New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1870-09-21
coLFAx AT SOUTH BEND
THE VICE.PRESIDENT'S SPEECH
FAITHFUL COLLECTION of THE REVENUE
EQUALITY BEFORE TIE LAW
A REGENERATED CDNST!TUTIO,
THE FRANCO-PRUSSIAN WAR


fax opened the Indiana campaign by making
long, eloquent and fd rcible speech at
South Bend, from which We make the fol-
lowing extracts:
FAITHFUL COLLECTION OF REVENUE.
The more efficient collection Of the .reve-
nue. under President GRANTS administration
has been productive of good resrltsin many
ways:
/. While nothing was paid on the debt
during Mr.. Johnson's last year, the reduc-
ton under President Grant has been CON
slant and gratiiyingly large. Without any
increase of the public burdens, he has paid
OFF over one hundred and slxty-nine and II
half millions of our bonded and overdue
debt, in the first eighteen months of his adj
ministratiOn; and has pei Hmanently reduced
the annual interest, to be paid to our credit
ors, near $4,000, 600 per year. Up to this
date, the bonds he has purchased with our
surplus revenue, have been stamped and
kept as IL sinking fund But the last Con
gress ordered as u fairdr way, that they
should all be destroyed, now and hereafter
as purchased, SO that they should no longer
be in existence, even III d Cancelled form.
Q With this healthy condition of our fl
nances, Congress felt that large reduction
of taxation was not inconsistent with the
maintenance Of our credit. And arcordingl " a
bill was passed reducing our internal taxa
ton at the rate of over s}5, 100000 per year,
and on tariff taxation about S25, 900, ,O0O-in
all. $50, ,000,0 per year, striking off at one
blow one-fifth of all our remaining taxation
of all kinds. These red uctions i'll our in
ternal tax system have been of the NEST
sweeping character. All the burdensome
and vexatious special ta xes are abolished.
to take effect at the end of the year for
which they are now paiHAI refer to those
on lawyers, doctors, claim agents, insurance
and real estate agents. cOnveyancers, archl-
tects, manufacturers, photographers, apothe-
carries, butchers, plumbers, eating houses and
hotels. merchants, dealers of every KIND
iexcepting spirits and tobacco.
The taxes on sales. with the above excep-
ton, on boats and barres, on watches. on
gross receipts of railroads. steamboats,, ex-
presses. telegraphs. ferries, bridges and
turnpikes, on legacics and succes>lons, on
passports on receipts. and on all notes I'M
der one hundred dollars, are not again to be
levied or collected aft $,r the first OF next
month. The income ta aX is reduced one
half. limited to two years, and the eXemp-
ton doubled, being two hundred dollars III
addition to all taxes and interest paid,
losses and bad debts, rents and repairs. and
amount paid for labor, thus renewing its
burden entirely from those who are poor, or
of moderate means, and requiring 1t 10 he
paid at its reduced rate only by those
whose income renders It easy to bear. In
fact, after this month. nothing VIII remain
of this once all-enbracilhg internal revenue
system except the tax on spirituous and
malt liquors, cigars and tobacco, national
banks, Gas, incomes, and stamps; and prob
ably several of these vii disappear also be-
fore another fiscal year has passed away.
g. Annexed to this bill were sections al
tering, ,.and, in the aggregate, largely re-
ducing the tariff, to take effect at the end OF
the year. Hundreds of articles used as raw
materials in our home manufactures were
placed on the free list, and nearly two mil
lions of duties thus remitted, while our in
dustrial interests received a healthful i'm
petus from this relief. Many others, which
did not pay the expense of collecting duties
Onthem, were also free. A specific duty
of $2S per ton was placed on Bessemer steel
instead of the As per cent dd rdtOre1n, which
shifted in amount with every tiuctuation of
the European prices, which had varied IN
few years from $50 to So per ton. The
duty on pig iron was reduced nearly twenty
five per cent, from So to s. per ton, and on
scrap iron from So to Sc per ton. Pepper
and other spices, and fruits, were also very
largely reduced. Coffee was reduced from
five to three cents per pound, a less rate
than it was taxed by the administrations
of Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madi-
son and Monroe. from 1890 to 1923,
during which time it was taxed from four to
five cents per pound, except few years at
ten cents. Tea was reduced from twenty
five to fifteen cents per pound, a less rate
than the duties for the thirty-elght years
Just alluded to, during which the tariff on
tea was from eighteen TO twenty-five cents
per pound, except a few years at thlrty-six
ceEts. Sugar, which has always been taxed
in our entire history, under all tariffs, and
all administrations, was also largely re-
duced, so much so indeed, that. on this one
item alone, including molasses. the reduc-
ton amounts to Sl2,O0D,00O per year, as it
does to S5.000000 on co tfee. $4,000, 900 on tea,
over 81 100000 on pepper and other spices,
and S50O,OOO on fruits. Thus faithfully full
filling the promises of the last campaign, We
shall go Oh in the future with the work of
'equalizing and reducing taxation as rapid
ly as the national faith will permit"
even if, as in the present case, we
have to pass these bills abolishing in
the cost of tea, coffee, sugar, etc, over
and in spite Of the opposing votes Of
the Democracy. Their reply to this ar
raignment of them for adverse votes is. that
'.all the details of the bill did not suit them
But this is q very old excuse. We heard it
often during the war. They could not sup
port war measures bee huse they did not like
all their "details They carried New York
in 1862, on "the more vigorous prosecution
of the war;" but could not vote in Congress
for any bill whose deta were intended to
aid in it's more vigorous prosecution. They
declaim now against taxation, but can not
vote for any bill to reduce it. They talk
bitterly too. about the debt, but are not
satisfied with General Grants reduction of
it. They denounce the interest which it
bears as too high, but vote against any fund
ing bill proposing honestly to reduce it.
They spread their sails to catch favoring
wrecked on the "Details SO we shall go
on with details" of our own, in the work
of lessening the debt. diminishing the in
terest and steadily reducing taxation, from
year to year, without their help and against
their opposition.
4. We have about $500, 900 of green
backs and fractional currency When
President Grant was ipaugurated, gold was
at a premium of 1873, SO that these four hun
dred millions of paper dollars, in the pock-
cts of the people, We're worth about three
hundred millions in gold. Before the Euro
pean war broke out, gold had declined here
in consequence of our improved national
credit. to ITO; making these $40O, 200 600 of
greenbacks and fractional currency worth
to the people over three hundred and sixty
millions in gold. And this addition to their
value, and their pure clHasmg power, fehoeT-
ing the people who hold and use them as
currency that much better off, is fairly to
be credited to the Administration.
). The national expenditures have also
been largely and stehdily decreased from
the day President CIR ant took the oath of
Office. The year ending July, 1869 (partly
JOhnscR's term and partly Grant'sj, they
were 56,O0O,OOO less than the previous
year. The year ending July, 1870, they
were $29, 100000 less than 1869. And the
present year, ending next July, they will
be from SIS, 600 900 to Sig, ,000, 900 less than
the fiscal wear inst closed And this re-