The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1884-10-25
ANOTHER OF BAYARD'S MISTAKES,

distributing lne surplus vi revenue
among the States, Mr.. Bayard said
'NNhy, gentlemen, there is no country
in this world. however tyrannical and alb
sGlute, in which such prepoSterous, in
human, absurd, uneconomical idea was
ever ventured to be expressed by man
calling himself statesman. APPLAUSE
Take away money from man by tax
alton for purpose and hand it back to
bin agaiu ? Why, it is beneath contempt
as mere economical statement under
any form of government, but when We
come to our American system of local
selt-governments are the States to be
degraded into mere servile stipeDdaries
OF central power, with neither will nor
wit nor wisdom to arrange their own
burdens for their own local expenses !?
Applause Why, sir, the man who
conceived that thought, the man who
wrote it and signed it, either never had
one idea of the Constitution, or if he had
he didn't care one jot for it. 1t was a
wild, absurd, impracticable, ignorant
proposition for any man to make. espec-
tally in this country. Applause. T.
There are two falsehools in Mr.. Bay
ard S statement, the one, historical, arts
ing from his apparent ignorance Of the
history Of the United States the other
an economic falsehood arising from his
ignorance of the tue economic incidence
of protective duties, i. e., of who pays
.hem.
1t is true Mr.. Blaine proposition was
in form to distribute among the States
II
duties. But as the existence of a sur
plus suggesting distribution was due as
much to the tariff as to the internal rev.
enue taxation, it may be treated, for the
purposes of this argument, as if cole It
ed from the tariff.
He asserts that Mr.. Blaine's PROPOSE
ton was unprece dented in history. On
the contrary, in 1880, during the Pres
ideucy of the most Democratic of ali
Dem ocrats, Andrew jackson. an act was
passed and signed by the President ''re-
quiring the Secretary Of the Treasury to
pay over all the surplus in the Treasury
above So 600. 600 to the treasurers of the
SLdltS ADpiltS VI
the United States, p. 316); in the fol
loHirg year another act was passed
(same. p. 1889 distributing the proceeds
of tho sales of public lands among the
States In 1882 three successive bills
to distribute surplus of revenue to be
raised in part by tariff were passed by
l,,,t
the veto, however, being strenuously OPP
posed, and the distributions sustained in
Congress by John Quincy Adams (same,
p. 1870, who probably was as honest and
statcsmanlike a gentleman as even Sena-
tor Bayard could desire.
Finally distribution was actually
enacted (same, p. 54S). dating from JAN
ualy /, 1891, Cor the snm of ;$37, 46S, $40.
81, which was to be paid quarterly to
the several States in proportion to their
population, one-quarter at the end of
every third month. Three quarters of
it was actually paid, and the payment Of
the last quarter was only prevented by
luC iiCb tiiae lhC ilSS u yum pi
tariff of 1888 to 1871 was just then get
ting in its work in the folm of ruined
country and bankrupt government,
which had to shin around on the curb
stone to borrow money enough to pay
the Presidents salary. Bodies says
(p. 5l9):
io al, 81 Ia
had been so gorsed with money that it
could find no way to spend it and had
been emptying its treasures into the State
laps, suddenly found itself on the verge
of bankruptcy. And all these things
happened within nine months from the
time when surplus of more than forty
millions was lying in the Treasury.
What humiliating position The gov
eminent could no longer think of paying
any more to the States the question was
how could the ship of state be showed off
from the rocks on which she was SO bad
ly humping"
OF all these facts Senator Bayard. in
order to be credited with being honest,
must be assumed to be ignorant. For if
honest, and if he knew that Congress
had passed at least six distinct bills for
distributing surplus Federal revenue
among tie States in proportion to their
population. that three of these bills were
signed by Andrew jackson, that one of
those which he vetoed was prepared by
his OVID Secretary of the Treasury, and
that the two others which he vetoed
were prepared by Mr. Fillmore and de-
Tended by Mr.. Adams and others of our
most acknowledged statesmen-if Bay
ard knew all this, his assertion that mo
such idea was ever ventured to be ex.
pressed by any man calling himself
statesman would become "a voluntary
and Intentional falsehood. uttered only
to miS,cad
We might mnlt,ply these authorities
indefinitely. They are sufficient to show
that The fund Mr. Blaine proposed to
dis ibute WAS not all collected from the
pc ople of the United States but that
part of It was collected from the foreign
producers with whom those people trade
1t would not be, therefore, the collecting
of money from man and paying it back
to him. 1t would be, if our estimate of
the proportion collected from foreign
producers is correct, and We are at all
times ready to substantiate it, the col
lection of 50 from American consumers
and 81 from foreign producers, followed
by the payment over to American tax
payers of the entire So. Instead of the
proposition being in the least a stupid
one, it is very sharp one, aud to a man
having economic sense enough to com
prehend it, it embodies a clear profit of
$50, 900 GOO year to the American PEG
pie. We did not advocate the PROPOSE
ton when Mr.. Blaine made it, and do
not now defend its expediency. But if
Senator Baya thinks himself compel
cut to discuss it at all he should begin I
by sho wing that he is capable Of fairly
stat ng it ard of mentally comprehend
ing it. lie can never refute a PROPOSE
ion Inv ,niS Sfotinu II