Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1870-08-06


to the amount of SIC, 900, 900 is to be
their great card in the canvass, and with
this and the restoration of the Union al
last by the admission of Georgia, they
think they can make some hsad at the fall
elections against the general reaction
throughout the country in favor of the
Democratic party. The hollowness of
the arguments upon which they rely may
be easily exposed:
THE PRETENDED REDUCTION OF TIE TAXES.
Tie reduction of the taxes, with which
every stump is to ring this fall, amounts
to this: That while in one form the pop
ular burdens have been lightened, in an
other all the burdens have been reimposed,
and, perhaps, even new ones supeIadded.
Senator Sherman puts the reduction at
$40, 000, 900, Schenck calls it $50, 900, 600,
and Boutwell,, in a document sent in on
the It'll of June last, makes it $50, 900, =
600. OF these estimates-fOr the reduc-
ton is not known, but merely an esti-
mated eduction-BOutwell's is, perhaps,
the most reliable, and that is not saying
much for it. The Secretary is not re-
markable for his accuracy. According to
Dawes, ,,he made a mistake of $37, 600, =
900 in his estimates of the general ap-
priatiOns, and there is no telling but he
has made another mistake of $50, 000,
900 in his estimates of the reduction of
the taxes.
But, conceding that there is no mistake I;
cOnceding that $52,OO0,OOe, or even
$40, 900, 600, are taken off of the taxes, is
there nothing added on? The answer to
this is that there is something added on, as
much as, if not more than, the amount
taken off. AT the flag end of the act $40
reduce the taxes and for other purposes, F"
the ''other purposes" appear in the shape
of Schenck's tail tariff, which adds to the
popular burdens all that the body of the
act takes off, and probably even adds
more The income tax is reduced from
to q per cent, and the exemption
increased from 81 900 to $4,000; aloes,
scammony, and gamboge, eggs, diamond
dust, seaweed, skeletons and squills are
put upon the free list, and the duties on
tea, sugar, and coffee are decreased, and
on these changes the reduction of the
SIC, 600, 900 is claimed; but coeVal with
these changes, the tail tariff raises the
duty on steel, fax, hemp, cotton goods,
nickel, oils, and other most necessary
articles to a rate that will take from the
people of the United States millions of dol
lars in the shape of an enhanced cost.
on the article of steele alone $50, 600, 600
will all probably be taken in the shape of
a difference in price brought about in this
'act to reduce the taxes from 81, OOO,
900 to $lO,OO0,OO0 on cotton; while on
oil ,,sgl~a1 no IY1fu &c
raised from 33L to 600 per cent. 1t is
true that these are not taxes in the sense
in which the income tax is-that is, exac-
tions which must be met by going to a
collectors Office and planking down your
money in exchange for a receipt but
they are none the less taxes for all that.
To pay more for the same articles is sub
stantially a tax, and this is the tax levied
by the tail tariff. The steel worker or
painter who has an income of 81, 800, and
has heretofore paid an income tax upon
it of S25, is relieved from further pay
ment, it is true, under this "aet TO re-
duce the taxes and for other purposes"
but in the enhanced cost of the steel
workers raw material, or the painters
oils, he viii pay $2j many times over in
the course of the year. The tail tariff
enhancing many of the main art-
cles of use. what is said here
of the steel-workeT, and the
painter, applies to men of all other cal
lings. Their incomes, if under 81, 600,
are spared, and their tea and sugar come
trife cheaper; but they pay tremendous
ly for this, and the money that they pay
goes, not TO the government, out to these
cormOrants, the prOtectiOnists, in whose
interests Schenck framed and Congress
passed the tail tariff at the end of the tax
bill. Entitled an act to reduce the taxes,
it is really an act to relieve the people
from paying certain taxes to the federal
treasury on condition of paying certain
other and heavier taxes to protected inter
ests. The treasury loses directly under
this act, and the people lose indirectly,
and nobody profits much except the Rad
ical protectiOnist who makes money and
the Radical politician who makes party
capital out of it. The reduction" is q
fraud.
"THR UNION RESTORED
Next of the campaign clap-tTap is the
=" Union restored. " How restored
w hGAN - NAlG uI1fNAoAL dAAAAOoAy ~Ae-t%'AA
and again the effort to do away with all
this barbarism of test oaths and political
disabilities was made, and again and again
the effort failed. True, the Carpet-bag
gentry, to whom . genuine representation
of the South would be political annihila,
ton, were largely instrumental in effect
ing this result, but the Radical party can
make nothing by this plea. These car
pet baggers are the children of Radical
ism. 1t brought them into existence and
is responsible for what they do; and,
moreover, the fact is that the carpet-bag,
ger alone could not have defeated uni
versal amnesty-they were aided by the
genuine representatives of the party tC
which they belong. But it will be sale
that the Union is restored because Geor'
gia is in. How in? There were Sena'
tors elect from that State waiting at the
door, and why did the Senate not
give a meaning to the act adj
hitting Georgia by bringing her Senators
in upon the floor! To pass string OF
words in the form of a paper writing
called an admission bill, is not TO admit
State. That is done when the Reprcsen
tatives thereof live and move and have
their being in Congressional halls. More
over, this so-called act admitting Georgi;
is so ambiguous that hardly any two mel
agree as TO its construction. In eithel
House, when it was put upon its passage
men voted for it with the declaration
what it meant, and they voted for it be
cause it meant things dramatically OppO
site. A State IN the Union has the RICH
TO hold elections for men to represent
in Congress. Some say Georgia is au
thorized by this bin TO have an election
for Representatives this fall; some sa,
not. Now, when this vital point IS il
such utter doubt in any State, how cal
that State be said TO be restored to he
normal relations to the UniOn2 Tn
truth is that this ambiguity was in
serted purposely. If the Radical con
stuction prevail, and Georgia is not al
lowed IN election this fab, then the Rad
oat party, if not reinforced by men of il