New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1876-08-26

been made
A pretext for the explosion Of sectional
hate in the Senate.
We find Senators West and Morrill,,
Republicans, and Gordon and others,
Democrats, making stenuous efforts to
defeat the treaty, nor have we seen any
evidence Of neglect or dereliction on the
part of that body which had devised and
assented to the treaty before the financial
cooperation of the House was asked.
The final passage was effected at the close
of the session, and under the incessant
interruptions of conference reports, mo-
tons for adjournment and struggles on
the calendar or for the floor.
We confess we have not the same con-
idence as the Picayune in the arrest OF
this convention by the courts. 1t will
serve to convince the public that this bill
for free rice and sugar was ably and in
diligently argued in the House of Repre-
sentatives, when we tell them that Mr..
Tucker, of Virginia, made in debate the
identical point now urged against the eff
feet of the House bill. He said:
provides that all duties shall be uniform
throughout the United States.
he then asks:
Is it uniformity of duty to say that the
consumer on the Atlantic sesbOard shall
pay duty of from forty to sixty per cent
on sugar and that the consumer in CalifOr.
mia and Oregon shall pay nonei Is that
uniformity Gentlemen say: "Well, but
we only make freedom from duty in refer
ence to the Hawaiian sugar; and as yOu can
not get it on the Atlantic, we do not make
discrimination in favor of the Pacific con-
sumer. 1t is your misfortune that GU are
on the Atlantic and not on the Pacific" Is
not that psltering in double sense! Is
not that doing indirectly what you admit
you can not do directly! IL it Motif gen.
meaning any reflection-if not q direct in
vasion of the constitution, palpable fraud
upon it's purpose and SPIRIT II you stick
to the letter, do you not violate the intent
Of the constitution
Mr.. Tucker quotes again from the con-
stitution:
No preference shall be given by any regu-
latiOn of commerce or revenue to the ports
stitution of the United Statee, article one,
section nine.
The ports of California you throw open
to sugar duty free; the ports of the Atlantic
you close to sugar unless on payment of q
duty of forty to sixty per cent. Is not q
preference thus given to the ports of Cali
fornia for the importation of sugar over the
ports on the Atlantic seaboards
1t is no purpose of ours to impair the
strength Of these propositions. It is
proper to defend the representatives of
the sugar and rice interests against the
charge Of permitting measure deeply
affecting the interests of their, constitu-
ents to be 'smuggled'' into Congress and
passed without any intelligent under
standing of its bearing or import" 1t is
also very proper to say that this very
point of want Of uniformity in the rev.
enue rates in one port over another was
made before the Democratic Congress, and
rejected upon the Democratic vote which
admitted sugar and rice among other
products of the Sandwich islands duty
free into the United States. The ques-
ton may be before the courts, and no
more able lawyer than Mr.. Tucker could
be retained to argue it, but it is not a
new point by any means.
Mr.. Tucker has made far more dan
gerous point upon the convention. He
says:
No favor, privilege, or immunity can be
accorded to any other nation which shall
not at once be accorded to the United
States, if gratuitous; or upon like compen-
satiOn if to be made upon compensation by
any other country.
We are in daily expectation upon the
exchange of ratification of this conven-
ton, that a demand will be made by other
countries with which we have treaty rela-
tons, and which countries produce any Of
the articles admitted duty free from Ha-
waii, to be subrogated to all the advan-
tages of that most Favored nation" Until
some of these points shall have been made
and settled, and until the extent to which
rice and sugars, made in countries other
than the Hawaiian islands, shall have
been struggled into our ports, we can not
predict the effect upon these interests in
Louisiana. We can safely say, however,
that however little attention the oppon-
ents Of the treaty may have paid to its
nrOvisions Or its MASSAGE the friends of
that treaty seem to have bestowed an
astute and resolute devotion to its sue