The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-01-22

system oflabor requires that no burden shall be
placed upon IL. AZ least the labor Of the freed
men should be free Mr.. Stevens seeks system
OF monopoly for special interests in the North,
but proposes taxation upon capital and labor at
the South. II the freedmen would, as Mr.. Ste
Vens supposes, vote for such an injury upon
themselves, we should need no further proof
that they are unworthy of suffrage. MIR. Ste
vens' suspicion is a damaging imputation. Ihe
principle he proposes, changing its Application
only, would Justify a Southern majority IN tax
ing -four, pork beef, and all the products of the
North TO the full amount Of their value wnen
they are exported. .. t..
1t would have been more Just TO propose
special benefit or bounty on every bale oi cotton
raited than to check the enterprise and increase
the difficulties Of those who are engaged IN Its
cultivation, The farms of the Sonth are laid
waste, their fences in many regions are de'
stroyed, the resources of their people wasted,
a large proportion of their laboring men has
persisted, and very many others are crippled or
In inirm health; an immense number OF their
women and children are destitute OF their natural
supporters and protectors; the whole system of
their labor is disorganiZed; both laborers and
employers have difficulty in changing their
habits and sentiments so as to meet the change.
MANY Northern men have gone South to invest
their capital, skill, and time in the production
OF this great staple; they are inexperienced, and
the negroes whom they employ have been accus-
toned 10 work with little intelligence. At this
crisis Mr. Stevens urges an unconstitutional tax
which will nearly crush all their efforts-react-
ing, also upon the North, and depriving 1t of
those extensive and profitable markets which
the early and animating renewal of prosperity
at the South would give to the products of every
other section of the Union.
Mr.. Stevens has yet full faith in the delusion
which cost the Cotton States so dearly, and led
them into Rebellion; he thinks, as they did, that
"Cotton is King" The South has found out the
fallacy by an experiance which is lost upon Mr..
Stevens. The production of cotton in other
countries has so far increased that prosperity
very nearly approaching that existing before the
fhn aIof riako of
Europe. Much of their machinery has been
adapted to a shorter staple than our own.
India stimulated by our suspension, has
already completed a large portion of the
improvements she had projected, and which
will add much to her production and exports
When Mr.. Morrill,, from his seat in Con-
gress, was refusing to permit for one year the
importation of steam-ploughs free OF duty by
agricultural societies, tor purposes OF expert
ment, and to use as models, If successful, the
wiser Pacha OF Egypt was importing hundreds of
them to prepare the ground, and seize the op-
portunity for the extended cultivation of the
indispensable fibre which probably has now be-
come forever a permanent source of wealth to
his country. Other nations, also, contribute
their increased quota to the general stock In
the midst of all this new competition with set
tied iorms of society, where labor is cheap, and
receives only paltry remuneration, Mr.. Stevens
endeavoTs to double by tax the old cost of
production of the chief crop on which we rely
basis.
We need say little of the effect this oppression
would produce upon the minds of the South
erners In time, they may be led TO regard
their personal sutferings and the deaths of their
friends, as sacrifices in support ofan error. Mr..
Stevens would arrest the progress of this sent
ment. He would educate their young and rising
generation in a belief that the cause for which
their fathers had suffered and died was holy
resistance to injustice. His proposed tax would
be an expensive experiment, and in the end
would cost us more than the revenue it would
yield.
Mr.. Morehead's proposal in CONGRESS- to raise
the internal revenue tax on Southern cotton
from two to twelve cents per pound is little
more than an evasive method of effecting the
same result as was proposed by Mr.. Stevens,
and is in effect liable to all the objections
we urge.
Unwearied hatred and the malicious opinion
that communities profit most by injuring Others
have led Mr.. Stevens to propose this unconstitu
tional wrong. He would load the South with
special taxes as an indirect method Of the conis
cation he desired, but which his country viii
not permit.