Holmes County farmer. [volume] (Millersburg, Ohio) 1857-1926, 1862-06-19

guard over the interests Of tue manufac-
turer, while taxation hunts for every other
substance in the land on which to fasten
its !angs. And if, for the sake of APP
pearanccs, the manufacturing interest is
mentioned in atax bill, the tariff steps
forward and enables its cherished friends
to recover back every dollar which they
are assessed by raising the price of the
woolen clothes, the linens, the muslins,
the calicocs, the plowsharcs, and the i'm
plemcnts of husbandry, and the articles o
daily necessity which the American Gov
crnment forces its citizens to buy Of its
protected monopolists This is the cul.
mination, the climax of wrong. Il gop-
ernmem Which piunaers one citizen toe
rich 1nother needs tie strong, stern hand
Of rctorm on lis helm.
Though perfect equality should prevail
in meeting the immense taxation which
is coming like q mountain avalanche up
on this people, yet it will be borne amid
sorrow and weary pain but when it shall
all fall virtually on given class Of citi
zcns 1t will become an intolerable, suifo,
eating nightmare of ruin and Of death -
| challenge the attention of the country
that such is the working of the present
system, which it is pretended has been
adopted for the support OF the Govern
mcnt. Already we see its effects. The
great manufacturing corporations of the
East arc crowding their boated pockets
with rapid and gigantic gains. Theii
dividends Of profits arc swollen some six.
ty, and some an hundred fold. This i,
no random statement, but it sustained by
the statistics before me. 1t is a fact, to .
of which the whole country has taken cog.
nisancc.
Sir, no sectional boundaries to my love
of country prompt these remarks. call
God to witness with what devotion | love
every sod and rock and river, mountain
prairie and forest of my native land
For its happiness and glory it would be
sweet and honorable to die. reckon NJ
section Of it above another 1t is all alike
to mc-all dear and hallowed by tn,
principles of constitutional liberty. But
speak in the name of justice, which i,
everywhere present, in the name of frater.
nal and American equality, and | ask
you, implorc you, to look at the condi
tion Of the Western people. Their in.
te:csts have been abandoned on this floor
by more than half their Representatives
and they stand to-day bearing the hard
brnnt of the pitiless storm which has
burst from the angry sky. They are shut
out from all fair markets for their pro.
duce. Their natural channels of trade
to the South are closed by the impious
hand of war, and their avenues to the
markets Of the North are obstructcd by
the avaricc of railroads. 1t costs sixty
cents to freight bushcl of corn from the
Wabash River to New York, and leaves
from seven to fourteen cents to the farmer
who has caused it to grow and gathered
it in, as the reward of his toll. For cv-
crything else he receives the same beg
carly +, turn. And yet who has lifted
NJ his voice here in behalf of that great,
that honest, and oppressed people?--
Where Is theil representative in the Com
.mittce of Ways and Means, that great
dcspotic committee which natures mca
surcs of tariff, Of taxation, and Of finance,
and whose DEGREES on this floor are as un-
alterabc as the laws of the Mcdcs and
PcIsians? On that committee, which,
speaks the voice Of fate for the veal or
woe of the tax payers ofall the land, the
great imperial domain Of the West, from
the foot of the Allegheny Mountains to
the Pacific Ocean, has had no member
during this important session. Blow af-
ter blow has fallen on her naked head, and
now she stands exposed to the payment
Of fourliiths of all the burdens which this
Government has to hear. speak advi-
scdly. She has been trampcd under foot.
Her rights have been disrcgardod. She
has been plundercd for the benefit Of 9th
ers. And from here call upon her to
vlndlcate herself, to assert her equality,
to resist oppression, to scorn the tribute
which she Is called upon to pay to a branch
OF industry which God and nature never
she should support, to demand
rom her Government the same protection
which others obtain, and to reckon with
Ter opprcssors at the ballot box. As for
ne, ! shall oin in no such system of in
ustcc, inequality and wanton eXtortions
galnst the people whose interest are con.
idcd to my care in this House. shall
csiSt it in all constitutional methods,
nd dcnounce it every where and in do
nS so shall perform what conceive to
c ono of the highest duties of honest,
nallcss patriotism.
! might here stop, Mr. Speaker, and
est this great sui bjcct with the American
eople The vast debt, tho unparalleled
aud by which it has been accumulated,
nd the iniquitous mode of assessing tax
5 on the wealth and labor of the coun.
~, are all before them. But the politi- t
al party now in the ascendency in the
<ecutive and legislative departments of
lis Government have never considered t
ny measure Of policy on any subject !
)mpIete or perfect unless it embraces a ,
however unnatural, with the &
.lrican race, unfortunately in large mum q
nrs on this continent. These are strange c
'yS that have come upon us We have l
u lived to see the abolition of slavery t
'comc direct tax upon the pockets Of t
10 people The Federal tax .gatherer l
Ill visit every house in tho land in the q
'Nt six months for money to carry out /
5 schemes. In the midst of n war more a
,pcnsive than the world ever witnessed 5
fore; with an army and navy costing Z
more than the armies of England, i
n.