The Evansville daily journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ia. [i.e. Ind.]) 1848-1862, 1860-12-08

ment of the same day throughout the Union
for holding the election of Electors tol
President and Vice President of the United
States. My attent ton was earnestly direct
ed to this subject from the fact that the 35th
Congress terminated on the 3rd of March,
1859, without making the necessary aPpro-
priatiOn for the service of the Post Office
department I was then forced TO consider
the best remedy for this. omission, and an
immediate call ofthe present Congress was
the usual resort. Upon inquiry however,
I ascertained that fifteen of the thirty-three
States composing the Confederacy, were
without representatives, and that conse-
quentIy these fifteen States would be dis
franchised on the 4th of March next; ten
of them cannot elect Representatives accord
ing to State laws, until different periods
extending from the beginning OF August
next until the ninth of November, and in
my last message / gave warning that in a
time of sudden and alarming danger the
salvation of our institutions might depend
upon the power of the President to assemble
n full Congress 10 meet the emergency.
- TARIFF.s SIS ss~..
1t is now quite evident that the financial
necessities of the Government will require
a modification of the tariff during yonr
present session, for the purpose of increas-
| ing the revenue.
In this respect desire to reiterate the
recommendations contained in my last two
| annual Messages, in favor Of imposing spe-
cific instead of ad valorem duties, on all i'm
ported articles to which these can be proper
| ly applied. From long observation and ex-
perience am convinced that specific duties
! are necessary, both to protect the revenue
and to secure to our manufacturing interests
that amount of incidental encouragement
which unavodably results from revenue
tariff. As an abstract proposition, it may
be admitted that ad valorem duties would in
theory be the most just and equal, but if
the experience of this and of all other COM
merciaI nations has demonstrated that such
duties cannot be asked and collected with
out great frauds upon the revenue, then it
is the part of wisdom TO resort to specific
duties. Indeed, from the ve<y nature of the
ad valorem duty, this must be the result
Under it the inevitable consequence is that
foreign goods will be entered at less than
their true value. The Treasury will there
fore lose the duty on the difference between
their real and fictitious value, and to this
extent we are defrauded. The temptations
which ad valorem duties present to dis
honest importer, are irresistible. His OBJ
ject is to pass his goods through the Custom
House at the very lowest valuation neoessa-
ry to save them from cOnfscation. la this
he too often succeeds in spite of the vigil
ance of the Revenue officers. Hence the re-
sort to false invoices, one for the purchaser
another for the Custom House, and TO other
expedients TO defraud the Government. The
honest importer produces bis invoice to the
collector, stating the actual price at
which he purchased the articles abroad. Not
so the dishonest importer, and the agent of
the foreign manufacturer And here it may
be observed that very large proportion Of
the manufactures imported from abroad are
consigned for sale to commission merchants
who are mere agents employed by the man
ufacturers i'll such cases. No actual sale
has been made to fix their vatIe. The for
eign manufacturer, if he be dishonest, pre-
psres au invoice of the goods not at their
actual value, but at the very lowest rate
necessary to escape detection. In this uau-
ner the dishonest importer and the foreign
enjoy decided advantage over
the honest merchant. They are thus eu-
abled to undersell the fair trader, and drive
him from the market. In fact the opera
ton of this system has already driven from
the pursuit of honorable commerce many Of
that class of regular and conscientious mer-
chan;s, whose character throughout the
world is the pride of our country. The
remedy for these evils is to be found in
specific duties so far as this may be practica-
be They dispense with any inquiry at
the Custom House into the actual cost or
value of the article, and its pays the precise
amount Of duty previously fixed by law
They present no temptations to the Hppras-
Frs of foreign goods, who receive :
0ut small salaries, and might by
in few cases rem
Ter themselves independent. Besides,
pecific duties best conform to the requIsi-
ion in the Constitution, that no preference
hall be given by any regulation Of com
nerce or revenue to the ports OF ono State
,ver those of another. Under oar al valo-
EN- system, such preferences are To some
xtent inevitable, and complaints have often Q
'een made that the spirit of this provision a
as been violated by n lower appfaisc-
nent of the same articles at one port than
t another. An impression strangely c
nough prevails to some extent, that specific /
uties are necessarily protective duties. t
Iothing be more flllacious. Great +
'ritain glories in free trade, and yet her
yhole revenue from imports is at the pres
mt moment collected under. a system OF 1 p
pecifc duties. 1t is n striking fact in this ii
that in the commercial treaty
twenty-third January, 1860, between
rance and England, one of the articles q
fOVlueS tnaL Jle au FalOreIu duties Nhlcn !,
imposes shall be converted into specific =
uties within six months from its date, and f
lese are to be ascertained by making an S,
verage of the price for six months pre-
ious to that time. The reverse Of the
roposition would be nearer to the truth, I,
ecause a much larger amount of revenue :
'ould be collected by merely converting u
le ad valorem duties of tariff into gen G
raj equivalent specific duties. To this ex- ir
mt, the revenue would be increased, and
! the same proportion, the specific duty
light be diminished Specific duties would r.
,cure to the American manufacturer the
lcidental protection to which he is fairly g
ntited under a revenue tariff; and to this pi
lrely no person would object. The trainers eC
the existing tariff have gone further,
nd, in a liberal spirit, have discriminat-
l in favor of large and useful "
ranches of our manufactures. Not by r,
using the rate of duties upon the importa-
on of similar articles from abroad, but 10
hat is the same in effect, by admitting pa