New-York tribune., 1874-03-12
NIB. JAYNES DEFENSE.


The defense of Mr.. Jayne resolves itself into
two statements first, that New-York import
crs are generally corrupt and therefore de-
serve no mercy and secondly, that the dutles
cannot be collected without our violent SEIZURE
laws. Either statement is fatal to his own
case The character of our mercantile COM
munity IL as high as that OF any business men
in the world. From this community the Dest
element of American society Is drawn. We
looked to it In the war for patriotism and
self-sacrifice. We turn to it in tunes OF dis
tress for examples of beneficence. IL supports
our churches and our charities. 1t maintains
tho noblest of our public institutions. 1t los
ters culture. honesty, and public spirit. III Is
the life of all our great cities, and lar
sample of our national integrity,-a cOmmu-
nifty above the reach of Mr.. Jaynes asper-
sions. and too high alike i'll the respect
of the world and in the consciousness OF
its own worth to feel the SANDERS of profes-
sional infOTmer. If now among these honor
able men there is one class of merchants
habitually dishonest. what has made them so
The importation of foreign goods Is not IN
itself demoraIizing. There is no good reason
WHY tut utdltI hnO Dugn iiH h"'N' ~ '''
chester or Paris should have laXec cOnscience
than his friend on the other side OF the street
who sells the products of Lowell and Lynn
and CohOes. If importers, unlike other Amer
ican merchants, are "a set OF thieves" 1t can
only be because the regulations OF the United
States Treasury drive honest men out OF the
business and encourage roGues to come IN
Mr.. Jayne has told us that out of 81 cases OF
fraud under his care, 81 showed corruption
on the part of Custom-house clerks
and officers He reported the facts, but
the guilty men were not removed.
Mr. Schultz showed the other day how the
present system oppressed the honest merchant
and favored the swindler. The Government
first makes a huge volume Of regulations
which nobody can understand, and then fills
the Custom house with incompetent and cor
rupt officers whose duty it is to see that the
merchants comply with these impossible re-
duirements. Anybody might foresee the re-
suit The importer who tries to do his duty
is sure to fail, and the informers pounce
upon him. His rival who is not troubled
with scruples, keeps false accounts, or brides
the Government officers, and is let alone. This
is not the general condition of affairs in New
York yet, but it is what we are rapidly COM
ing to. Mr. Jayne has slandered the commu-
nifty out of which he has filched a fortune;
but his slander is only prophecy Of what
must soon come to pass if the nuisance out of
which he was engendered is not abated.
The second point of the Special Agents
defense is that the duties cannot be collected
without the aid of the Seizure Bureau and tho
power over books and papers. If that is true
it proves that the system of collecting duties
is bad one. The Government has no right
to impose tax which cannot be gathered
without resort to violent. unconstitutional. and
inquisitoral methods. 1t has no right to sub
ject the public to heavy penalties on account
of the faults of its own servants. IL the diff
Guilty of collection arises from tho excessive
burdens of the law, then they must be light
ened. If it springs from the compleyity of
the Custom-house rules, then they must be
simplified. If it is attributable to the tempta
tons which the law holds out for fraud,
then try law which ia less dangerous. If
the trouble is in the character of the Govern
ment officers, then turn them out and get bet
ter ones. But it is mOnstrous that the Gov
ernment should pile up needless instructions
in its own path and force the merchants to
remove them. We might take tho broad
ground that if ad Ual0rem duties cannot be col
lected without resort to the discreditable prac-
tices upon which the United States now de-
pends, then dd UdlOrem duties ought to be
abolished as vexatious aud demoralizng, and
specific rates imposed in their stead. But Mr..
Schultz has shown that the present duties can
easily be collected in a legal. and decent way
if the laws are simplifed and the officers are
competent.
If the keeper of mere corner grocery can
abe punished for violation of the law said
Mr. Jayne, chow much more should high
American merchants be punished" That is
nonsense. The keeper of corner grocery
cannot be punished, as a merchant can, by an
arbitrary and unconstitutional process. He
cannot be punished, as a merchant can. for
innocent errors in bookkeeping. He cannot
he punished, as q merchant can, without trial
in q court of law, He cannot be taken in
hand by detective and harried and terrified
until he is ready to pay all that he is worth
to be let alone. His shop is his castle. His
cash-book and ledger, his private memoranda,
his wife's letters, are sacred possessions which
no officer of the law dares violate. If he is
charged with sanding the sugar or over
charging q customer, no court tn ChrIsten-
dom can send Special Agent behind
the counter to seize his books and search them
for evidence of the fraud. Even while
the Income Tax was in force, though delin-
quents could be compelled to show their books
for the purpose Of enabling assessors to
ascertain thA amount of the I tax,
the constitutional privileges of the citizen
were recognized by an Act Of Congress which