Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1875-09-11

= OoA - Z
post a;
week. ENNESSEE
tosee d S.
on the 4 EMBER 18th. 1875
severe
ADDRESS.
" zon Of Our En-
7 attend u..sw
be put
-..-'l report in full Of
ere nea on invitation, by
ma ths 5of GAINESVILLE, to
- willie, on the 23rd
iuabt ne general depres-
Ice, ftment of trade, the
Oh bn of our State fl
ty. of our population,
T~~< fer-pressing burthens
on d ir people, and their
our restore in some de-
ura, 4ty that once rewarded
on 5te in thoughtful minds
bhensions for the future
;n,. |and force upon every
A. fy of adding what he
beral stock of informa-
e ing attention to every
ooh d the natural laws that
ustrial pursuits of men,
let ting such methods as, in
no may tend to relieve the
ces ess.
d e invitation, | appear be-
= aay, and propose for lit
II 10 examine into the causes
4, ed to the general depression
Industries, and the methods
I've may restore our prosper
lo this, without at the same
inquiring into the systems
of finance in use by the Government
: the United States and its methods of
De "a revenue to supply its multi
I'M wants, requires that some of the
st important elements affecting the
&bject shall be neglected
For the State of Tennessee and its
4ople necessarily sustain to the Gov
<nment. of the United States, and
through it and by reason Of interstate
bmmerce to the people of the other
ytates of the Union, the most intimate
citations.
There can be no civilization without
tommerce-that is, without the right
If men to interchange with each other
]he varied productions of their skill and
,sbor-for, this right denied, every
han would be compelled by his own
abor to produce each and every article
Sf food or clothing that SUPPLIES hiss
necessary wants or minister to his
semfort.
So there can be no commerce among
civilized men without a currency Of
lome sort. The fitness or un6tness of
That currency for exchange, and its
,uantity, considered in reference to the
Wants of trade, materially affect the
}alues of all the production of labor,
md is sensibly felt in every department
3f industry.
REVENUE AND TAXATION.
n Again the revenue system of the
Federal Government is connected by
hdissoluble ties with every industrial
&ystem we may adopt.
The Government cannot exist with
but revenue, nor can q revenue be
raised without taxation. But taxation
RESTS upon labor, and upon labor alone;
either that labor which is daily expend-
led in the cultivation of the sell, Ill the
manufacture Of the various fabrics
4useful to man, in the removal of these
products and fabrics to the great marts
OF trade, whereby new values are be-
slowed, or labor in that ether form in
which it appears as the accumulated
stores of its efforts in the past.
l repeat, that upon labor rest all the
burthens of taxation, whether imposed
by city, county, a state, or by the
general government.
Under our state, county and city
governments these burthens are impos.
ed in the first instance, chiefly on lands
and houses and stocks and bonds, or
else upon merchandise imported for the
use of our own people: and as each
person pays the tax upon capital, how
ever invested, and upon merchandise
in the exact rstio of the capital he
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 proportion by
reason of wages being reduced so that
capital may receive its fair profit.
But in regard to taxation imposed
by the Federal Government, this
equality of burthens may not. exist
owing to the fact that the sums to be
raised being very large, the peop.e,
having control of the Government
itself, would not permit their represen-
tatives to levy the taxes upon then
lands and houses and machinery and
goods. Nor indeed under the Federal
Constitution would this be just ant
equitable, mode; for as between the
States the tax would be apportioned
not according to wealth, but in thu
ratio of the number of the inhabitants
and this would bear too harshly upor
the poorer States.
These objections have suggested tn,
expedient of raising for the Fedora
Government its necessary revenue b.
Customs duties upon imports and b.
taxes upon certain productions, a
whiskey and tobacco, that are assumed
to be Injuries, or not necessary to tn
well-being of society.
But the tiliage of the soil is not on
only industry; the raising of tobacco
ond tho oorn from which WhiskpV