The spirit of democracy. [volume] (Woodsfield, Ohio) 1844-1994, 1869-03-02
The Presidents Veto on the Cop.
per Esitt.
The President on the 22d ult. com.
municated the following message:

ne tTesldent on the I'D ult. COM
municated the following message:
ITO the House of Representatives
"The accompanying bill regulating the
duties on imported copper and copper
ores, is for the following reasons return
ed, without my approval, to the House
of Representatives, in which branch of
Congress it originated. Its immediate
effects will be to diminish the public re-
ceipts, for the object of the bill can not
be accomplished without seriously af-
fccting the importation of copper and
copper ores, from which a considerable
revenue is at present deprived. While
thus impairing the resources of the Gov
ernmcnt, it imposes an additional tax on
the already overburdencd people, who
should not be further impoverished, that
monopolics may be fostercd and corpo-
rations enriched. 1t is represented, and
the declaration seems to be sustained by
evidence, that the duties for which this
bill provides arc nearly or quite sufficient
to prohibit the importation of certain
fore gn ores of copper. rs enactment,
therefore, will prove detrimental to the
shipping interests of the nation, and at
the same time destroy the business, for
many wears successfully established, of
smelling ores, in connection with a small
er amount of the imported articles
This business, it is asserted, has hereto
fore yielded the larger share of the cop
per production of the country, and thus
the industry which this Legislation is de-
signed to encourage, is actually less than
that which will be destroyed by the pas
sage of the bill 1t seem, also to be
evident that the effect of this measure
will be to enhance, by seventy per cent,
the cost of blue vitrol, an article exten-
sively used in dying and the manufac
ture of printed and colored cloths TO
produce such an augmentation in the
price of the commodity, will be to dis
criminate against other great branches
of industry, and by increasing the cost
to expose them most unfairly to the eff
fects of foreign competition. Legisla-
ton can neither be wise nor just, which
seeks the welfare of single interest at
the expense and to the injury Of the
many ard various interests equal
ly important and equally deserv-
ing.
In the consideration of this, indeed,
it is difficult to find any reason which
will justify the interference of the Gov
ernment with any legitimate industry,
except so far as may be rendered neces-
sary by the requirements Of the revenue.
As has been already stated, however, the
legislative Intervention proposed in the
present instance will diminish and not
increase public receipts. The enactment
of such law is urged as necessary for
the relief of certain mining interests on
Lake Superior, which it is alleged are in
greatly depressed condition, and can
only be sustained by an enhancement OF
the price of copper. If this result
should follow the passage Of the bill, a
tax for the exclusive benefit Of single
class would lie imposed upon the con-
sumers Of copper throughout the entire
country, not warranted by need of the
Government, and the avails Of which
would not, in any degree, find their way
Into the treasury of the nation.
eff the mines of Lake Superior are in
condition Of want, it can pot be justly
affirmed that the Government should
extend charity to them in preference to
those of its citizens who, in other por-
tions of the country, suffer in like man
ner. Least of all should the endeavor
to aid them be based on method so
uncertain and indirect as that contem
plated by the bill, and which, moreover,
proposes to continue the exercise of its
benefaction through an indefinite period.
1t is, besides, reasonable to hope that if
positive suffering from want Of it really
exists, it will prove but temporary in a
region where agricultural labor is so
much in demand, and so we'll compen-
sated.
"A careful examination Of the subject
appears to show that the present low
price of copper, which alone has induced
any depression the mining interests of
Lake Superior may have experienced, is
due to causes which it is wholly impoli-
tic, if not impracticable, to contravene
by legislation. These causes are, in the
main, increase in the general supply of
copper, owing to the discovery and
working Of remarkably productive mines,
and to coincident reduction in the
consumption and use of copper by the
substitution of other and cheaper metals
for industrial purposes. 1t is now
thought to resist, by artificial means, the
action Of natural laws; to place the peo-
pie of the United States, in respect to
! the enjoyment and use of an essential
commodity, on a different basis from
other nations, especially to compensate
certain private and sectional interests for
changes which are always coincident to
industrial progress.
although providing for an increase
of duties, the proposed law does not
even come within the range of protec-
ton in the fair acceptation of the term.
1t does not look to the fostering of a
young and feeble interest with view to
the ultimate attainment of strength and
capacity cf self-snpport 1t appears to
assume that the inability for successful
production is inherent and permanent,
and more likely to increase than to be
gradually overcome. Yet, in spite of
this, it proposes, by the exercise of the
law making power, to sustain that ilrter-
est and impose it in hopeless perpetuity
as tax upon the competent and benef-
cent industries Of the country.
1.-The true method for the mining in
terests of Lake Superior to obtain relief,
if needed, is to endeavor to make their
great natural resources fully available,
by reducing the cost of production
Special or class legislation can not RENE
dy the evils which this bill is designed to
meet. They can only be overcome by
laws which will effect wise, honest,
economical administration of the Gov
ernment, re- establishment of the specie
standard of value, and an early adjust
ment of our State, municipal and national
taxa!ion-especially the latter-on the
IL II 1