The Hillsdale standard. [volume] (Hillsdale, Mich.) 1851-1909, 1864-05-31

Secretary Chase has addressed the
following letter to the chairman of the
Senate Finance Committee:
TREASURY DEPAR1MENT, May5,'64.
Sir:-Nothing but my deep sense of
the importance of sustaining by every
possible means the public credit, upon
which the sole dependence of the gov
erHment to suppress the insurrection
must rest, would induce me to address
you this letter upon a subject which
has already received so much consider
alton. ~
The bill i'm relation to the National
banking system, now under debate, is
| i'm the nature of an amendment to the
act of the last session. Thougha com
plete bill in itself, it contains a few pro-
visions not embracedin that act, among
which that in relation to the measure
and distribution Of taxation may be re-
garded, perhaps, as the most important.
Under ordinary circumstances there
might be no insuperable objection to,
leaving the property organized under
the National Banking law subject, as
are almost all descriptions of property,
to general taxation, State, national and,
municipal. But in the present condi-
ton of the country, respectfully sub
nit that this particular description of
property should be placed IN the same
category with imported goods before
the entry into general consumption, and
be subjected to exclusive national taxa
ton.
AT. the present moment the duties on
imports form the sole reliance of the
government for meuns to pay the,inter-
est on the public debt. If to thes
means the taxes to be paid by the Ma
tional Banks sl-aA be added, a most i'm
portant addition viii. pc made TO these
measures. The mere fact that these
taxes are made payable to the national
government, and soreadered available
for the payment of interest on the pub
lie debt, and for the reduction of its
principal, will strengthen the public
credit and facilitate the negotiation OF
the necessary loans at moderate rates
of interest. | have no doubt that such
a disposition of. these taxes would be
worth more to the government during
the present struggle in practical results
than three times the actual value of the
taxes themselves
do not at all suggest that this de-
scription of property should not be tan
cd as heavily as any other description.
On the contrary, l think it should bear
its full proportion Of the public bur-
dens. / am only anxious that the tax
alton upon it shall be made to contrib
ute as largely as possible to the general
welfare, and it is the conviction deeply
impressed upon my mind that it will
contribute more when aggregated in
one mass and made to tell upon the
general public credit, than when dis
tributed between the nation and the
states and numerous. municipal corpo-
rations, that prompts me to address
these views tQ you, =
Under any plan of partition that may
be adopted, the amount of taxation
distributable to the several states and
municipalities will be comparatively
small and unimportant, and it is quite
possible that the total taxation of bank
ing property for all purposes, will be
less than if taxed exclusively for ma
tional purposes. The advantages of
partition to States atd municipalities
will Hereford be small, and the banks
may not lose by it. The uation alone
will be injured. 1t will not be under
stood, of course, that the foregoing
suggestions are intended to apply to
real estate held by, any banking institu-
tons !; that description of property
must necessarily be held by titles under
State laws, and should properly be sub
jected exclusively to State taxation,
except in the event of "a direct tax by
Congress. ......
The case is otherwise with personal
property and credits of Banking asso-
ciations. These receive their organi-
zation from national law and for great
national purposes, aud may therefore
with great propriety, and-as ] have
endeavored to show at the present time
with great public advantage be sub.
jected to exclusive national taxatian.
Respectfully yours,
,1lilLlD If1S. p. CHASE.
The Hon. VIM. Pitt Fessenden, Chair,
man of the Committee on Finance
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