Knoxville Whig and chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1875-1882, 1875-09-01
ADDRESS,:
Delivered by Col. ]. E. Bailey, of
GAINESVILLE, Tennessee, at Mary
vile, Blount County, Tenn,
August 23rd, 1875.

GENTLEMEN: The general depression in
every department Of trade; the disordered
condition of our State finances; the exc us
of our population; the silent but eve -
pressing burthens that rest upon our peo-
pie and their vain cndeavors to restore in
some degree the prosperity that once re-
warded their labOrs, excite in thoughtful
minds the gravest apprehensons for the
future of our State, and force upon every
citizen the duty of adding what be may TO
the general stock of information, of ling
attention to every departure from the
natural laws that govern the industrial pur-
suits Of men, and of suggesting such
methods as IN his opinion may tend to re-
lieve the general distress.
Upon your invitation, ! appear before
you to-day, anG propose for u little while
to examine into the causes that have led to
the general depression of all our industries,
and the methods by which we may restore
our prosperity.
But to do this. without at the same time
inquiring into the systems Of finance in use
by the Government of the United States,
and its methods of raising revenue to sup
ply its multiform wants, requires that some
of the most important elements affecting
the subject shall be neglected. For the
State of Tennessee and its people necessari-
! " sustain TO the Government of the United
States. and through it, and by reason of
/ inter State commerce to the people of the
other 5 ates of the Union the most intimate
/ relations.
/ There can be no civilization without COM
merce; that is, without the right of men to
! interchange with each other the varied pro-
| ductons of their skill and labor; for this
/ right denied every man would be COM
! PEELED by his own labor to produce each
and every article of food or clothing that
| supplies his necessary wants or ministers to
/ his comfort,
/ So there can be no commerce among
| civilized men without a currency of some
sort The fitness or unftness of that cur
rency for exchange, and its quantity, con-
sidered in reference to the wants of trade,
materially affects the values of all the pro-
ductions of labor, and is sensibly felt in
every department of industry.
Again, the revenue system of the Federal
Government is connected by indissoluble
ties with every industrial system we may
adopt.
The Government can not exist without
revenue, nor can a revenue be raised with
out taxation. But taxation rests upon
labor, and upon labor alone; either that
labor which is daily expended in the cult
walton of the SOIL in the manufacture of
the various fabrics useful to man, in the
removal of these products and fabrics to
the great marts of trade, whereby new
values are bestowed or labor in that other
form in which it appears, as the accumula-
ted stores of its efforts IN the past
repeat, that upon labor rests all the
burthens of taxation, whether it be by q
city, county, State, or by the General
Government.
Under our State, county and city gov
ernments these burthens are imposed, in the
first instance, chiefly on lands and houses,
and stocks and bonds, or else upon mer-
chandise imported for the use of our own
people; and as each person pays the tax
upon capital however invested and upon
merchandise in the exact ratio of the capital
be owns or the merchandise he may buy
for consumption, he has no just ground of
complaint. For, although all may be paid,
in the first instance, by the capitalist, or by
boarded labor, still daily labor pays its
due portion by reason of wages being re-
duced, so that capital may receive its fair
profits.
But in regard to taxation imposed by the
Federal Government, this equality of bur
then may not exist, owing to the fact, that
that the sums to be raised, being very large,
the people having control of the Govern
ment itself, would not permit their repre-
sentstives to levy the taxes upon their lands
and houses and machinery, and goods /;
nor indeed, under the Federal Constitution
as between the States, the tax would be
| apportioned, not according TO wealth, but
| in the ratio Of the number of inhabitants,
and this would bear too hurshly upon the
poorer States.
These objections have suggested the ex>
| pedient OF raising for the Federal Govern
ment its necessary revenue, by customs
duties upon imposts, and by taxes upon
certain productions, as whisky and tobacco.
| OF m ha Inv -
necessary to the we'll being of society. But
the tillage of the soil, is not our only indus
try the raising of tobacco, and of the corn
from which whisky is distilled, is not the
only occupation of our people, nor indeed
has this been generally considered to be
the most profitable Of our occupations.
We, that is, the people of the United
States manufacture into clothing, the cot
ton and wool that the farmer and agricul.
turist produces, the skins Of beasts are made
into leather, and then into shoes and har-
ness. The yield of our mines is converted
in 20 iron in its different useful forms our
Goals are carried to the great marts for sale,
and to be used in mills, in propelling the
locomotive, the sea and river going ships,
and for the comfort of man.
Our people engage in all these forms OF
labor, and by that labor create new values
If then, in the distributions of the bur
be inequalities, as sometimes is the case
if the tax laid upon particular produc,
ton be greater or less, than that LAID upon
another production, or what is the SAME
thing, if in fixing the rates Of customs du
ties, a class of articles brought from othel
countries, be required 10 pay higher duty
than another class, in order that a psrticu
lar industry, in which portion of our
people have engaged, shall not be com.
PEELED to compete, in our own markets, will
the same industry as conducted by anothe
people, it is obvious that bounty is offered
by the Government to those who may en-
gage in the particular pursuit, and tina
} this bounty is paid by the whole body o
the people-at all events by that number o
them, who either constrained by necessity
or led by their tastes and inclinations, shall
buy at a higher price the articles upor
which the tax is laid This pursuit, what
ever it may be, becomes favored one, pro
tected by the Government against compe
ttion and its profits are, or rather may be
increased in the ratio Of the bounty paid
will suppose that ten Of you gentleman
, by your hard labors, have accumulated
capital that you wish TO in such man
, ner as to secure from it an income. GoI
have met here to-day 10 consider il
. what manner it shall be employed. l as
sumo that you wish to add your own labor