Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1888-02-03

education, roads, rivers, and canals.
From this extract it would be fairly as
sumed that Mr.. Jefferson had treated the
: unnecessary accumulation of surplus IN
the Treasury as lightly as the honorable
Senator is disposed to do. But, Mr.. Pres.
ident, the extract which has been quoted
is unfair to Mr. Jefferson, unfair to the
Senate, unfair to the country, and does no
credit, if 1 may be permitted the remark
to the fairness of the honorable Senator
himself. l can not say that the Senator
has deliberately garbled Mr.. Jefferson, but
l can and do say that he quoted the haIf
of sentence and that he omitted the Other
half, the qualifying part, which will be
found ON page 65, volume 8, OF Mr.. Jeffer-
SON. 8 works, in the following words:
And other objects of public improve
ment as it may be thought proper to add
to the constitutional enumeration OF the
Federal powers"
JEFFERSON MIsQUOTED.
The Senator has gone further. He has
interpolated in his extract from MIR. JEFF
ferson before the word 'canals" the word
"and, ," thus, innocently of course, leaving
to the hearer and TO the reader the i'm
preston that the sentence closed there.
And the Senator has omitted entirely the
declaration Of Mr.. Jefferson which follows
soon after, in the same message, in the fol-
lowing words:
"I suppose an amendment to the Con-
stitution by consent Of the Senate neces'
sary, because the objects now recommend
ed are not among those enumerated in the
Constitution, and to which it permits the
public funds to be applied"
What contrast MIR. Jefferson on the
one hand, az the honorable Senator pre-
sents him, contemplating as trivial mat
ter the probable unnecessary sccumula-
ton of money in the Treasury with the
passing suggestion that it be devoted to
| internal improvements, and Mr.. Jefferson
ON the other, patriot President as he was,
solemnly invoking change in the organism
law of the land, in order to anticipate and
to avoid the dangers of a surplus revenue.
In his message of December, 1882, Cen
eral jackson declared that the
''sOundest maxim OF public policy aud the
principle upon which our Republican in
stitutions are founded recommended q
proper adaptation of the revenue to the
expenditure; and they also require that the
expenditure shall be limited to what by an
economical administration shall be con-
sistent with the simplicity of the Govern
ment and necessary to an efficient pubic
service"
And so of Mr. Webster Contemplating
in 1886 surplus which would be regarded
a. hardly significant in these days Of over
taxation, Mr.. Webster declared, and in the
very substance of the Presidents message,
that
''this present pressure is not known or felt
or believed here in anything like its true
extent. IL we give no relief know not
what may happen, even in this day of high
prosperity"
In his message December 6, 1881, deal
ing with the surplus in the Treasury,
PRESIDENT ARTHUR SAID:
"In view, however, of the heavy load
of taxation, which our people have already
borne, we may well consider whether it is
not the part of wisdom to reduce the rev.
enue, even if we delay little the payment
of the debt. 1t seems to me that the time
has arrived when the people may justly
demand some relief from their present
onerous burden, and that by due economy
| in the various branches of the public ser
vice this may readily be effected"
| He then proceeds TO recommend certain
| notifications of internal revenue taxes
and the abolition OF others, excepting,
however, those upon tobacco in its various
forms and upon distilled spirits and fer
mented liquors, and also makes other ex-
ceptions in the same line. He proceeds to
add:
"The tariff laws also need revision, but
that a due regard may be paid to the con-
| flicting interests of our citizens, important
changes should he made with caution"
Aud so said the Democratic National
Platform OF 1884, and so says the Presi-
dent in his te.message.
Again in his message of 1892, President
Arthur recommends the abolition of all
excise tax, except those relating to distilled
spirits, and in his message OF December /,
| 1884 he renewed his recommendation, and
proceeded 10 add:
'In case these taxes shall be abolished,
the revenue that will still remain to the
Government will, in my opinion, not only
suffice to meet its reasonable expenditures,
but will afford a surplus large enough to
permit such tariff reduction as may seem
| to be advisable when the result of recent
revenue laws and commercial treaties shall
have shown in what quarters those reduc-
tions can be most Justly effected"
Secretary Fogler, in his report of Decem-
ber 4, 1882, presents an estimate in round
figures of SIS, 900, 600 of surplus for the
fiscal year to end June 80, 1888 He says:
There could not be that surplus, surely
not so great one, if the subjects of taxa
ton were lessened and the rates made
smaller upon those retained"
He further declares that the
Accumulation in the Treasury of large
surplus, which must occur unless immedi-
ate measures are enacted for reduction of
the revenues, is not to be plaCidly cOntem-
plated, and the question confronts us, in
what manner may it best be prevented"
His report is elaborate and able. He
declares that the
radical cure for the evil is in the reduc-
ton of taxation, so that no more will be
taken from the people than enough to carry
on the Government with economy"
And after stating the proceeds OF reye-
nues for customs for the then current year,
he asserts that
1T seems, therefore, that a reduction
should be made in the revenue from the
customs. And it is belived that
the time has arrived when reduction of
duties on nearly all the articles III our
tariff is demanded and is feasible"
In addition to this he continues:
"a careful revision of the tariff should
be made with q view to placing upon the
free. list many articles now paying a duty. "
NE. SHERMAN SILENT.
While these views were expressed and
enforced by Hon. Mr.. Folger, Republi-
can Secretary of the Treasury, no word
denounciug him as free-trader emanated
from the honorable Senator from Ohio.
But l quote the language Of the former
Secretary of the Treasury mainly for the
purpose of exhibiting the fact that neither
he nor his principal, the President of the
United States, regarded an accumulated
surplus with complacency; nor was either
confronted by the cry of wolf at the
door when he demanded areduction of the