Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1878-08-29
cENsURE OF LINCOLN.
Whisky-Tsx RECORD.

Whisky-Tax Record.
HELPS THE DIsTnLER AND STICKS THE LABoRER
On the 18th of December 1854 the revenue
bill of Thaddeus Stevens, the second section of
which put tax of fifty cents per gallon on all
whisky then on hand for sale, as well as on what
was to be made afterwards, came up, and the
second section was struck out by vote of IS to
60, Voorhees, voting strike out This action cost
the people from SIS, GOO, 900 to $aO 100000. The
exemption of whisky ON hand put into the peck
cts Of distilers and large dealers the whole
amount of the tax taken off it and left on that
to be made afterwards, as the latter would have
to sell at price that would cover the tax as
well as the cost of manufacture, and of course
the old whisky ready for sale would go up to the
same figure.
CONSPICUOUS CONSISTENCY.
The tax of fifty cents on whisky on hand,
though beaten by Voorhees, and his associates
in the House. whore money was VIGOROUSLY used
by the whisky ring" was replaced by the Sem
ate and made eighty cents. Voorhees, boosted
February 18th that he chad recorded his vote
against it." Globe, page 666. Here Is an extract
beside the record of his vote on the ''salary
grab" which was the most rascally ex post facto
law ever enacted. Of the retroactive effect of
the tax put on whisky already made, he says:
1T may not occur to other gentlemen, but it seems
to me, that this Is plainly an ex post facto law By
ure of legislation reaching backwards and touching
vested rights" $50 was the salary grab w hem
ever any man or any class of the community has OBJ
tanned vested rights under the law any law thereafter
imparing those rights, multiplying them, abrogating
them is to all intents and purposes post facto
law Sir this whole legislation is null 1t
win not stand moment before any tribunal"
law taxing government bonds would be an
ex post facto law, an 'act touching vested
rights" and invalid by his own argument, and
yet he is fierce for taxing bonds. Paying the
interest in paper, when coin was promised,
would 'sreach backwards tn vested rights" and
be an ex post fscto law, too But he is equally
| fierce for that invasion of 'vested rights"
GoUGEs THE RETAILER.
One of the effects of the exemption of whisky
on hand from tax which whisky afterwards
made had to pay, was that the retail dealer was
deeply gouged for the benefit, not of the treas
ury, but Of the distiller. He had to pay the full
price, tax and all, for the liquor he got by the
of it hadn't cost the distiler cent except as he
| contributed to buy up the Congressman who
voted a huge fortune into his pocket. 1t was a
hard lick at the retailer Of the speculation
that would be made he says in the same speech:
'Conceding that every gallon of liquor in the
hands of specularors = that wouid no more
shake the principle which prevails in my mind than
il would change absolute right into absolute wrong
OiODc, pdRc ooO
| So he voted to make spectators rich, and to
| force poor men and little liquor-sellers to pay
their share of 900 900 to so 900 900 more than
they would il he had voted for the poor instead
of the rich. A nice champion of the 'laboring
classes" and enemy Of the ''blOated capitalist"
| he is!
HE CHANGES A LITTLE.
In his Greencastle speech, September 4, 1874,
he deserted the capitalist and the rich man, af-
ter talking and voting his best to make them
rich, and doing his worst to grind the poor with
| heavier taxes, and divided the whole world into
| two classes, zone that thinks itself born booted
and spurred to ride the laboring classes"-he
! had put the sharpest of the spurs these
| riders, too, in his whisky vote-which laboring
classes, he said, "were supposed to be born into
| the world saddled and bridled for mental SER
| vice." In this connection he said:
Tho public men who at this time 90 before the Ia
boring bearing the Endorsement of the Chica-
go Times the New York World, the indianapolis
Sentinel and other organs OF bondholding robbery.
will be received with open distrust and will be pun
ished because Of the bad principles of their in
dorsers"
And yet less than two years before this, Feb
ruary &c, 1873, Mr.. Voorhees, had defended
Brooks, Of New York. for his connection with
the Credit Moblier, just Butler defended
Cakes Ames, an act that could hardly be warm
ly ADMIRED by "the laboring masses" but it was
endorsed" by the Indianapolis Sentinel.