Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1860-06-09
The rarIa-rhe Great Republican Failure.


vision of the tariff, the homestead bill, the
admission Of Kansas. The appropriation
bills are being perfected onascOle of liberality
which would indicate an unlimited income |
10 draw on; some large and entirely unneces-
sary additions have been made7to the ex-
penditures, and as the appropriation bills are
pretty sure to pass, without regard 70 the
way the means are to ile raised theipretpect
Is that another years ordinary expenses will
add another twenty or thirty millions to the
national debt. Although this policy is
ruinous, and should condemn any party that
is responsible for it, yet 1t win be vastly |
better for the country that 1t shall go on for
another year, or two, or more, running in
debt, than to have the tariff bill, which has
been prepared by the Republicans, inflicted
on il.
The Republican plurality in the present
House had the tariff question in such shape
that they could control It. The necessities of
Administration compelled it 10 submit to
general increase of duties. The Republicans
could properly have said that the policy of
accumulating debt in time of peace was ruin
ous, aud that provision for revenues must
precede appropriations. In such a position
the country would have sustained them, even
to the stopping of the supplies of the Ad-
ninistration, if its supporters were reffac-
tory. The abstract question of protection
was not involved at all. No party in Con-
gress dared to propose any other means of
revenue than duties on importations. These
can not be adjusted on any plan that ever
governed the matter so as to raise the means
that the necessities of the Administration
demand, without providing all the protec-
tion that any sensible protectionist would
ask.
We might interpose aremark, that although
the helplessness of the Democratic party
to propose any other means Of revenue than
tariff on imports, and the necessities of the
Administration ,nakingarevenuet tariff higher
protection than protectionists could reason
ably ask, gave the Republicans the oppor-
tunity of using Democratic necessities TO sat
isfy protectionist demands, without raising
the question Of protection at all; yet that
position is utterly false in principle. A tariff
purely for revenue is the most unequal sys-
TEN of taxation for support of government,
that was ever devised. 1t exempts wealth
from its proportion. What does the million
aire pay toward the support of government,
more than the man of p moderate in
come? If n niser = and miserly
disposition is not inseparable from
great wealth-he almost entirely escapes
from taxation. The weight of taxation in
creases according to expenditures, not ac-
cording to property; and in ratio to q mans
family burdens are his burdens for the sup
port Of government. We hope that we have
before expressed our views on protection so
plainly that no one will infer from this that
we are not utterly opposed to that fraud
upon every body except the man whose
wares are protected, and no ultimate benefit
to him. The utter fraud of the thing is con-
fessed by the manufacturers themselves, in
their anxiety to have the duty taken Off
from every thing which they use, except
their own particular manufacture.
But we are reviewing the Republican op-
portunity, and the way the party has used
it. Instead Of proposing such general in
crease of duties as they could demand solely
on the ground ofthe necessities of the admin
istration, they have permitted every body
who had an interest which he wished to
build up by government favoritism, TO specify
his own demands, and they have introduced
bill of denominations which, if enacted,
would make SO great and sudden a change in
L., - ,f,,r En-,
great interests, and would increase the cost
of great number of articles which are indis-
pensable to the productive industry of the,
country, so much as to be oppressive to the
people generally. The measure is failure.
The Senate has abundant Justification for
defeating it, whatever the consequences, and
will fail in its duty to the country if it does
not kill it,, The whole people, abolition and
pro-slavery, have cause for congratulation
that there is a Democratic Senate. Republi-
cans themselves may. thank pro-slayery
Senate for saving the country from an injury
which they would have inflicted on it, which
the most Utopian end of the ,anti-slsvery
movement that they dare propose to them
selves, if carried out, would not begin TO
compensate for. tst-tlt 10 or W
The great Republican opportunity has
resulted in total failure. There is no re-
source that may be devised TO supply the
wants of government which will not be a
relief from the measure they proposed; while
they have, to no purpose, saddled their party
with the principle of protective tariff in
the most odious shape that it was ever offered
for legislative enactment.
We might specify at great length the
denominations of the tariff bill which has
passed the House, but our limits prevent
The duties on wool and the arguments used
by the manufactursrs to adjust 1t TO theil
wishes, is a complete illustration of the FRAUD
of the whole principle Of protection. Their
has been an effort on the part of the man
ufacturers for several years 10 have wool ad
mitted free, and in 1857 they argueC
and paraded a great array of statistics
before Convention Of Oongress, 70 prove b
the result in England that the abolition O
duties would increase the price Of American
wool. Yet what is there in the nature q
wool that protection should not have all the
bepsnt;sat effects attributed 10 II, IN building
up home production that will directly bene-
ft the congumer2 Nothing IL is one Of the