Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1867-10-22


reconstruction question. Now, my friends.
let me say a few words upon the subj ct
OF the national debt and national taxation,
and shall be very brief, indeed.
You are at this moment the most deeply
indebted people on the face of the globe
Seven years ago. Great Britain was the
most deeply indebted country. Now you
owe more than she does. Great Britain has
a population of thirtysix millions OF peo-
pie within the limits of the British Isles
10 India and her colonies she has 100000
600 more. making 236.000000 of people who
are subjects otthe British crown. We have
but $1,000 600 of people, 205 600, 900 less than
Great Britain, aud yet we owe more money
than she does. Again, let us see. Great
Britain draws from the pockets of her peo-
pie $354 000,000 each year in the shape OF
taxes. In this country the General Gov
ernment alone drew from the pockets OF
the American people, the last fiscal year,
five hundred and sixty odd millions of dol
lars-more than S200,000000 more than is
called from the British people. ei-if.
"Again, let US look at iJ. The wealth OF
the United States. that is, the value of the
real and personal property, is estimated al
$4,000, 100000. The value of the real and
personal property of Great Britain, within
the limits of the British Isles alone, is $780,
OOO,0OO.00O, nearly three times as much as
the value of the property of the United
States, and yet we owe more than she does,
and we pay to th9 General Government,
alone, more than $200000,000 q year more
than the British people pay. l.,
again, let us look at it in another way
The rate OF taxation in Great Britain is
ninety cents on the one hundred dollars
In the United States the rate of taxation
of property by the General Government
alone is three dollars and ninety three cents
on the one hundred dollars: more than four
times as much as the tsXes OF Great Brit
ain. But, says some one, how can that be ?
Where do you get that information? L tell
him get it from the official records of the
Government from the official report of the
Special Commissioner of the Revenue,
made to Congress, and published by Con-
gress itself. But, says some one, surely
there is some mistake about that. pay no
three dollars aud ninety-three cents on the
one hundred dollars to the General Gov
ernment. Yes, my friend, you do. You
don't pay it, perhaps, directly; you may
never, perhaps. see the aX-gatherer OF the
General Government yet you do pay trib-
ute to the General Government on almost
all you eat, all you drink, all you wear, all
you own, and all you earn.
LET me illustrate how this thing is
done. suppose there is not very young
Copperhead in this audience who would
not like to own six shirts. Laughter.
If there is any young man ambitious OF
owning these six shirts, let him slip over
and ask merchant what he will take for
eighteen yards of muslin to make them.
The merchant will say, four dollars. Why.
says the customer, seven years ago you sold
me the same amount of goods for two dol
lars; how is it that you now ask me four
dollars? Now. if the merchant is a sens-
Die man, and understands the matter, and
is disposed to tell the truth, what does he
say! He says, it is true that seven years
ago l sold you these goods for two dollars;
now ask you four dollars; but you must
recollect that since l sold the goods for two
dollars, the United States has laid a tax of
three cents per pound upon every pound OF
cotton produced in the country. The cot
ton-producer pays the tax, and sticks it on
the price OF cotton when he sells it TO the
manufacturers. Then comes Uncle Sam to
the manufacturers, and says, my dear Mr..
Shoddy, did you many good turn during
the war; paid you full price for shoes
that didn't last two days march, and for
pantaloons that burst in the knee the first
time the boys kneeled in the ranks to fire.
Now. Messieurs Manufacturers, want you
to do little for me. Therefore have laid
a tax on every yard of shirting you manu-
facture of that cotton. Well, Mr.. Manufac-
facturer pays the tax, and claps it on the
price when he sells it to the merchant.
Then comes Uncle Sam again and says, my
dear Mr.. Merchant, we are little hard up;
therefore we have laid tax on all your
business. The merchant pays the tax and
adds it to the price. So by the time you
come to buy the shirts you find all three of
these taxes on the price. So that, after all,
it is the man who puts the shirts on his
back that pays the whole of these taxes.
'sWhy, my friends, you have not thing
upon you mot coat or pair of boots or
shoes-you have not thing that you are
wearing that has, not paid from three to
five taxes to the General Government, and
you who wear them are the men who paw
the taxes. Why, when L have made this
argument before, there was one man igno-
rant enough to say the poor mantle Ia
boring man-who never sees aX-gather-
er, never pays taxes. 1t would be great
deal nearer the truth to say that labor
pays all the taxes. That Is the truth. How
is it? just look at it. The only way in
which you can add one single cent to the
wealth of the country is by labor. There
is no other way to add to the wealth of the
country. A man may have the finest geni-
us in the world, and invent the best ma
chine ever seen in the world, but until la
Dor comes in to build the machine, moth =
ing is gained by the invention.
Take the rich bondholder, and 1 don't
alude to this class to make an invidious
Take the rich capitalist, who tolls not,
neither does he spin. and yet is as fine as
Solomon, in all his glory. He does not add
as much to the wealth of the country in a
year-if he produces nothing, but simply
lives upon the interest of his money-as
the shoemaker's apprentice, who makes a
fifty cent pair of shoes for a child. [Ap-
plause.I Now it is just precisely because
you cau't create wealth except by labor
can not pay taxes without having wealth
to pay them with-it is for that reason that,
in che end, the great burden of taxation
falls upon the laboring class, and it is for
that reason that there is no class in the
community so much interested in having
the country but little in debt and lightly
taxed as the laboring people. Why, what
is the effect OF great debt and heavy tax
alton? What has been its effect in Great
Britain? Two hundred years ago England
was nearly out of debt. Then she was, in
the language of her people as well as her
poets, Merry old England Now she owes
four thousand millions of dollars, and the
effect of this mighty public debt has been
that one entire sixteenth part of her peo-
pie are dependent upon the poor laws for
support. That is the effect, upon poor peo-
pie, of great national debt and heavy tax
alton.
'Now, say to you, that you cannot pre-
serve your liberty nor your prosperity
with such debt as we have hanging over
us, and with such taxation as we are COM
PEELED to bear. What, then. is the remedy?
Is it repudiation? L say no. 1 say that
the American people are an honest people
and will not repudiate their honest obliga-
tions. The remedy is not reputation,
but it is such payment of this debt as
the people are able to make and which
shall save these vast sums of interest
that You are paying each year. Where
you promised to pay gold. pay gold. Where
you only promised greenbacks, pay green
backs. That is the first thing. The next
thing you must do is stop the plundering
of the public Treasury. Why, my friends
il were to stand here and recount to you
the hundredth part of the pluDdering of
the Treasury that is to be found in the Off
oil oil Of ha Cauarr,r,aor,t