The mountain Democrat., 1865-01-28
nm MOUNTAIN DEMOCRAT.
Financial Ignorance Of American
atatesmen, New Fiscal Crudities,
the Proposed Tax on Sales.

the Proposed Tax on Sales.
The most caustic (though unintendcd)
..lira on the financial capabilities OF
Imar;cau statesmen which we recollect
to have seen, says the New York World,
ia the recommendation, in Secretary
Fessenden's report Of commission
properly constituted, for the purpose oil
ipouiring as to the profitable sources Of
revenue and devising improvements in the
ous confession that neither the head Of
the Treasury Department, nor any mem.
her of the two houses Of Congress, is
competent to cope with the problem, is
horne out BY humiIiating facts. 1t is al
ways to be presumed that the Chairman
of the Finance Committee Of the Senate,
and the Chairman Of the Committee OF
WAYS and Means Of the House, are the
ablest thinkers on this class of questions
in their respective branches Of the nation
Al legislature. Up to the beginning OF
this session Mr.. Fessenden has long been
the financial leader Of the Senate, and Mr..
Thad. Stevens (who retains the poSition)
of the House Of Representatives.. The
feeble and unsatisfactory report Of the
former, and the prepOSterous bill intro
ddced by the latter. are fresh plummets
for soUnci.,ks the shallow Stas'in which
such men have so long sportcd as lev,a.
thans. But Mr.. Fessenden is something
more than 4 sounding line to the Senate /;
his selection last summer, BY general ac-
clamation, for the responsible post he now
holds gauges the financial capacity of the
whole body Of Republican statesmen. The
eager concession Of his superiority i'm
piled in pressing, nay, forcing him upon
the President, as the fittest man in the
party for minister Of finance, fixes the
status Of those whore commended him. -
II such is the Mount Blanc Of American
finance, what must be the lower Alps?
1t should cause not less Amusement
than modification that the best opening
ever presented to an American statesman
to make great reputation, stirs no am
bition, or, at least, finds no sufficiency of
talents. A commission !" As though,
If the occasion we're matched by compe
tent ability the desire Of reputation would
allow such an opportunity TO slip.
Our Congress, (this Sapicnt body Of
legislators,) last winter revived the poll
teal economy Of the dark ages by the
passage Of their "gold bill;' and burles-
qued the forms of legislation by repeating
in 4 panic what they had enacted in il.
norance To this dav, there are noodles
among them who believe, in solemn good
faith, that the expectation Of gold ought
to be prohibited, and that the price of
that "demonetized" commodity can be
kept down by penal laws.
In view Of the notorious incapacity OF
Congress in such matters, we humhly
submit that the marked favor with which
it receives Secretary Fessenden's recon
mcndation Of tax on sales does not con-
vict US Of presumption in questioning its
wisdom. 1t is our deliberate Judgment
$50 far as an opinion on a subject which
We have but recently thought it worth
while to look into can be called deihgratc)
this scheme is quackish crotchet, the
yoke-fellow in absurdity Of the prepo>ter-
Gus ''goId bill" Of last winter. 1t is a
coin from the same mint; an arSumenta
tive ASSAY will prove it to be Of equally
base metal. We do not, however, pro
pose to put il in the crucihle to day, but
only TO show that the anteccdcnt pre-
sumption is against its soundncsS. We
sit to-day as a court Of inquest to find a
bill Of Indictment; we will afterwards try
the case on its merits.
Such a tax as this which is received
With so much hasty applause, (even by
some Of our most respectable public jour
nails has never been rcsorted to by any
free government, nor persisted in BY any
deSpOtic government longer than such
government held fast the most ScnScless
errors Of an exploded political economy.
Il is the twin brother and fellow country
man Of the Law against the expectation Of
gold, and having received christian burial
in the land Of its birth, it is disinterred
and handled as if the putrid corpse were
chubby infant. Mi>governed, beggard'
ly Spain and oppressed Naples are the
only countries in which it ever prevailed;
and by every enlightened writer who ever
alluded to il, whether historian, econo-
mist, or statesman,) it is held up as one
Of those signal examples Of self defeating
absurdity which deserve to be clasSed
with the Sumptuary laws and gold laws
Of that narrow minded bigot, Philip the
Second of Spain. Of these three-the
law forbiding the expectation of gold; the
sumptuary law which read as if it were
drawn up by . committee Of millincrs and
tAilors instead of grave statesmen; and the
famous alcavala (thiS was the name OF the
tax on sales, )-of these three noted OFT
springs Of economic ignorance and folly,
the aicavaGS bore Of the palm.
We shall take an early occasion to
show. by a detail of reasons, why it de-
serves to rank as chef d'Guvrc Of absur'
dity but for the present, We will merely
submit the opinions Of men whose CONT
dent condemnation should at least com.
InaOd for the subject more careful in
veEtigation than can have been given 1t
by promoters of the tax.
Not to cucumber our columns, our au-
liberties shall be select, 1--WE could easily
make them numer0usO and they shall be
limited to two. But each Of the two is
host; oae being without contest the great
est dead, and the other the ablest living
writer on political economy.
Adam Smith ("Wealth Of Nations" "
book ", chap. 81 describes the Spanish
AicavalA as "a tax upon the sale Of every
sort Of property, whether movable or i'm
movable; and it is repeated every time
the property is sold" After describing
its operation he goes on to say: at is
to the alcavAla, accordingly, that Ustaritz
imputcs the ruin of tho manufactures OF
Spain. He might have imputed to il, like
h.
ing imposed not only upon manufactures.
but upOr the rude produce of the land"
''In the kingdom of Naples there is a
similar tax upon the value of all con-
tracts, and consequently upon that of all