The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1875-06-29
Direct Taxation.

Mr. CHARLES O'CoNoR, of New York, i:
d good lawyer and q pure patriot, but very
poor politician. He advocates direct ta.a'
ton as the best mode of diminishing expen
ditures and promoting official honesty. He
suggests that extensive robbery through The
secret fundamentally of duties may be un'
felt, while the direct exac.ions through inter
nal taxes will brig about rigid accounts
biIity, the people being unwilling to pay
money to be lost through public robbery.
Mr.. O'CoNoR is very much mistaken. Rob
berry will 60 Oh, no matter bow the money
is gathered into the Treasury. But direct
taxes for the support Of the Federal Govern
ment will never be tolerated in the States as
long as there is any vitality left in them. The
visitation Of two sets Of tax collectors is too
much for the people, and when the Federal
tax.gatherers are scattered all over the States
they will be more than ever the victims OF
tne grinding central power at Washington.
The Federal Executive will have an army OF
office-holders that will keep the country at
his mercy, and we would soon know what it
was TO have three, and four, and any number
O! terms.
Besides the terrible consequence to the
States of putting them all at the footstool of
the Federal Executive. We have already seen
that the Department of Internal Revenue is
the greatest engine of corruption ever
erected IN this country. Tba. branch of the
Executive Department cannot be too soon
abolished for the good of the country. Even
now its roots are like those of the cancer.
spreading through the body polite and diff
1uslng no.sIon and gangrene. %&"EsE5 -.
We have been hoping that some party
would raise the hsg OF Down with the In.
ternal Revenue Department." We are sure
it would meet the popular favor, and the
triumph OF that fig would be great bless
ing to The land. There are hundred ways
in which the internalreyenue system is cor
rupting public virtue sand weakening the
political vigor and spirit of the States.
The process of discussing and fixing the
taxes by Congress causes an amount
O. lobbying and corruption at Wash
ington that The people know pre-
cious little about. If the system were to
continue ten years Congress would be cor
rupted to such degree that the most ter
rible dangers would beset the republic. Be-
sides this dread consequence In the national
councils, the Executive, if more ambitious
for himself than his country, would fiad in
his horde of collectors the ready instruments
thatwould be as useful to him as they would
be dangerous to the country.
It is q happy fact, however, that the mode
OF raising revenue by taxation on importa.
tons is 50 very decidedly 10 favor Of the in.
terests Of one of the most powerful Of all the
classes Of the nation that there is no proba
billty that it will be abandoned. And We
may hope that as the heavier the duties on
importations the more they will beneficial to
this great class there will be no serious diff.
Guilty in increasing the duties on imports
sufficiently to pay the expenses Of the Co
vernment. ..
The raising of money by duties Is the
cheapest mode Of collecting it, and such cor
rup.ion as that mode may generate will be
in the seaports on the borders of the land,
instead Of being In its very heart and IN every
part of its body. We shall thus have the
States protected. and their local authority in.
tact. Leave the States to their system, and
give to the Federal Government that W bich
best suits 1t Is most convenient and inter-
feres least with the States,
The distinction is salutary-exactly suited
to our political system and the very worst
consequence that war can bring upon us is
Inc imposition Of diree. taxes BY the Federal
Government and the turning loose Of an
army OF Federal officers upon the States.
ihey are worse than the plaques of Egypt.