Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1873-02-22
REFUNDIkG OF COTTON TAX.

Adjourned till 10 A. N. tomorrow
REFUNDING OF COTTON TAX.
speech OF Hon. i. M. Bright, OF Ten
nessee, I'm the House OF Represents
| tiyes, Feb. III, 1873,
On the bill "a. r. No. 39O1) to refund certai
4 taxes collected by the United States On ray
cotton during the years 1863, 1864 1865, 1861
1861, and 1868, and to create perpetual com
mon-school fund, and for other purposes.
[CoNCLUDED FROM YEsTERDAY:1
1t will be seen that the law is absolute
as restrictive and prohibitory as Language
can well make it. 1t lays the tax, declare
its lien, prohibits the removal of the cotton
"from any point in the district in which il
shall have been Produced and inficts ex
treme penalties on any "who shall convey
or attempt to convey, from any State In
which cotton is produced, to any port OF
plsce without the United States upon which
the tax has not been paid.n
As said by Justice Story, is all this DC
Interference with the subject of exports?'
What is the plain effect Of the law? The
government made every mans cotton farm
shipping port; the cotton was land locked
tax locked, and enlarged; there was to
oe no removal from "aDy point in the dis.
trict, :" no going out Gto any port or place
without the United States" or by whatev
er other name it may be called, until the
tax was paid, and then it received its ex-
port clearance for inland or foreign trade.
Congress knew that nineteenth-twen.
tieths Of the cotton had to be exported from
the States in which it was produced, or lie
and rot as manure upon the farms. By re-
fusing TO allow drawback upon exported
cotton, and the positive prohibition against
the removal or attempted removal Of il
ito any port or place without the United
States leaves
mo hinge, nor loop, to hang doubt on
that it was meant 10 be, and was In fact
an export tax.
It was all the same to the producer wheth
er he paid the tax on his farm on The from
tier of the States or in the seaports. Which
ever way be turned be was the victim of tho
tax. Lise Millions imprisoned spirit, ht
might exclsim-
(Which way fly is hell"
But the proposition is too plain for argu-
ment. The great mind of Thaddeus Ste
vens could not solve the constitutions
problem to tax exported cotton directly Oh
Indirectly, and with manly boldness be pro
posed to cut the Gordian knot by amend
ing the Constitution for that purpose. 1t
was Just as constitutional to take the farm
er's life as 1t was to take his money by q
foreign export tax on bis cotton. Car
there be any escape from the conclusion
that it was an export tax, or q tax on cot
ton as an article exported? If SO, the Con-
stitution has been violated and the Govern.
ment holds the cotton tax in the character
of trustee for the use of the legitimate
owners, to whom equity and justice require
that it should be restored.
1t is now admitted by all enlightened
nations that export taxes are Instructions in
the channels of commerce. Legislatures
may attempt 10 conceal them by artful laws,
but, like rocks hidden beneath the wave,
are sure to wreck the ship. Prior to 1912
England imposed a duty on coal exported in
foreign vessels; in that same year, under
the ministry Of Sir Robert Peel, she i'm
posed the duty on it howsoeyer exported.
She abandoned it in three years. But the
duration was sufficient to check her foreign
coal trade and to develop the coal mines Of
she has not recovered to this day. So the
American cotton tax, with like duration
struck stunning blow at the industry
checked our commerce, and developed the
production of cotton in foreign nations
injuries which it will take years to repair,
As evidence of this, before Congress i'm
posed the cotton tax, as will appear by the
append tabular statement, the United
States furnished from eighty to ninety per
cent. o the Liverpool and London cotton
markets. During the incumbency of the
cotton tax the American supply fell down
IS low as one per cent, and has not since
risen higher than forty-one and half pei
cent. But so far as these constitutional
provisions are concerned you may strike
out the apportionment rule, you may strike
out the uniformity rule, you may strike out
the export provisions, then you would leave
all the States standing as equals in right
and upon no principle of natural or politi-
cal justice could the few be taxed unequal
IL for the benefit Of the many.
Bnt shall we be told tot go to the Supreme
Court? This court is impotent to help. At
best we could only have invoked its In
junctiye powers 10 restrain The execution of
the law. But the law is executed, the
money paid into the Treasury. The court
has no power over the Treasury. Besides,
the court would only decide one case if we
lad status, and leave thousands unde-
clded. The court in the Farrington-Saun-
ders case were equally divided. Their ju-
risdiction was a thousand-fold short of re-
lief. The question was appalling, and leg
islative in its largest features. Congress
alone could make restitution, and to Con-
gress we have come, and if Congress turns
us out the denial of relief is final.
But is the Government startled at the
MAGNITUDE Ofthe cotton tax, and does it re-
coil from its restoration? Just imagine the
hardships to the impoverished few from
whom it was squeezed like the last drop
from an orsngei 1t would be a thousand
fold easier for the Government to restore it
from its bursting Golfers than for the pro.
ducers to lose it in their restitution.
Gladly would turn from the sad vision
of our Southern section! Beaten, broken,
crushed; desolste, friendless, forsaken; sit
ting like waiting widow in the dust; dis
consulate, shriveled with famine, only the
skeleton of her former self. Faiut and
languid she commenced the struggle for
bread for her hungry and clothing for her
naked. No sooner did hope gid the dawn
of the future with returning prosperity,
than it began to darken with the shadow OF
a coming evil. The cotton tax, vulture
like, worked upon her for three long years
and long will she bear the marks of the
| scourge. II is a question not only fol
to-day, but for the generations. L
Congress may concentrate the taxing
powers of the, Government, and poul
the burning focus upon single stapl'
production, then all her theories OF thi
Constitution will be subverted and hei
despair riEeted. Rather let this measure b
marked as an era of reconciliation, peac,
and fraternity. 'We,' the living are bu
atoms floating in the sunbeams of an houl
the years belong to posterity. In humanit