Holmes County Republican. [volume] (Millersburg, Holmes County, Ohio) 1856-1865, 1860-06-21
MIILERSBURG, thursday, JUNE

tax will not be impose. !. because 1 do
not believe il necessary to raise such sum.
But speak of its as the only source oil
income that We have at present right to
draw upon at any time and for any amount
which will pay our checks to any amount
NOT exceeding say, s15O,OOO,OOO. Ifthe
Government was reduced 10 narrow straits
if We were engaged in war, or if anything
occurred requiring great drain on ouI
resources, we could raise that amount oi
money from that source Of revenue alone,
without resorting to direct taxation.
Mr.. Chairman, there never has been,
since the foundation of this Government,
time when any other source of revenue
was looked to, Gentlemen talk about free
trade. Sir, no project for free trade has
ever been submitted to US with hope Of
passage. l believe that if a project for
free trade were to be carried through Con-
gress, it would lose every member who
voted for it his seat in this House. Why,
sir, the people of this country would not
stand the raising of Sl0,OOO,0O0 by direct
taxation. If you were to put upon the
State of Ohio direct tax to the amount
of s1,Ooo,OOo it might become almost as
bad as the people of some of the Southern
States now are-they would almost be in
favor of secession. The only question for
us to consider in this connection are, how
much revenue is to be raised, and how shall
we raise it? l say that it is necessary for
us to raise some S6O,OOo,OOO or $40, ,OOO,-
600 within the next fiscal year. Will
the present tariff furnish that amount of
revenue?
Every man answers ''no." The Secrata-
ry of the Treasury estimates that the tar
iff of 1857 will yield 100000. 900 for the
next fiscal year. Why, sir, to produce a
revenue of 6O,OoO,oOO a year, under tar
iff of 1857, it will require an importation
of s44s,s41,oOo. If the prophecy of the
Secretary of the Treasury should turn out
to be true, it would bring about CONNER
cial revulsion. To establish or continue
tariff which would induce an importation
of s50O,OOO,0OO, would be to destroy the
manufactures of the country. 1t would
limit our industrial and producing power
to agriculture alone, when every one knows
that diversity of pursuits is essential to
the prosperity of every people. Four
hundred and fifty million dollars of impor-
tations! No people in the world could
stand it.
To import the amount of S44s,000,OOO
annually, with population of 3O,OOO,OOO
inhabitants, would give an importation of
about SIS per head, or IS per family,
throughout the United States. Now, the
highest rate of imports we have ever had
prior to the tariff of 1857 was in 1886.
when it reached the amount of S1O,93 per
head, and in 1857, when the importations
reached s11,s2 per head; and it is re-
markable fact the importations of these
two years preceded the greatest CONNER
cial revulsions of our time. 1t took ten
years of economy and industry to recover
from the troubles of 1886. And now Mr..
Chairman, il, by the financial policy of the
Secretary of the Treasury, and importa-
ton of SIS per head is produced, what
will be the effect of it? All experience
teaches that no people can afford to pay, in
addition to all the cost of freight and
for importatlons to the
amount of SIS per head, or $75 per fam
lily.
Four hundred and fifty millions! When
gentlemen add to this amount freight, in
surance, the loss by false invoices, by for
gerry and perjury-and tell them that un-
der our present adualorem system there is
a great deal of both-when in addition,
you take into computation the debt due in
this country to Europe by States, cities,
counties, and railroad companies, amount
ing to some s5Oo,OOO,OOO, upon which
they are paying an interest Of about seven
per cent. you will have an amount of spe-
Gle, or its equivalent, going out of the coun-
try of something like S 550,ooO,0OO,
enough to bring the country to the verge
of bankruptcy. Therefore it is that 1 say
that, if the prophecy of the Secretary of
the Treasury should turn out to be true,
it would prove national misfortune, sec
ond only to his practice of living upon the
public credit. If you will produce suffi-
,ient amount of revenue to carry on the ma
,hinery of Government upon a safe basis of
it is necessary to revise the
Tariff of 1857.