to the country-a test of the lengths to which