Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1869-09-17
TAXATION OF THE NATIONAL
CREDIT. fr
Extract from a Speech of Hon. John
A. Bingham, delivered at Alliance,
Ohio, August "A, 1869.

1 With this result before the American
| people, fOrty-nine millions of this de bt
/ paid since the Inauguration of Grant on
the 4th of March last, this party call
| ing ITSELF Democratic, here in the great
/ patriotic State of Ohio, propose to re-
| pudiate the unpaid balance Of this debt
which is part of the price contracted
| to be paid for our national lie,
The Democratic party, in its recent
convention, did not say repudiate the
| unpaid balance of the nations debt,
j contracted with the nations dead and
living defenders in the suppression of
the rebellion but the party insists that
/ the bonds and other securities of the
United States shall be taxed, and shall
I be paid in promises to pay-that is, in
/ currency, and that, unless this demand
be complied with, the question of re-
pudiation will be considered. Is not the
guilt of this party confessed by this
miserable contriYance of words The
bonds are to be taxed. Last year we
were told by this party that they de-
manded equal taxation of every species
/ of property. The people of Ohio last
year considered that proposition. They
came to understand that equal taxation
of every species of property meant a
like rate of taxes. national and State
upon like valuations of all that was
possessed by the rich and the poor. The
people considered iB. They fhOuplab that
sound policy which had laid the unu-
suai burdens of the country upon it's
accumulated wealth, and had carefully
excepted therefrOm the poor and also
the producing classes.
They rejected, as alike unwise and
unjust, the proposition to tax equally
the income of the millionaire and the
prod Ucts of the daily toll of the field,
the shop and the mine. That great peO7
pie who thus Tighteously decided this
issue in 1868 are now insulted by this
proposition that the Government bonds
and securities shall be subjected to tax
alton. Why did not these gentlemen
tell US whether this tax should be equal
or unequal whether it should be State
or national, or both Did they not
know that their resolution implied on
its face that the bonds and other public
securities of the United States should
be subjected to the unlimited power of
State taxation and national taxation ?
Did they not know, when they adopted
this resolution, that the Supreme Court
of the United States had settled the
law to be, that the power Of the State
to tax whatever was the. subjectOf State
taxation was limited by nothing save
the will of the people OF the State and
that the assumed power of the State 10
tax the national securities was incOm-
patible with the national existence
Did they not know as well that 1T had
been solemnly decided by Chief Justice
Marshall, foremost of alt the Judges of
America, that stare taxation of nation
al securities was forbidden by the Con-
stitution? Do not all thoughtful men
know that the exercise of such power
in the several States might work ma
tional dissolution and death Is not
national suicide as criminal as person
al suicide? Are the people of Ohio
ready by their ballot to Indorse tbe
proposition that not only suggests but
necessarily results in the overthrow of
American institutions, the dismember-
ment of the Republic and the blotting
out Of America from the map of ma
tions ? By the memory of your un-
numbered dead, who, amidst the fires
of battle, sacrificed themselves for the
Republic and the supremacy of1ts Con-
stitution and laws, / adiure you, my
countrymen, to bury forever; beneath
an avalanche of public condemnation
q party that thus dares to trif1e with
the dearest rights of American citizens
the right to government and coun-
try, the right to their own American
liberty, defined, sanctioned and shell
tered by American law.
If this so called Democratic party
really means what it says by resolution
that the national bonds and national
securities shall be taxed, having a ma
jority in the last Legislature of Ohio,
why did it not put lUs high sounding
"
bonds and other securities of the Uni
ted States
If the party means what it says in
it's platform, why did not its sixty
members in the House of Representa-
tives of the United States, during the
session just closed, insist upon the i'm
mediate enactment of a law for the tax
alton of the national bonds and nation !
al securities
Tue party knows that the American
people are not yet ready for such legis-
iation. Il kno VS. that the millions who
people this land of ours-Who cOnsti-
tute the body polite of the great Re-
public, and maintain the local organi-
cation of thirty-seyen States-who are
one people, with one Constitution and
Jne country, cling to the idea that their
common nationality can only be main
tanned by keeping inviolate the nations
faith" What this party wants is the
power to dolHhat is foreshadOwed in
its resolution. Shall the Democratic |
party have the power That is the
question to be decided in the coming
election. It is not whether you prefer I
one man to another for your Governor, /
butt Is whether you prefer national
unity to national dissolution whether
you prefer national honor to national
dishonOr whether you prefer national
life to national death.
Some may say that press this prop
Osition of the Democratic party too far.
Let us see, and let me restate the fact
and the law. The taxation of all pub
lie bonds and securities. 1t is as well
settled in America as any other ques-
tion Of law, that the power of the sew
erai States to tax is a power unlimited
as the amount of taxation upon prop
ertY or securities of any kind, which
are l. he subjects of State taxation. If
therefore, each State may, at its pleas
ure, and without Limitation, tax the
ted States, does it not necessarily result
that the states may tax the national
bonds and national securities out of
existence, and thereby deprive the
Government of the means Of seli-de-
fense Notwithstanding the general
proposition of the Democratic party
and it's logical sequence it may be said
that the party does not mean State tax
alton. If the party DOES not mean il
why does it not say so, and there by
end the controversy.
There is a great deal of prating about
State sovereignty, one of the essential
powers of which is the power of taxa
Iion. Waving the question whether
this party means what it says, and that
it is intended that the bonds and oihtr
public securities of the United States
shall be taxed only by the Government
of the United States, let us inquire
what is to be the subject and what the
rate of this taxation ? The language
of the Democratic platform Is, "the
bonds and seeuritiesD shall be made
subject to taxation. All men under
| stand what is meant by the bonds of
the United States-the hve-twenties,
| the ten-forties, &c What are 'fthe Sc
oUrities' of the United Stat referred
to Are they not the legal tender
notes issued by the Government of the
/ United States, in the nature of a forced
| loan, on the face of which the Govern
ment is pledged to pay the holder the
amount thereof in dollars
This promise to pay in dollars, under
the law, and by the contract of the
/ United States Government, is the same
as to the United States bonds and the
| legal tender notes. If the Government
intended to limit its liability on the
bonds and notes by proviso to tax
hem, it was the duty of the Govern
| ment-a duty as sacred and obligatory
as ever devolved upon men aud nations
so to have declared in the statutes
which authorized the issue of the bonds
and notes. II should have been nona-
4 n s.,e o = mn.