American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1872-03-16
TEXAS.
In 1861. no debt.
Present debt and liabilities incurred
under Radical rule, including rail-
4t1,0O0,000 90


Ex-Commissioner David A. Wells, who
is admittedly the highest authority on
questions of taxation and revenue in this
country, in a recent paper discussing, his
torically, the financial measures of our
government, fixes the period of our great
est prosperity In a Democratic Admins
tration, and under Democratic tariff.
From 1851 to 1860, and more particularly
during the last three years of this time,
when the tariff was an average of only IS
to 20 per cent. 1.-THE comparative growth
and progress attained by every depart
ment of American trade, commerce, and
industry was greater than for any cores
ponding period, either before or since, in
the history of the nation" 1t was in the
latter part of this period that our CONNER
cial tonnage rose to upwards of five and
a half million tons; the cotton crop ex-
ceeded five million bales; our exports of
manufactures reached their maximum;
and our consumption of sugar,
coffee and cotton cloth-the best
test of general prosperity-reached
the largest per captta rate it
has ever reached. During the decade
from 1850 to 1860, the increase of popu-
of wealth 124 per cent and the average of
property TO each individual $50. ut
would be difficult" says the ex-Commis
sioner, ''to find more happy illustration
of the influence of non-interference or
non-obstructive policy of government
with the trade. commerce and industry of
a highly civilized, active people, than
the condition of the United States at that
time afforded" The Federal Government
imposed no direct taxes on the people
there was no such thing known or
thought of as internal revenue, stamps,
excise, assessors and collectors; the only
source of revenue that the Government
applied to was light impost of less than
20 per cent. upon imported goods and
the sale of public lands; and, low as the
tariff was, compared with the ex-
orbitant protective tariff which now
exists, it yielded so large sur
plus revenue that the trouble with
the government was, not, as now, how to
increase it, but how to reduce it. At one
time there was such superabundance of
money in the treasury that the govern
ment actually divided among the States
S2S, 100000. Nor was this prosperous
and pleasant state of things due entirely
to the fact that we had no national debt
| to take care of it was attributable, in a
large measure, to the simplicity and frll-
gality of our governmental system, and
the purity of the civil service that pre-
vailed in those days. From 1851 to 1861
the ordinary expenditures of the govern
ment were S57, $40, 900, or S2.O6 per copita
of the population; while the per capita of
payment on account of the national debt
alone for 1871 was 81 So, and the addi-
, tional per capita charge for other expendi-
lures in that year was S437. In other
words, the per capita cost of the govern
ment. not including the national debt,
was twice as great for the last year Of the
| Republican administration as 1t was for
the last year of Il Democratic administra-
ton.
| During this period, the low tariff on
| foreign materials of manufacture enabled
us to use them in making fabrics as cheap
as competing nations could make them;
and SO we sold largely of manufactured
articles to Canada, and West Indies and
/ South America, to whose people we now
scarcely sell at all, simply because we
cannot afford to sell to them as cheaply
as the European manufacturers do Dur
ing the same period, our commerce car
ried in our own ships whitened every
ocean, and, instead of the lamentations
now heard about the destruction of our
shipping, and hiring foreign vessels, at a
profit to them of thirty million dollars a
year to carry our own produce abroad
and bring back goods in exchange for it,
we were accustomed to point to the