Washington telegraph., 1863-06-17

| Taxes AND 'TARIFFs.-The late tax bill OF
our Congress will be fruitful of many present
advantages If rigidly enforced, the support
! of our armies and civil government will rest
, upon sure foundation-one independent Of
all foreign influences, and based upon native
resources. We will not be required to reach
our arms abroad, either through commerce or
diplomacy, to take hold of the garments of
other nations of the earth in order to stay our
lettering steps. Firm, erect, and self-sus-
tanning, we are sufficient unto ourselves. We
derive our strength from our own soil, and the
industry of our people, fostered and protected
| by the Constitution and the laws. These, in
the midst OF wars and tumults, guard the la
oorer In his field and his workshop and assure
him that he shall reap the fruits of his labor,
whilst they claim of him a portion of these
| fruits for the perpetuaton of that security to
himself and his posterty. The system of
t'thing, or requiring the tenths of produce, has
4 IN it beautiful propriety. 1t originated with
| the church in the simpler ages of the world.
1t was thought fitting that God who sent the
| rains and sunshine, and gave the increase,
| should receive from thankful hearts portion
| thereof for the support of his ministers on
earth. Our Government demands the same
| and in the old artless manner We seem re-
turning to tie days when diplomacy was not
synonymous with duplicity.
The certainty of support thus given to our
military and civil establishments together with
| the currency of ii Government, are advsn-
tages SO great, that only to consider them is to
insure cheerful obedience in the heart of the
patriot. We pledged our all to our country
Each State to her sisters. We give cheerfully
the lives of our sons, and profess to hold our
own in our hands, ready to be delivered upon
the call Of our country. Shall we murmur,
then, at a call for portion of our goods-dH
of them, indeed, if done by the voice of the
nation speaking through the established mode
of the Constitution and the lawss We fear no
mu rmuring now. To do so is to insult the
patriotism of our people.
The present tax bill has been necessity.
1t is one of the blessings of the blockade.
Like little wanton boys that swim on blad-
ders, we and cur fathers before us had trusted
to duties, and impOsts and excuses, and the
thousand subterfuges for raising revenue by
stealth, until We had lost all true conception Of
| their character, and considered them indispen-
sable. We were firmly convinced of this
that we would have gone on using them forever
We have been compelled to renounce them and
now may learn to swim without foreign aid. For
let 1t be borne always in mind that the success
of duties, tariffs and imposts depend wholly
on foreign trade, and the nation using them is
at the mercy of all the fluctuations of COM
merce.
Not only for its present advantages then.
but for its future bearing also, we are glad
this bill has passed. We hail it as the har-
bingsr Of the only safe, honest and natural
mode of sustaining government, whilst it lays
open to all citizens the wealth of the world for
their competition-Direct taxation and free
trade. We will learn to dispense with duties;
and, if wiser than our fathers, will never
return co them.
1t would be interesting, did our space allow
to trace the origin and history of tariffs and ex-
pons of tyranny in its contests with the spirit
of free people, whilst the latter claimed direct
taxation imposed by their representatives, as
the safeguard of their liberties Tariffs in
their beginning were invented to defy the
power of the common people, and render the
king independent of their bounty. The history
of the English, from whom We derived the
habit, is full of examples. In the ruder but
much more honest ages, the king was support
ed by voluntary aids and subsidies from the
people, which were measured according to his
necessities, and imposed by themselves only in
their House of Commons. There the people
spoke-there only could money be granted.
No bill for aids in money TO the king could
originate in the House of Lords. The king
himself could impose no tax. Hence in all
critics of the people, or involve them in ruinous
wars, prompted by private ambition, the aids
were refused, and the royal arm became par
alyzed. This became annoying to the minis
tiers, and the royal prerogative of raising
money by excuses and duties WAS claimed.
These being imposed on foreign commerce, and
the exercise of peculiar privileges, were claimed
to belong to the king by royal right, and indie
pendent of any grant from the Commons. They
were resorted to as means CT revenue when
the ministry and the Commons were in oppos-
ton, and the king chose to dispense with his
parliaments and rule unchecked. The contest
lasted for centuries. The people prevailed.
Charles l. lost his head upon the scaffold in
asserting this very right, and since that time,
as we believe, no duties or imposts have been
laid except by parliament. But the custom
had grown familiar. The people contended
only for the power in themselves instead of thu
king. They did not then reason, as our own
ancestors also did not in later times. that the
custom was as dangerous as in itself as obtry
| in its origin. That it was a means of ilching
by stealth from the people what would not be
granted if openly demanded; and creating
large funds, of which the people had no ac
count, to be used for the purpose of political
corruption.
This habit of government had become so