, 1867-05-24
Address of Judge wycho
[oosctupRD.1

I
QUESTIONS SETTLED AT THE ORGANIZATION
OF TnE REPUBLICAN PARTY, AND WHICH
DID NOT ENTER, EXCEPT INCIDENTALLY,
INTO ITS CREED
| The speaker said, as his views we're utter
ly and radically opposed to the financial pol
icy now pursued by the government, he
would state here, some of the questions
among Others, which were settled at the
organization of the Republican party, and
which did not, except incidentally, enter
into its creed, and therefore, no mans fealty
to- the party was to be measured by his views
on these matters. Among these matters
settled he wouldename the question of a
high protective tariff, or the "American
system as it was called. Without referring
in detail to the several measures of the gov
ernment on this subject, it might be stated
in general, that the public judgment had
been entered up against high protective
system, and that at the Inauguration Of the
rebellion the country was drifting strongly
toward free trade. So, too, the question of
National Bank had been determined, and
when Jackson placed his iron hand around
the throat of the monstnr it never recovered
from the throttling, and in the establish
ment of the Sub.treasury system, the gov
ernmeut declared its hostility to National
Banks. To these two questions may be ad-
ded the question of Territorial Acquisition
Many of our leading statesmen considered
that Republic could live only in small
area, and cited in support of this theory,
some of the ancient Republics, and Switzer>
land and other Republics Of the present day,
but new people placed on a new continent,
vast in extent, demanded new policy, and
their ambition grew to the dimensions of
the continent, and refused to accept Switzer.
land, hidden in the Alps, as model, con.
sdering it hardly sufficient for q nest for
their bird OF. e patch for Uncle Sans trous-
ers, and under the irrepressible demand of
the people for stretching room for Uncle
Sans limbs, from an area of $50 $50 square
miles, at our Independence, we have grown
to 3,O00,0 900 square miles, acquiring in the
first instance, more than 100000 square
miles by our Louisiana purchase 66,900
by Florida; $4,000 by Texas; 30S,0OO by
the Oregon treaty; $50, ,455 by our Mexican
treaty, and about 100000 square miles by
our recent Russian American purchase.
THE FINANCIAL STATUS OF THE COUNTRY,
AT THE CLOSE OF THE REBELLION, AND
THE FINANCIAL Policy ADOPTED BY
THE GOVERNMENT.
The var left or the shoulders Of the
people public debt of 2,757, ,S03, ,6S6, and
Congress had to provide for the current ex.
penses of the Government, the payment of
the interest on the pubic debt and for the
| h Il, IL.
principal. In the settlement of the financial
policy of the government, two opposing
forces met at Washington. The manufac
turing interests, representing hundreds of
millions of dollars, and which had grown
enormously rich during the war, and the
1868 National Banks, with a capital Of
S4l7, ,246, l54, and a circulation of S292,
GIL, ,753, on the one side, and 50, 100000 of
people, the producers aud consumers of the
nation, the tax paying millions, on the other
side, and as the interests of the opposing
forces were hostile the question, whicn int
terest should control, had to be determined.
The manufacturing interests demanded not
only that the high duties levied to enrich
them, slteald not be reduced, but boldly re~
Guired in many>instances that these duties
should be largely Increased. The people
paying enormous and\ ruinous rates for all
articles alike of the lux uries and necessaries
of life, opposed this demand. Which side
had been the victor in this issue could easily
be determined by reference to the several
measures of Congress, imposing, in many in
stances, duties several hundred per cent.
higher than the actual cost of the articles
before the war, and by the fact that the
people paid, the last fiscal year, in the way
OF customs, at currency valuation, the
sum of S25l 100000 of which some $780,
0OO, 900 was derived from coffee, sugar, tea,
and spices, articles which 60 on every poor
mans table, and may properly be called the
neeessaries of life. That these duties were
a tax on the people, going to enrich the
manufacturers, was proposition well estab>
lished by the clear and well recognized
principles of political economy. Not only
was it tax, but it was tax Of the most
Objectionable features; as it was levied not
on the abilities, but the necessities of the
people, and under its operations the tax paid
by the poor approximated closely to that
paid by the rich, as it requires as many
yards of calico to make the poor mans wife
QreSS, tuau IL uOeS lne Tlcu Hlan B. du as
much sugar to sweeten his coffee. And il
there was any portion of the United States
upon. which these high duties wero more
oppressive and unjnst than another, it was
} the Pacific Coast, as we were too far re-
moved 10 participate in the real and preten
! ded advantages arising from the home mar
.. kets produced by the manufacturing interests
f and the tax therefore fell on our people with
, all its rigors, without any of the compensat'
ing advantages, real or imaginary "Te
such an extent" says a great writer, shave
regulating and restricting laws been carried
, in some countries, that they have nearly an
| initiated both manufactures and legitimate
) commerce, and reduced masses of the people
. to the condition of paupers, besides encour.
, aging the pernicious and demoralizing pur
suits ofthe smuggler." And the same high
: authority (Chambers) adds: at is likewise
customary to impose duties on goods inn
: ported from foreign countries, with the view
) of protecting the manufactures of such ar.