The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-09-16
ASK HIM TO EXPLAIN.

Mr. Voorhees, is virtually a candidate at the
approaching legislative election, as he means
to try and be his own successor in the nation
al Senate. It is. therefore, quite as proper to
put him to the question as any Of the candi-
dates whose names appear on the ticket.
Every legislative constituency of the State
ought to know, and to that end should make
him answer, why he so earnestly and steadily
advocated the exemption, in 1864, from taxa
ton Of the stock of whisky held by distillers
and large jobbers. To help the government
to means to crush the rebellion, it was pro-
posed at the session Of 1864 to raise the tax
on whisky to two dollars. 1t was tax that
nobody would feel but those who drank whis-
ky, and it would make little difference to a
man who wanted his tstod7 whether it cost
him FIVE cents or ten. So productive, and
at the same time so light a tax, so
easily paid, with so little oppression on any
investment, industry, or social condition,
could be applied nowhere ese. The govern
ment needed the money badly, and that was
ample argument to Mr., Voorhees, to resist the
tax. he seemed to want the rebellion to sue
coed, as everybody thought then, and all who
survive remembernow. Heidi notcare so much
the increased taxation Of that already made.
To tax the stock on hand an additional dollar
or so would yield the treasury and the war
some $50, 000 900, it was estimated at the time.
So large war revenue was gall and worm
wood to the soul of the congressman who rep
resented the district in which Fletcher Free
man was murdered by rebel Democrats while
making the draft enrolment in June, 1868,
and Eli McCarty was murdered in the same
service in October, 1864, by the same men, all
ardent friends of Mr.. voorhees,
He supported the exemption of the stock on
hand from taxation, all the time, in every
form that it appeared, and it was finally car
ried. The Congress Of 1868 64-elected in
1862-it will be remembered, lacked only
dozen or so votes Of being Democratic and
Democratic votes mainly carried the exemp-
ton. The effect was that the rich distillers
and wholesale dealers pocketed anywhere from
$50, O0O, 900 to $50, 0O0 900, without turning a
hand or risking a cent, and the government
had that deficiency to make up by taxation of
other articles. The mode Of operation is
readily seen. When the tax was raised to So.
a gallon, all the whisky made after the levy
had to be sold at a price that covered that
addition, Of course, whisky already made.
sold at the same price, or higher, being
older. It would have paid big profit at half
the price, but itall went at the regular rate.
The Gaffs, Of this State, are said to have made
a million and half by the final vote on that
exemption. However that may be, if is GER
tain that few rich men pocketed all the ben
eft, and all other industries had to suffer by
the taxation they would have escaped if Mr..
Voorhees, and his friends had not carried that
exemption. A word of explanation from him
on this point will not be amiss, and will make
a subject for neat speech, coupled with an
explanation of the way the Democracy killed
the schools in 1853 and the asylurns in 1857.
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