The Alleghanian. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1859-1865, 1861-02-28


local roads,--tor, as each line is dependent
on the other, what touches one affects All.
This fatal iiScord has been strongly com
mented on BY the Supreme Court OF the
United States, that tribunal having recent /
~ declared as follows:
"If this may be done in New York, ev-
cry other State may do the same, on all
the lines of our Internal navigation. Pas
sepgers on steamboat which plies on the
Ohio, the Mississippi, or any Of our other
rivers, or on the lakes, may be required to
pay a tax, imposed at the discretion Of
each State within which the boat shall
touch And the same principle viii sus-
tain right in every State to tax all per-
sons who shall pass through It's territory
on railroad cars, canal boats, stages, or in
any other manner. This would enaole
State to establish and enforce a non-inter-
course with every other State
Congress has regulated commerce and
intercourse with foreign nations and be
tween the several States, by aei2liay Il at Il
ShaU be free and It IS therefore not left to
the discretion in each State IN the Union
either to refuse a right Of passing to per-
sons or property through her territory. or
TO exact u duty for permission to exercise
it.
4 tax or duty upon tonnage, merchan-
disc or passengers, IS Il regulation OF COM
merce, and cannot be laid by State, ex-
cept under the sanction Of Congress, and
Tor the purpose specified in the Constitu-
ton"
If this tonnage tax can be lawfully lev
led on through freight, any State, moved
by mistaken views Of interest, or impeiled
by apparent necessity, OF dciudcd by I3fciu-
dice, or ipilamed by aniuosity, may, by
tax or prohibition, impair or destroy the
social and commercial communications Of
the nation.
Tor if this power of incumbrancc or
prohibition does exist in the States, ii is
bccauso the Constitution is, In this regard
imperative. II the Constitution is inop-
erative, the States stand on their original
sovereignty Sovereignty is, in nature as
in name, supreme. It knows neither law
nor limit. The viii or whim OF single
member Of the Union may declare des-
polism over all The rest in reference to all
subjects by which their respective citizens
are brought into contact.
Pennsylvania, by the tonnage duty,
icvies : tax on all the goods and products
Of ali the other States cast ana west, pass
ing over the Pennsylvania Railroad, and
on every State ia which they are consumed.
They may be provoked to the exercise Of
like powers, attack our use OF their roads
which are Row free, tax az eur coal, iron,
wheat and manufactures which enter their
borders, and thus subject our products to
burthens equal to or exceeding those which
We exact from theirs.
Pennsylvania is ore Of the great portals
Of the West If she refuses access except
on payment Of tribute, she invites retal.u-
sion Let It be once commenced, and her
vast trade to and from the valley iof the
Mississippi must be speedily annihilatcd.
Hemmed in by other States, she is at the
mercy OF them all, for what she can do,
they may 90. In asserting the legality
and policy Of the tonnage tax, she gives
inpunity to adverse legislation against her
own produce and people.
This competition OF extortion is wholly
inconsistent with the frarernal feeling
which formed the Federal Union. 1t is
at war with national character This spe-
cies OF tax, by each State on each other
State, if exacted, would prove worse THAI
the imposJ duties Of the petty German
municipalities, or the river tribute OF the
Rhenish lords. The progress OF ciyiIiza-
ton has abolished these extortions It
cannot be that enlightened Pennsylvania
will continue the abandoned polieg of
semi barbarous times least of all that she
viii subject her own citizeus to special
lmpedineuts in the pursuit of their inter-
ests, or repress, by legislative enactInents,
the realization Of the riches which nature
from countless ages, has preserved and
accumulated, ready fer available use,
whenever called for by the industry of
man.
If these views are sound, they effectual-
" answer the short-sighted objection to
the repeal of Tie tax, founded upon the
simple consideration that it brings eer-
tain sum into the treasury, for they prove
that the money obtained is at cost TO
which the most extortiorate demand Of
the veriest Shylock is liberality itself
rather the generosity OF gift than the
usury OF q loan.
THE REMEDY, PLAIN AND SURE.
But We proceed to show that an ar
rangement may be made, BY which even
this solitary and unsustained objection is
met, not BY argument but by money that,
by it, ali restrictions on the power OF the
Company TO compete with rival routes for
foreign freight will be obviated, all i'm
pediment to the Development Of our IN