Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1858-12-17
dbe91ee W1xas
GEO. w. 4 c.. G. BENEDICT,
EDIroRs AND PRoPRIEroRs.
R For trms see last page. .H9
BURLINGTON:
FRIDAY MORNING, DEC. IT, 1858.
THE PRESIDENTS MESSAGE.

THE PRESIDENTS MESSAGE.
We continue and conclude our abstract
Of the Message.
TIL President charges the crash in the
business interests of the country during the
last year to "our unsound and extravagant
system of Bank credits and inflated currency.
No government. he says, could have prevcn.
ted the late revulsion. "The whole COM
mercial world seemed for years to have been
rushing to this catastrophe. The same
ruinous consequences would have followed in
the United States, whether the duties upon
foreign imports had remained as they were
under the tariff of 1876, or had been raised
to a much higher standard. The tariff of
1857 had no agency in the result"
He recommends the passage of a uniform
bankrupt law applicable to banking insti-
tutions. The fear of inevitable death to the
banks on suspension of specie payments,
he thinks would produce wholesome re-
straint on their managers.
He thinks the practice Of increasing the
national debt to meet the ordinary expenses
ofgovernment is ruinous policy is
sensible view of the subject. We wonder
he did not think of it before. There is much
that is god in the following remarks on the
tariff. For them we think the country is
indebted to the thrashing which Pennsylva-
MIA gave the administration in the late elect
ion. How much sincerity there is in what
he says, we shall find out by and by.
"Besides, it may be proper to observe, that
the incidental protection. thus afforded by q
revenue tariff, would at the present moment,
to some extent, increase the confidence Of
fresh impulse to our reviving business. To
this, surely, no person will object.
In regard to the mode of assessing and col
lecting duties under strictly revenue tariff,
! have long entertained and often expressed
the opinion, that sound policy requires this
should be done by specific duties, in cases to
which. these can be properly applied. They
are well adapted to commodities which are
usually sold by weight or by measure, and
which, from their nature, are of equal or of
nearly equal value. Such for example, are
the articles of iron of different classes, raw
sugar and foreign wines and spirits.
In my deliberate judgement, specific duties
are the best, if not the only means Of secur-
ing the revenue against false and fraudulent
invoices, and such has been the practice
adopted for this purpose by other commerce
ial nations. Besides, specific duties would
afford to the American manufacturer the in
cidental advantages to which he is fairly en-
titled under revenue tariff. The present
system is a sliding scale to his disadvantage.
Under it, when prices are high and business
prosperous, the duties rise in amount when
he least requires their aid. On the contrary
when prices fall, and be is struggling against
same proportion, greatly to his injury.
He agrees with the Secretary of the Trea
sury, that revision of the present tariff
should be made, so as to get more money
without raising it by additional loans.
Every thing ought to be done to economize
which can be, and he had directed the heads
of the treasury, war, navy and interior de-
partments to reduce their estimates to the
lowest standard admissible, and they have
done 80. He refers to their reports as eI-
pressing his own views. The total public
debt at July l, 1858, amounted to about
SIS 100000. .....
On the subject of railroad to the Pacific,
| the President takes much as he did last year
He thinks the government can help such an
enterprise under the war-making power Of
the constitution, that it ought not to be
built directly by the government, because in
that way jobbng and corruption would pre-
vail. Congress had better, he thinks, leave
its construction to private corporations
which can be helped by grants of land OF
money, the government making beneficial
conditions for the transportation of troops
and provisions of war gratis, and the mail.
at reasonable rate, How the jobbing and
corruption are to be escaped on this plan VT
do not see. The President thinks we mus,
have the rail road, and implies, plainly
enough, that it must 90 by the Southern
quite.