Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1868-09-18
Who Pay the National Taxes !?


Senator Sherman in his great speect
at Pittsburgh on the 7th inst. said il
reference tOthis subject:
| They (the DemOcrats) talk about tht
| taxes, and utter gross exaggeration7
that with me excite smile of contempt
The statements published in their pa
pers and uttered by their stunperS
| are so gossly false that any man who
pays any taxes at all can correct them
without putting me to the trouble. I saw
| a statement the other day in one of yeWl
papers declaring that the National Gov
| ernment taxed the hat upon your head
the coat upon your back, the shirt you
wear, the vest your wear, the pants you
wear, the shoes you wear, and that they
taxed the shroud that covers your hody
when you die, and the coffin IN which
you are buried; and I expect to hear
them say that they have sent a tax
gatherer to levy a tax upon the depart
ed spirit when it pursues the realms Of
eternal bliss [Laughter.l
Now this is very well, but it is copied
from Sidney Smiths description OF
British taxation, aud is not true. either
there or here now.
How false and idle this is. When
not single article of domestic manu-
facture consumed by any laboring man
for dress, for clothing, for consumption
for food, for raiment, pays any tax
whatever, except the small tax of 50 for
every 81 600 manufactured by the lar
ger manufactures, and 81 for every
81, 900 sold by the merchant. Even this
tax on sales does not apply to the small
dealer, to the shoemaker, the saddler.
the halter the blacksmith, and the vast
number of mechanical employments
scattered through the country, but on Iy
to those who have brought to their aid
extensive machinery and great capital.
The tax is rather upon the capital en-
ployed in large establishments. The
whole Republican policy, from begin
ming to the end, has been discrimina-
tion in favor of labor and the laboring
man, with view to put the taxes upon
the capital and capitalist,
Thus the N ational Banks they so.
much sderide, pay to the National Gov
ernment ten million dollars in taxes,
and to the States ten millions more,
which is more than all the taxes paid
by all the laboring men in the North
ern States on other than imported arti-
cles. So we levy upon great corpora
millions of dollars; but we do not levy
upon the workman, the common car
rier, and the laboring man engaged in
like pursuits any taxes whatever. We
levy an income tax upon person
whose income is over $1,000 free, after
deducting various expenses. We levy
no tax upon income derived from labor
itself, but when that labor is Of a char
acter which constitutes a capital, as al
professional EN- plOYment, or great men
tai requirements and abilities which
command more than 81 900 year after
paying ali .aKes and expenses. YET
This Is is upon the rich and not p-I
on the poor No man pays it unless he
has more income than is necessary, to |
support his family in comfort and indie
pendence, and yet this tax affords us
more than $50, coo 600. @
And so with the tax on imported |
goods. So far as the poor man con-
sumes tea, coffee, and sugar, he does |
not contribute TO the support of the ma |
tional Government; but this tax is /
shared with him by the great mass 7of
the community, and so distributed as I
not to bear heavily upon any. When /
pOu compute the amount consumed by-t
the poor man it seems insignificant, /
and smiles with cOntempt upon the
efforts of demagOgues to excite his op-
position to the sGOvernment, on account
Of this tax. We reach out to the
wealthy man who wears brOadcloth,
English or French, and the ladies, (God
bless theml) who wears silks and sat
ms; to the voluptuary, who drinks his
wine, and to those who are
not satisfied with domestic productions
aud the labor of our own country
Upon these we assess heavy tax, and
VO don't care if they complain, because
hal bits which have induced
hem 10 buy such articles ought to be
accompanied with money enough to
ZratifY them. / might 90 through the
whole listof property, and show yon
hat the entire tax of tho national Coy
,rnment does not bear as heavily upon
abor as the road tax, under which, by
he laws of Ohio, you are required to
work one or two days every year. Ap-
1lause.]
But again; these people tell us that
lnder a Republican administration
prices have gone up; that what used
o cost two dollars now cost four dol
srs. That is soto some extent; and it
8 caused partly by the imitation of prices
through the war, by the discovery Of
,old and silver, but mainly in conse-
Iuence of our having paper money
which is now below par in gold. But
very thing else has raised in the same i
Labor has advanced more
han the cost of goods, aud there was
lever time in the history OF this
iountry when laboring men were more
prosperous and were better ble to COM
'ete in the great struggle with oapi~-
al that must go on while capital and
abOr united are necessary to the pro-
.uotIons of the world. Labor is de-
handing and receiving better treatment
rom capital, both as to hours of em-
'loyment and rates Of wages than ever
'efores