The clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1883-1888, 1883-02-21
THE INTERNAL REVENUE TAX.

and pressing emergency.
TO pay the revolutionary war debt, !
Mr.. Madison in 1889 introduced in Con-
gress bill for the collection of duties
on imports; but as the trade between
foreign countries and the United States
was limited, the measure was not deemed
sufficient for the emergency, and Alex
ander Hamilton originated a bill to i'm
pose internal revenue taxes. 1t passed
Congress, but was Objectionable to the
people, and so universally detested that
it was repealed in the early days of Mr..
JefEerson's administration. The Penn
sylvania rebellion" against it is IA
miliar chapter of American history. In
regard to that instruction Mr.. Jeder-
son wrote in 1893:
The people in the western part Of Penn
sylvania have been to the excise officer and
threatened to burn his house. They were
blackened and otherwise disguised so ms to
DO unknown. lie has resigned, and Mers il
no possibility of getting the lar executed there
A proclamation Is to be issued against The
| insurgents; another instance Of my being
| forced to approve qohdt / hare condemned
uniformity from It's inception.
Mr.. Jefferson was at that date mem
Der Of the Cabinet. When he became
President, he urged the repeal of the
law, and his advice was followed.
During the war Of 1912, the system
was again tried, but popular discomfort
compelled its repeal within five years.
For the third time, during the late war,
the United States government resorted
to the same system, to use the common
phrase Of the time, "to raise money tc
put down the rebellion" But the strug
= gle ended seventeen years ago; and the
Southern States have long since resumed
their places in the Federal Union and are
discharging Gas they had discharged be-
fore the war; all the obligations which
devolved upon them. Still the system
remains az an agency for the plumber
oppression and harrassing of the peo
pie.
1t is 50 manifestly unnecessary in it,
present odious shape to the production
of revenue for the legitimate expenses
of the government, and the payment Of
the interest upon, and final payment of
the war debt, that it finds no avowed adj
vocates. The class who are striving tC
continue it in force have baflled the eff
forts to repeal or to modify it by direct
methods, pretending to fall in with til,
predominant sentiment, but thwartint
by impracticable devices the means
which are meant in good faith to attain
the end.
The first question to be considered is
can the internal tax be repealed or radi
cally modified, without reducing expen
ditures below the necessary demands o
the government and interfering with tn,
plan of reducing the tariff This car
best be answered by the figures givel
below, showing the total receipts and ex
pendituree of the government for tn
fiscal year, ending June 80, 1882:
Customs 1920, 410, 73
Internal Revenue .........,.""".... lac, 497 90
MlscelianeouS'..''',. ........ 5O,6l6,92
Total........ s4OS 1876, 25
Expenditures "...... ,............ 25T ,9Sl As
Net surplus..,.. .."...",.".. 145 543, 81
The item of expenditures includes tn
amount paid last year for interest on tn
, public debt, viz; $7l OFT ,207, II ais
includes SCI ,345, l04 paid for pensions
A net surplus of $l45, 3,Sll--whic
is about the sum produced by the inter
nal tax. With this showing, the que'
ton arises, if you reduce the interna
! tax, how is the tariff to be cut down
The answer is obvious. The preser
tariff is not strictly a revenue tariff. II
two-fold objectisto build up and subsidi2
: monopoEes and not to produce revenu,
Let the former feature BE- abandoned, an
: make IL a tariff for "repenue only" Az
just it for the purpose Of raising revenue
: and for that purpose strictly. In i
present shape, it prohibits imports an
. deprives the government of its needle
revenues in order to prevent compel
ton and to give bounties to monopolie
: Would repeal of these taxes render
! high tariff necessary Mr.. RandolE
J Tucker, the distinguished Virginia Re
Z resentatiye, well answers: "On the CO
trary, if the government for its revenI
were left to tariff on imports II aCou
n be driven 70 reform the tariff on rcuen
/, principles Duties would be laid to
Is crease revenue, not to prohibit import
cs thus destroying revenue. A revenl
" tariff would be the necessity Of the 60
al eminent If internal taxes were repealed
is From the same distinguished source '
IN quote:
" The internal revenue system is fearl
10 nest from which public patronage hatch
thA - A.. r.. n