The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1866-07-07
An Exposition.


of Saturday, gives us the following
e'epese of the way that they do up the
tariff and other jobs in Congress:
The present Congress bids fair to
secure for itself the name of the great
lobbing Congress of the nineteenth
century. 1t has thus far been With
out parallel in our history, and is
daily growing worse instead of bet
ter. Some Of thesio have been ve-
toed and disposed of, but there are
plenty more that will be pushed
through at all hazards The session
commenced with gigantic scheme TO
cxpend the public funds, under Che
plea OF protecting the negro, but, as
events have since shown, to enslave
the blacks and enrich q few New
England parsons and sanctimonious
freedmen's agents. If this scheme
had been successful, $50, 1000, 900 at
least would have been absorbed, all
of which would have been taken out
OF tho pockets of the taxpayers. 1t
failed, however, through the veto of
the President, but in it's place Con
gress has adopted another measure
extending the Freedmen's Bureau
for two years, and it is now proposed
to appropriate from 1000, 900 to 49,
100000 to cover the expense of it's
administration There is another
scheme to create u department Of ed
ucatlon for the blacks, and still an
other to apply solely to the negroes
i'll the District of Columbia. These
would absorb several millions more.
This much the present Congress has
proposed to expend upon the blacks
of the South and the agents controll-
ing them. Nothing short of rs, 5,OOO,-
goo would be absorbed in these pro
jects, should they become laws.
The foregoing is only one branch
of the jobs already broached or acted
upon. 1t only Includes what has
been proposed for the negro and the
New England parsons We presume
that If the records of Congress were
carefully examined, other jobs of a
similar nature would be found cover
ed mp where least expected. There
are other Jobs fully equal in impor-
tance, and, if anything, more expen-
sive to the public. There is the Jay
Cooke project for consolidating the
debt, introduced by Senator Sher-
man, which provided for the outlay
OF 40,oo0,00O in the shape of COM
missions to Jay Cooke and the ma
tional banks. Then there is the
Montana gold and silver mining Job,
which proposed to give to few spe-
culators large tract of valuable mi
neral lands, the value of which cannot
be estimated, but no doubt exceeds
$25, 5,0O0,O00 Then we have the pro-
position i'll regard to the lcvccs on
the Mississippi, calling for some 30
0Oo, 600 more. The national banks now
have Il bonus of 10000, 900 paid them
by the Government, in the shape of
interest on bonds, as all induccment
for the parties Interested to engage
III banking business and initiate the
currency. Instead Of remedying that
evil, there is an inclination in Con-
gress to increase it by extending the
oiler of this bonus to other parties.
In addition to this, there is a pro-
posed loan to Mexico Of from 10000
600 to 30, 600, 900, when treaty upon
q commercial basis with the legal au-
thorities of that country would ac-
complish the result looked for much
better than by loan.
We have here enumerated Jobs
which amount in the aggregate to
S24O, 600, 600, and of what benefit is
any one of them to the country at
large? They viii simply increase the
taxes of the people, without any cor
responding benefit iii the way of de-
veloplnS the country and increasing
its prosperity. But, rs if this was
not sufficient, the Committee of
Ways and Means now como forward
with 4 crude bill for a protective
tariff, which Will take other thirty or
forty millions ont of the pockets of
the people; not to meet the expenses
incurred by the other jobs, but to
enr1ch a few manufacturers, capital
lists and merchants who have large
stocks OF goods on hand. The radi-
cal Journals and the organs of Con-
gress at once SGT up the cry that a
protective or prohibitory tariff is ne
cessary to the resumption of specie
and to restore the losses of
the war. In this way they hope to
delude the people into favoring the
tariff scheme, little thinking that tho
whole dodge is easily seen through.
4 few importers manage to get
large stock of particular quality of
goods on hand, and forthwith de-
putatlOn is sent to CONGRESS- TO in