Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1862-01-06
a Way 70 RaIse rIoner.

| governments of France and Great Britain
derive the immense revenue they require to
| support their vast armies and navies pay
| the interest on their national debt, and de-
fray the expenses of the government. 10
France it is openly declared that the annual
revenue may and does equal twenty. FIVE per
| cent. of the total annual earnings of the ma
tion, and French writers state that this i'm.
mense and seemingly exhausting sum may
| be raised from the people without OCCASION
ing distress. The great expenses forced on
us by the rebellion bring us TO some novel
measures for raising an adequate revenue,
and, as we are rich enough and patriotic
enough to pay all that is needed, it is hoped
that the committees of Congress who have
the matter in charge will devise ways by
which the requisite means may be secured.
If they lay before Congress, without delay,
| the measures they propose, they will do
much to increase the confidence of the pub.
lie, and to relieve it of uneasiness created by
anxiety to know in what manner the nation
is to come to the support Of the Government
The sum to be raised is not so formidable,
taking into the account our numbers and
general prosperity. Five cents per day for
every man, woman and child in the loyal
States would produce at once million per
day, or three hundred and sixty.five million
dollars per annum. But the uncertainty as
to how our revenue is to be raised makes
every body uncomfortable, even when we
know that the amonnt is not at all beyond
or even up to our ability
Among the measures which will probably
come before Congress in this relation is the
imposition of general stamp duty on all
legal and commercial documents. Expert
ence in Great Britain and on the continent
of Europe has proved this to be one of the
simplest in collection and easiest of endur-
ance. From such a tax the British govern
ment received for the year ending 2lst
r. A.
ending 3lst March, 1861, SO, 360, 789 This
sum is equivalent to ten per cent. per annum
on four hundred millions of dollars.
Let us consider what is the objection to this
tax, how it may be raised and where its bur
den would fall. We believe that it can be
demonstrated that its policy is uuquestion.
able, that it can be raised without distress
ing the country, and that it would fall pre-
cisely upon those best able to meet it and to
whom it would not be offensive.
During the war of lsl2-l5 stamp duty
was created, which owed its inception for
the time to the greatest among our diplomat
lists and financiers, Albert Gallatin, and the
plan worked well. Since that period it has
been adopted in Maryland with equally good
results. In practice, then, as we'll as in
theory, it has already proved q successful
measure among our people.
On whom would it now fall? Precisely on
those who can best endure it; on those en-
esged in commercial, legal and real estate
transactions those of all others, who are
, most able and best prepared to meet its de-
. mands.
Following the example of the British Gov
, ernment, this duty, which produced it the
, last year over forty millions of dollars
might be laid upon deeds and other similar
, instruments, probates of wills and letters o.
administration, bills of exchange, foreign
and inland, bankers notes (this form Mr.
, Chase has already alluded toy receipts fol
! money, marine and fire insurance policies
legacies and wills, playing cards, dice
penalties in law proceedings, inventorie
and appraisements, diplomas, patents, ap
: prentice indentures, licenses to physicians
advocates, attorneys, notaries and pawn
> brokers, bills of lading, invoices, certifi
: Gates Of marriage and burial, coastinl
licenses and ships papers, steamboat certifi
Gates, mint and essay certificates, memo
= rsnda for the sale or purchase of stocks
J.. awards, powers of attorney, &C., &c.
Il In this country, which is marked by
;. greater amount of business between mai
Q and man than any other in the world, W
i should find much larger range of material
It for taxation Of this sort than in Great Britain
ff When we look at our courts and their litigs
?, tion, at the enormous number of banks, thei
circulation, and the amount of notes dis
counted by them from month to month; ou
- coal and railway traffic, our coasting trade
-. the fees paid to judicial and ministerial func
IL tionsrles, making enormous incomes 70
many of them, as in the cases of sheriffs an
II clerks, and when we consider the constan
II sale and changing hands of property of ever
a kind and description, we are justified in say
d ing that if England can get SAC, ,000 900 yea
d out of its people, who are by no means S
If active, enterprising or speculative as our
l. we might receive twice or three times this
AZ amount. A stamp ON afidavits on jude
a ment records, on executions, on subpoena
" on transcripts or any other document use
At in evidence, would, in the city of New Yor
IN alone, bring in very large annual sun
We record more deeds and mortgages in
lv single year in this State than is done i
e. England in half a century, for their systel
no does not require the particularities and fo
he malities of our own in real estate transa
he tions.
C. Moreover, in all these, already fees of
at large amount are paid to our officials witt
ck out hesitation or complaint, to swell the
ed incomes at the expense of the people, viii
n. the Government gets none of them. Al
yet the Government provides at the publ
charge for all the machinery of litigatiC
us and the heavy expense of maintaining
tribunals.
Take also the case of ordinary dealers
,is the banks. Not one of them could object
va paying small duty on the note he offel
liz prOportioned to its amount. Borrowe
Iv. sometimes pay two and three per cent. p
W month to money lenders in the street "wit
". out winking," and could not shirk from pa
in ing small duty on the paper they are
v. ready to sell at any price. The regular nj
ck of business, who gets accommodated at
az less rate, could still better afford it.
AZ counts on a profit when he makes the loa
nat he makes it because he has a country al
his laws which protect him in his business, al
on should not that business bear a portion
to the expense of the protection In sho
IF the tax would fall on moneyed men, on m
,ag buying and selling real estate and person
ma property for q profit on commercial m
m. trading, and men getting rich or expecti
90 to get rich by commerce; while those W
his depend on their daily labor for support, a
nm have no such transactions, would entire
,ev escape. We tax the necessaries of life vii
,sd out hesitation or resistance: why not
of the machinery of those who get rich by
artificial arrangements of society and
forms and methods of business
Az. All the leading nations of Europe hs
her adopted stamp duties with success. Th
-ho were leviad in Holland earlier than-in Ell
raj land, where stamps were used in the d
his year of William and Mary. In the reil
All. Of the Georges and William ~, varit
Nat notifications Of the system took place,
Of the actual revenue from stamp duty has b
|, IL constantly on the increase. On some Of
ad- instruments the stamp is directly press