New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1867-11-11
CONGRATULATIONS

He must be u very brazen, superiiu0us rascal,
and quite as much fool as knave, who goes
brawling about-"I owe A. b. five thousand
dollars, and | mean TO cheat him out OF
"every cent of it, You seldom meet one
silly enough thus to expose himself. The far
more usual and polite way is to beat him on
=" the execution THAT is, contest the justice
of the creditors claim, and, if beaten in court
have nothing whercon the sheriff can levy to
satisfy the demand The careless public is
then left ut liberty TO infer first. that the
alleged debtor do MT really owe; or, secondly,
that he can't pay
We have no fear that this American People
will ever proclaim to the world that it has re-
solved not to pay its honest debts. Yet the end
of nOn-paymcnt may be reached by the simple
device of taking of tax after tax until the res
idue will not suffice to support the Government
and pay the accniing interest on the National
Debt. Then comes in the popular swindle of
issuing indefinite millions of Greenbacks on
purpose TO dcbauch the Currency beyond re-
covery and compelling the public creditors to
take them Tor nothing) for the principal as well
rs interest of their demands. That will nearly
fin y the job.
10. last Congress most improvidently, in
ON view. RENTED and reduced taxes to the
amount of not less than One Hundred Millions
per annum, and we have consequently all but
stopped paying off the principal of our Debt
Let us persist in paying at least One Hundred
Millions per annum, and we might soon fund
our remaining indebtedness in nOn-taxable
consol at four per cent, reducing the interest by
Mt least Thirty Millions per annum. a Public
Debt steadily diminishing can hardly fail to
appreciate rapidly in value. And as most of
our debt is redeemable at the pleasure of the
| Government after it has run five years, il is
practically within control at any moment II
there were no other objection to the repudia-
ting lodges now current the fact that they
preclude the conversion Of our Fve-Twentics
into five and four per cents would be their
sufficient condemnation.
Congress will soon reassemble, and will be
met at the threshold with opportunities to
abolish this, that and the other tax. The Cot
ton tax is especially the object of malignant
Rebel assault, as though it were military con-
tribution levied as punishment rather than
resource. The manufacturers are striving for
a repeal of the tax of five per cent. on all tex
tile fabrics produced in powerlooms. The inn
porters want the Tariff cut down; the Liquor
men protest that the tax on their product Is
ex0rbitant &C., &c. From all sides, the cry Is
Reduce this impost, Abolish that excise, and
so on. If these clamors prove potent, Repudl'
alton is inevitable.
We trust, therefore, that Congress will make
haste slowly, and repeal no tax without know
ing precisely how the vacuum thus created Is
to be filed. Ii the Cotton tax can be spared,
we hope it may be RENTED; but those who
clamOr for its removal will discover that the
consuming public pays a good part of t-that 1t
does by no means fall exclusively on the cot
ton-growcr, as they assume. As to the Whisky
tax, it was imposed under the influence OF
powerful rings of spectators, who had
bought up most of the liquor in the country,
! and then prompted the imposition OF SO high
tax in order to fill their own pockets by
selling their Whisky at an enormous pr0lit
We presume quite rs much revenue would
have been realized from an excise OF II, or
even fifty cents per gallon, as from the
S2 but the monopolizing Spectators would
have pocketed far less. And now, If means
can be devised for insuring the collection OF
fifty cents per gallon, we shall gladly see the
impost reduced to that rate. We only insist
that the revenue must not suffer by the
change
The manufacturers, like the merchants, have
seen hard Shedding this year. They have OPP
Grated on n steadily declining markets so that
the goods they have made have often sold Tor
! less than the naked cost Of their pr0luctoh'