Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1859-02-11
The Revenue and Expenditures.

The Revenue and Expenditures.
Secretary Cobb concurs with the President in regard
ing as absolutely necessary some modification of the
Tariff in order that receipts into the United States
Treasury may be increased to balance expenditures
without resort to loans and increased debt. The
Secretary however differs from the President in
y adherng to the dd Udlore system Of assessing duties
and also to the principle Of irrespective of pro-
lection.
There is no denying the fact that our National Legs
atures and of course our national politics. which find
their expression in the halls of national legislation are
drifting away far from, and nearly out Of sight Of,
the old landmarks, and where things to
stop, is far more than any one pre-
tend to say. Our public expenditures have necessarily
increased largely but they have unnecessarily increased
still largely It is useless to lay the blame exclu
sivey or mainly upon the executive 1t is very seldom
ndeednever of late that Congress does not far exceed
the estimates Of the departments by requiring things to
be done or expenditures to be made not contemplated
by such estimates required by the real wants of the
country. Look at the Pension Bills, the Homestead
Bills the Pacific Railroad Bills, the Agricultural Bills
now before Congress- and really commanding maorities
in both houses and only defeated if defeated at ALL by
quarres among their supporters, each section being
we don't see what the General Government has got to
do with giving away lands, homeseads to this man or
that any more than giving coats and hats to the other
man, what the difference in principle can be between
making donations to endow agricultural colleges at the
centres of the States and giving money to endow law
schools or commercial academies at other points Once
upon time, we thought the General Government was
the mere creature of the Stateor under the most ultra
construction of the people of the States-ther nstru-
ment and agent to do certain things that required
agent for their doing but we hear altogether
a different story The people to be the dependents
Of their federal agency, which agency to spend
the general patrimony in donations, and patrOnizngy
foster its masters and creatorsto build rarOadstosus
tain steamship ine8-tO grant pensions where none were
asked except through those who make it joint stock
business There in talking about retrenchmCnt
The Departments may try to retrench, but now no
Congress pays any attention to executive recommends
lions no matter how wise or patriotic. Too many men
waiting in both houses for chance Themselves and
faction wanting in professions or excuses seeks oc
Casion for quarrel and avoids all chance for harmony
unless based upon its own ACKNOWLEDGEMENT.
Rome not built in o day. was any other great
capital. Augustus in the seventh eight century
after the founding of the city, found it brick and left it
marbe-that is, he built good many marble piles
But the Capitol and the Patent Office, and the Treasury
building at Washington City have sweled into marble
mountains in the sixth decade Of Washington existence,
and acqueducts arc planned on a scale that Rome or
Carthage might have enved while the temples OF Plu-
tus commonly called custom houses have arsen at
minor ports in style of gorgeous beauty, like unto We
nus rising from the sea- only they have generally risen
from the mud as witness New Orleans and Charleston
where elaborate carving and ponderous arches alike
sink into the sney ooze having fulfilled their destiny
by enriching contractors.
Now, rejecting men have come to one or two concu-
sions, and Of these is that reliable system of ma
tiona finance ever has been ever be founded
clusivey upon duty imports. One of the great OBJ
ecs of the States in agreeing to enter into the Const
rational federation to joint organization
able to provide for the common defence. The OF
1872 showed concusvey the nadequacy of our federal
revenue system for giving effect to this great end aimed
at in the established of federal authority for the failure
of federal revenues was concdent with the entrance up
on a undertaken on general account for purposes
of general defence. 1t would be again A war with
naval power would paralyze federal finances,
commercial Revision does even the midst of profound
peace