The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1885-02-19
TAXATION.
Annual Meeting Of the Farmers
Alliance of Nebraska.
Address by Hon. j. Sterling LIorton--Con
stitutional Limits of TAXATION
Money a Competing Product
That Is Not Taxed-Jus-
tice Must Prevail.

The State Farmers Alliance of Nebraska
was In convention at Lincoln January eth,
for the consideration of political and eco
nopiical questions affecting the interests of
the farmers Among the speakers was j.
Sterling Morton. who delivered the follow
ing address,:
To an age like the one in which we live,
mostly practical and contamination of COM
mercial activity, the esthetic character
of the Garden of Eden, is not so attractive
as the fact that it was improved real estate,
wholly exempt from taxation: And among
all earthly beatitudes, lost by that fall of our
common parents because of the eating of
the forbidden fruit, the felicity of living ut
terly untaXed is, by US unitarian an era as
this, estimated to be by far the most desira-
Bile part of the lost hirthright, and seeming
ly the one most absolutely unrecoyerable
30 long as there Is no sin in the world-so
long as the rights ofthe individual to life, lib
erty and property were unmolested, there
was no need of law, and therefore 40 need
OF taxes TO maintain the law.
TAXATION An DE- LAW.
Emerging from Il state of barbarism our
race realized and asserted that each of its
member had been born with certain inner
s sn5 f ifs nsertvs a rIgh t. to eaT priGsesf o1 the sc person
lations. Each man asserted such rights; and
nnally, by common consent, it was agreed
that all should protect the rights of each,
and SO law, civil and criminal, was born into
human society. Thus the rights are the
eSas s;. Of the y, law; and the law law a ,. sequence e nc ,S of
function of all law, and the end of it; and the
greatest vigilance of a people should be al
ways intelligently alert to prevent the laws
being 30 formed, and so executed, as to
abridse or destroy the very rights out of
which they are evolved, instead of acknowl
edging these rights and conserving them.
The formation of corporations called gov
ernments, are solely to protect these inherent
by conserving the life, liberty and property
of the citizens they make q charge, and the
citizens pay it, and it is called taxation. The
the right to tax, and the fathers of this Gov
crnment, recognizing las the Supreme Court
of the United States, through Chief Justice
power to tax is the power to destroy, were
exceedingly guarded in comforting and in
limiting that power.
Therefore, in the Constitution of the
United States it is declared that Congress
shall have power to impose taxes only to
provide revenue for the payment of the
public debt, to provide for the common de-
Tense. and to promote the general welfare
''of the United States" 1t is asserted, and
very many good citizens, that the Govern
ment of the United States has no constitu-
people except with the intent and result of
getting money into the public treasury with
which to pay the public debt, to provide for
the common defense and to promote the
general welfare of the United States, and
all tariff taxes called protective, laid with far
different intent and result than getting
hotCs iuto. ShO ENutlOhdi tCtSQll III y
be utterly abolished" Judge Cooley, of Mich
igan, an eminent authority says:
proportionaI Contributor Of persons and
property. levied by the authority of the State
for the upport of the Government, and for
Atarifr laid upon imports for the purpose
OF raising q revenue is a tax. If such a tax,
by tariff, be justly levied and collected,
and results only in the revenue required for
an economical administration of the Severn
ment, can see no objection to it, because
of the people, or the property of the people;
and it matters not whether upon exchanges
from other countries, commodities from
other Nations, or from internal exchanges
and home products. if they only he equal
and Just. A tariff for revenue affords very
little protection: and a tariff for protection
affords very little revenue. Where the in
cidcnt of protection begins the incident of
revenue diminishes. If a little protection
ali the H,OtO,0OO Americans, then much pro
tectiOn-perfect protection-will be a better
thing for all these millions of human beings.
h tariff for raising revenue by collecting
duties on imports everybody admits to be a
tax. Therefore Il tariff for protection which
keeps out imports and thereby enehances
the prices OF those home products which are
thus given a monopoly of the American
markets, must be, and is, n far greater tax,
and all the more unjust. 1t is unjust because
il makes an artificial price for the things we
have to buy by shutting out competition from
abroad, and because while it thus takes from
nnthe people it brings little IL any revenue to
the National Treasury. 1t compels us by law to
contribute of our earnings not solely to the
support of the Government, but to the direct
maintenance of u favored class of citizens
engaged in certain manufactures, which are
thus statute spawned monopolies. The dis
tinetion between q tariff for revenue and {
tariff for protection is very plain. A tariff
for revenue takes money from all of us AND
places it where it belongs, in the treasury OF
the eople A tariff for protection takes
money from all of US, and gives it to Il few OF
us. And 1t is against this misuse of tho SOW
c~reignty in taxing the whole for the benef,
and pnriQhmanf nf fhp fQVy thar Nyp rrrofaSt
Its class legislation. 1t is an avoidance Of
the constitutional limitation of the taxing
lie debt. It is not for t The pyybiie d 4J ene pup T
Is not to promote the general welfare of the
United States; 1t prevents revenue with
which to pay the public debt. Itweakens the
means of common defense. 1t is antagonists
TO the general welfare of the United States
Anything which artiicially enhances the
price of the necessary articles in common
use in the homes of the multitudes-thougt
1t may make millionaires of a few meu-is
States. The greatest good to the Creates
humber can never be secured to a people
whose Government levies the greatest take.
on the greatest number for the benefit of the
smallest number. The old maxim is thus re
yersed, and the great effort is, by the pro
tective system, to give the greatest good-b,
an unrighteous use of the power TO taX-t(
the minimum monopolies, and IL the ex
pense OF the MAXIMUM multitude.
OLD HERESiES IN NEW D~RESS-RANDALL'
sPEECHEs l. fHE SOUTH.
But the question of Federal taxation ha.
recently been discussed in the Southern
Samuel ]. Randall; and instead therefore, o
trying to interest you with an elaborate argu
ment on general principles il will he my en-
deaVor to quote from, review and possibly
attempt to answer some of the declaration.
and opinions of the gentleman as advanced
December 20, 1854. and subsequently, at otheI
Southern points. Among the best and mos
notable things in the Kentucky speech, IL
brGska
DECLARATION AGAINST THE CONSTITUTION
Atty OF A rAEIFF FOR PROTECTION
which he makes in these unevasive words
- do not believe there is in the constitution
of the United States an authority to levy i'm
port duties for protection, for protection.
sake. In other words, / can find nothins
which gives authority to the Congress OF Thu
United States to raise taxes on import duties
for protection per se." So far Mr.. Randall
agrees with the utterances of gentlemen il
inc Northwest who are frequently ant
eipPantly denominated free trade cranks.'
Mud it IS very much to the e~X-Speaker's credi
reasonable and just a conclusion. Blu
passes into pcrplexity when we read tn,
next ono following, to-wit: ~ say also tina
you'd SO levy the duties on the imports int
the United States that the difference be
tween the foreign product and the American
article, when the two are here in comlpeti
tion, so that the difference in the foreign
rate of interest and that of our own countr,
the difference in the wages OF the me
chanic and iaborcr abroad and the lahore
here shall be equal only to III the gap,
hi this utterance, he means that he woul,
levy a tax to protect us against the low-in
tercst money and the low-wages labor O
Europe, and how can we do it when he de
clares that there is no warrant in the con
FtitutiOn for doing it?
MONEY A COMPETING RoDUC THAT Is NO
TAXED.
But English money-all foreign capital
has always been free to invade the domain o
american exchanges and enterprises
There has never, fortunately, been any tart
on foreign gold or silver, and unrestricted ]
has poured into the United State and cor
structcd railroads and canals, and crowde,
itself into nearly every avenue of trade
The demand for it has been great and tn
supply has been SO large, under perfect fire.
trade in money, that the rates of intefes
has been reduced very visibly In the last tel
years in the United States, and the com
petitive reduction still goes on apace. III,
economic law of supply and demand i
left unfettered by tariffs to operat
upon the importation of foreign capital
And the wisdom of this freedom is obviou