The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1876-07-12


official retrenchments aud by wise
finance which shall enable the nation
to insure the whole world Of its per-
feet ability and its perfect readiness
to meet any of it's promises at the
call of the creditor entitled to pay
ment. We believe such system
we'll devised, and, above all, entrust.
ed to competent hands for execution,
creating at no time an artificial
scarcity of currency and at no time
alarming the public mild into q
Withdrawal of that vaster machinery
of credit by which IS per cent. Of all
business transactions are performed
"a system open, public and inspir-
ing general confidence would from
the day of its adoption bring healing
on its wings to all our harassed in
dustry and set in motion The wheels
of commerce, manufactures and the
mechanical arts, restore employ
ment to labor, and renew in all its
national source the prosperity of the
people. Reform is necessary in the
sum and mode of Federal taxation,
to the end that capital may be set
free from distress and labor lightly
burdened.
WE DENouNCE THE PRESENT TARIFF
levied upon nearly four thousand
articles, as a masterpiece Of injus-
tice, inequality and false pretence,
1t yields a dwindling, not a yearly
rising revenue; it has impoverished
many industries to substitute a few;
it prohibits imports that might pur.
chase the products Of American
labor; it has degraded American
commerce from the first to an
inferior upon the high seas; it has
cut down the sales of American
manufactures at home and abroad
and depleted the returns of, Amer
lean agriculture, an interest followed
by half our people; it costs the
people five times more than it pro.
duces to the treasury, obstructs
the processes of production and
wastes the fruits of labor; it pro
notes fraud and fosters smuggling
enriches dishonest officials and bank
ralpts honest merchants. We de
mand that all custom house taxation
shall be only for revenue. Reform is
necessary in the scale Of public
expenses, Federal, State ant
municipal;
FEDERAL TAXATION HAS SWOLLEN
from SlG,000,000 gold in 1860 t
$3.50, 100000 currency in 1870; ou
aggregate taxation from 1854, 100000
gold in 1860 to $7a0,000,000 curren
cy in 1870, or in one decade from les
Ethan FIVE dollars per head ito NOR
than eighteen dollars per head
Since the peace the people have pai'
to their tax gatherers more thai
thrice the sum of the national debt
and more than twice that sum 70
the Federal Government alone. w
demand a vigorous frugality in ever.
department and from every officer
the Government. Reform is neces
sary to put q stop to- the profligat
waste of public lands and their di
version from actual settlers by til
party in power, which has squar
dered two hundred millions Of acre
upon railroads alone, and out of NOR
) than twice that aggregate has dix
posed Of less than a sixth directly
tillers of the soil. Reform is neces
sary to correct the
OMISSIONS OF REPUBLICAN CONGRESS
and the errors Of our treaties an
our diplomacy which have Stripe
our fellow citizens of foreign brit
!, and kindred race recrossing the A
| lantic of the shield Of American cit
+ zenship, and have exposed our br
e thren of the Pacific slope to the il
!, cursions of race not sprung fro
I the same great parent stock-in fa
! now denied by law citizensh'
: through naturalization, as being ne
= ther accustomed to the tradition Of
/ progressive civilization, or exercise
e in liberty under equal laws. We d
) nouncc the policy which thus di
g cards the liberty loving German, al
q tolerates the revival of the COO
D trade in Mongolian women import
/ for immoral purposes, and Mone
J. liam men hired to perform servile
J. Dor contracts, and demand such mt
+ ification of the treaty with the G
u nese Empire, or such legislation
a Congress, within constitution