Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1861-03-21
From the Baltimore Sun.


An Extra sess,on of Congress and the New Tariff
The republican journals at the North are much wor-
red over what the New York Post calls simmons
Wood-Screw Tariff" They begin to see that under
present circumstances it will operate to deaud the gov
eminent of no small amount of revenue and are Inere
fore calling for an extra session OF Congress 10
amend it. The New York Commercial (repuollcan) ior
instance remarks as follows:
When the new tariff bill up list session before
the federal Congress- we took occasan 10 recommend
postponement of the subject to next winter on account
of the distracted state OF our national AFFAIRS ne re-
suit has justified our antcipatoDs. An advance In the
duties has been enacted but 1t turns out that the eoe
al government is unable to collect any duties In several
of the States tied up its hands have been ID every
direction.
After the first of May, the difference in the scale Of
duties levied at Northern and Southern ports will divert
trade largely to such of the latter cannot be actually
bockaded The goods thus landed will be sent straight
way into the interior by river and rail road Nllnn
three DAYS bale of merchandise be conveyed from
Charleston Savannah, Mobile or New Orleans into the
whole tier of the border States We have no reason 10
call in question the loyalty of majority of their popu-
laton but a minority, active Inscriptions, and pow
erul whal could not only consume, but openly dispose
of the contrahand merchandise. Practically this mi
nority would become the state in which it existed
Under these circumstances, at woud appear to be
necessary for the federal government to repeal the dt
act recently passed. so to gUe the revolutionary con-
federaeS undue advantage 0Uer the States remaining
in the Union We certainly no other course open
at present 1t may appear humiatlng and even PAIN
full but necessity knows no law. 1t may be objected
that the conederates will be thereby encouraged to
duce their tariff still further, and that the same prncl-
pie may compel to keep pace with them until all
duties on imports shall have been swept away.
"To this it can only be replied that the rebellion
not theatrical exhibition, but actual stern lamen-
table fact AS such it must be dealt with Ii 1t Genes
to competition between two governments, no sane man
can doubt which will be able to hold out longer In the
race The general government could not fail to win.
But anticipate such persistent trial OF strengn
on the part of the rival powers. The object to be
gained is that the new conederacy shall not be allowed
to get the inside track of the United States and we
think the conclusion is patent to all that for this pnr
pose Congress should be convened with the least posi-
BILE delay"
The Post republican, also argues
so far be done by a reasonable scale OF du
ties and by mild system of laws the seeding
States offer great encouragement to mpOrtatlons.-
Within few months at er the southern tariff goes
into eHect-which is the first of May-the profession Of
conrabands on the frontier OF the seeding States will
have become regular occupation and ali its shifts
will be well understood at present on the boundary
which divides France from Spain.
"Trade between State and State is tree-there are
DO custom-house barriers the Southern boundary Of
North Carolina, Tennessee or Arkansas and no custom
house officer has right, our laws now stand, to STOP
or subject any formaty the goods sent to and fro
our railways, canals and rivers If he makes seizure
he must do so at bis peril. Southern dealer in goods
whether of foreign domestic production has as much
right to send them from Louisiana into Tennessee OF
from S. Carolina into n. Carolina, Northern dealer
has to send them from state to another. Let the
original packages be broken, let the goods take such
form that the government officers longer show
them to be the which brought into the South
ports without payment of duty and the seizure be
merely rutess and vexatious. There is not much
doubt that the contrabandst will take in such
to provide sufficient DISCUSSES and remove all indications
of illicit importations
1t to US, therefore, that if importations shall
be suffered be made freely at the southern ports unde
the low tariff of the Conederacy, the foreign trad
of the Union is at their mercy. 1t will be infnite
easier and stupenduous method to stop all oreig
cargoes their into the harbors of the seced
ing States than to watch and attempt to arrest thei
distribution over the country after they are landed"