The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1874-06-20

regret that failing health should have pre-
vented our hearing him in the recent debate
on the moiety question. With all the faults
OF General Butler. he is so conspicuous and,
In some aspects, SO necessary a part of oul
political system, that we can scarcely imagine
what we should do without him. He is a
lively, antagonistic. disputatious. critical.
anger-provoking element and we light
upon his name in the debates with something
OF the feeling with which we welcome a
favorite comedian as he glides from behind
the scenes. We know that we shall be enter
tanned at all events. Current dis
cussions of affairs political warfares,
stump speeches and caricatures would be
tame without our Butler and we can fancy
the shuddering and anxiety with which
country editors, who had made Butler q
standing topic of invective for years, would
regard the prospect of any event that would
remove him beyond the reach Of editorial
comment. The General has conquered his
illness, and although the battle has been
| fought and lost SO far as he is concerned he
comes to the front armed and offensive, and
makes q speech which, we think, so far as our
mercantile community is concerned, will
make a vast and painful sensation.
1t is neither pleasant topic nor pleasant
speech To us this business of customs and
moieties, taxations and tariffs, has always
been unpleasant Somehow, ever since the
war; we have been burdened with it, until the
whole discussion. its literature and its history,
have become as miasma. We had frauds in
whiskey which never came to any result
frauds in tobacco which were whispered to be
prodigious, but no one has ever heard that
they were investigated; frauds in champagne,
in silk ribbons, in spices and tea One ring
seemed to succeed another. like governments
in the revolutionary republics OF Central and
South America. We went to sleep under one
ring and in the morning We found that another
reigned in its stead The moral sense of the
community became blunted. We were rapidly
whirling into that position in which every
merchant and every of6ceholder was, Of
necessity, regarded az o thief, and smuggling,
which had been recorded in the books as q
crime, was really among the high and fine
arts of business 1t was, of course, o severe
blow to our confidence in the laws and in the
respect of citizens for the law, to find the tax
on whiskey two dollars gallon and the SELL
ing price only seventy-fve cents or q dollar.
That, as the foolish lord says in the comedy.
was one of those things (which no fellow
could find out" When, in addition to this
anomaly, we saw GLASS arising around us
o-1 ch
Haunting an unwholesome, pernicious and
meretricious splendor as the result of sudden
wealth, the public mind came to recognize
the existence of a power-silent, greedy and
insatiable--greater than the law, eager for
wealth as the vampire for blood living in
unchecked and Irresponsible defiance of the
law masters of system of crime superior to
detection; supreme in Congress, in the Cabi-
net, in the Executive Chamber-nay, even in
the sacred presence of holy justice-and WELD
ing an influence which at one time, during
the impeachment of Andrew johnson, was
paramount to the Senate and to the indignant
and resolute public opinion of the country.
We believed in this power as reality, but at
the same time regarded it as an expression,
or more exactly, perhaps, an exhalation, of the
war, that would die away under the pure and
wholesome influences OF peace.
General Butler comes before us as the
enemy of this cherished hope If his speech
means anything it is that the whole importing
business system of New York is dishonest
that the principles underlying all business
connected with foreign trade are corrupt that
smuggling is as much science now as when
Buckle saw in it the only means of protecting
English trade from sitting revenue laws !; that
evading the tariff is as legitimate an operation
as to draw q bill of exchange that
the government is the common enemy
Of all trade, and in making war
upon the government every expedient
is fair, that of the revenue really
due to the government not more
than one-third is actually collected. 81 make
the startling announcement to the House and
the country" says the General, ''that the
| United States does not receive two-thirds of
her revenue upon all articles on which ad va
so that to-day no more than sixty per
cent of our revenues are collected" owing to
fraud In other words, according to the Gen.
erals calculations ''it we could collect our
revenues, according to the present rate of tax
alton, we could pay off yearly more than one
hundred millions Of the national debt" This
very startling, very wonderful and almost in
credible statement the General claims to
fortify with proof. In worsted stuffs he esti-
millions year. on linens loss Of forty-three
per cent, on linens, damask and diaper twenty
six per cent, while in carpets from Kidder-
minister, Halifax and other towns the loss sis
enormous 'sThe needle trade is carried on
on similar basis of dishonesty and false
hood Wherever there is ad valorem duty he