The Republican journal., 1869-09-02

or black, female or otherwise, 10 longer de
lights Il people that is being gradually taxed
out of house and home. The man who finds
/ it daily more difficult to find his children bread
will relax his anguish that the negro has a
vote, and the most passionate lover OF MS
colored kind may recognize ielloW-creatlire
in planter, if they both agree that the price
of coal is an outrage. the duty on IRON Il s"ill-
die and the tariff an abomination 10 be abol-
ishcd. In truth il is high time that after some
twenty wears of 4 refreshing season for the
national soul. we should take a short tcrnl Of
attention to the public body, which needs ii
badly enough | undertake to say that there
i no nation in the world which is taxed as we
are taxed No wonder that the men who
work for wages grow desperate a they de
cline in wrll-bcing and estate No wonder
that the air is full OF strikes and labor move
ments and associations and demands and pro-
tests of working men and women. They are
in the right in their unrest uprising, although
\ the practical measures proposed rs remedies
are sometimes unconSidcred and unWisc. For
| il is true that The system OF taxation they en-
| lure is not only onerouS but practically oper-
ative in the interests of capital alone.
1t is true, rs the very able and candid Com
missioner of Revenue says and proves, that al
though ''thc aggregate wealth Of the country
is increasing probably As rapidly us at any
former period, yet il does not follow that there
| is the same increase in general prosperity.
The laborcr. especially he who has large
family to- support, is not SO prosperous Us he
was in 1860 Ills wages have not increased
in proportion to the increase in the cost OF
his living. There is. therefore, an inequality
in the distributions of our annual product
which we must refer to artificial causes" And
| he asks: '.W hence comes this unnatural dis
tributon OF the results of labor?' And he
tells YOU and not he only, but every man
who ever was supposed TO know anything
about political economy will tell YOU ''that it
must be the resul. Of an enforced use of in
convertible paper money, which involves Il
most oppressive tax, which falls heaviest up
ON the laborcr and lghtest upon the owner
of capital. In one significant sentence he
sums it up. The rich become richer and the
poor poorer And the next sturdy robber is
''the tariff upon imports which is Che says)
'tmder all circumstances tax pald by the
consumer" But what kind ola tax it is when
your tariff is q protective and moi q revenue
tariff solely, let Mr.. Mill. the latest and best
authority on the subject, tell Won. ''All GUS
tom duties which operate As encouragement
to the home production OF the taxed article
are IN emncntly wastolul mode OF raising
revenue They are purely miSchevouS
! to the country imposing them and to those
with whom It trades. 49, The amount OF nation
al loss thus occ;,Sioned is measured by the
excess of the price at which the commodity
is produced over that III which il could be inn
ported" so much for theory. Now what
does the Special Republican Commissioner
tell You this tariff practically is? "A tariff
which is I'm just and unequal which ncedlcsSly
enhances prices; which takes far more indi-
rcctly from the people dian is received into
the Treasury; which renders IN exchange Of
domestic for foreign commodities nearly I'M
possible, and which, while protesting to pro
tect American industry. really in many cases,
'liScrimnatcs against it, And he goes on to
| tell you what is the upshot OF the whole $yS
tenn. and thus the wave OF taxation con-
| tinucs to extend and enlarge itself until no
| no man can measure the breath and power of
its Influence, but breaking ultimately with its
full force upon two classes OF societv-thO>e
living on fixed incomes and the day laborer."
Do You wonder then, that the working-man
is dscontented subjected naked to the lash
ing of such pitiless storm OF taxation? Do
YOU think it strange that he turns mcredulouS
from the silver-tonged demagogucs. who
would persuade him that he is well off. Gen
tlemcn, he knows he is sinking. he feels that
his strength is failing him. it is borne in up
on him that he must drown if aid comes not
swiftly. And what can we do for him? Why.
| do what Andrew Jack son would have done:
give him hard money and al open market.
Take off your weights from him. and let him
alone. What is needed then to restore pros
pertv to labor and satisfactory relations to
capital, what is necessary to alleviate the
pressure of the public burdens and dis,pcl the
| odium Of the debt, and what must be had be-
| fore we can have real national welfare, is a
return to the impostS upon imports to the low
est point which our need for a large revenue
will permit.
The prosecution Of this demand is not alone
theoretically the peculiar province Of the
Democratic party; it is its traditional and
immemoral policy. Toitthc men who march,
ed before us have been in succeeding lusres
solemnly dedicated by the utter;lnces Of their
greatest statesmen. The giant forms Of JEFF
tcrson and Madison, Monroe and Galatin
Jackson and Benton and Webster all marshal
the way for us, all in majestic accents cheer
us onward to honesty and prosperity
But dare not dwell on topics 50 extensive.
Let us glance q moment at our State policy.
This is simplicity itself. Grasping firmly the
fundamental principle that no mans liberty
shall be infringcd if he respects his neighbor's
equal right, we merely test by it the pet
quackery of the times. That happens to be
to-day the phantom Of Prohibtory Law.
which has risen again in arms on the tomb of
the p. L. LIS. This statute would have been
long ago detrnct, but for a class of persons
mostly Of the wcll-to-do and wel-behaved
kinds, who, while they rcpudiate the theory
Of the law and refuse the practice of total ab-
stinencc, yet think that it is their duty to pro-
tect the poor and ignorant against themselves
reform them by forcc-;lnd they thus justify
what Mr.. Jonn Stuart Mill declares to be an
infringement of a proper personal liberty. IT
is q law Of the patrarchal and paternal kind,
not inapt, perhaps, for Russian practice, but
curiously nj variance with American theory.
For our people do not readily realize in ac-
ton that IN invasion of the legitimate liberty
of the individual is Just rs mach an outrage
when ordained by majority as when order
ed by i Gar 1t is, however, almost ridicll-
lous to argue the principle Of the law at this
day, since its advocates have themselves
abandoned it by legalzng the sale Of cider
as beverage, and wemust content ourselves
with the fact that its practice is as arbi-
traly as we should expect. Who ever heard
of a rich mans tipplc mcddled with, or when
and for how long respectively have the mag
mates of the trade Ct beg pardon, | should
say ''traflic') in Boston pinned in prison, or
mouwcd over dcspoilcd and empty cellars ?
The humorous old gentlemen who prepared
that amusing literary curiOsitV the COnstitu-