Year: 1860

require uloulncAtiOn oi tiic tAiih uu-
ing your present session for the purpose
of increasing the revenue. In this
aspect, desire to reiterate the recon-
mendation contained in my last two
annual messages, in favor Of imposing
specific instead Of ad paIorem duties on all
imported articles to which these can be
properly applied. From long obserys


ton and experience i am convinced th'


specific duties are necessary, both to pr'


tect the revenue and to secure to ou


manufacturing interests that amount o
incidental encouragement which unavold
ably results from a revenue tariff.


As an abstract proposition il may BE-
admitted that ad raiorsm duties would, in


theory, be the most just and equal. But
if the experience of this and of all other
commercial nations has demonstrated
that such duties cannot be assessed and
collected without great frauds upon the
revenue, then it is the part Of wisdom to
resort to specific duties. Indeed, from
the very nature of an al rdtorem duty,
this must be the result. Under it the
inevitable consequence is that foreign
goods will be entered at less than their
true value. The treasury will, therefore,
lose the duty on the difference between
their real and fictitious value, and to this
extent we are dcfrauded.


Tho temptations which ad ralorSm du-
ties present to dishonest importer are
irresistible, His object is to pass his
goods through the Custom House at tho
very lowest valuation necessary to save
them from confscation. In this he too
often succeeds, in spite Of the vigilance
Of the revenue officers. Hence the re-
sort to false invoices, one for the purchaser
and another for the Custom House, and
to other expedents to defraud the gov
ernment. The honest importer produces
his invoice to the collector, stating the
actual price at which he purchased the
article abroad. Not SO the dishonest i'm
porter and the agent Of the foreign manu-
fscturer. And here it may be observed
that a very large portion of tho manu-
factures imported from abroad are con-
signed for sale to commission merchants
who arc mere agents employed by the
manufacturers. In such cases no actual
sale has been mado to fix their value
The foreign manufacturer, if he be dis
honest, prepares an invoice of the goods,
not at their actual value, but at the very
lowest rate necessary to escape detection.
In this manner the dishonest importer
and the foreign manufacturer enjoy de-
cided advantage over the honest merchant.
They are thus enabled to undersell the
fair trader, and drive him from the mar
kst. In fact, the operation of this sys-
TEN has already driven from the pursuits
Of honorable commerce many Of that
class Of regular and conscientious mcr-
chants whose character throughout the
world is the pride Of our country.


The remedy for these evils is to be
found in specific duties so far as this may
be practicable. They dispense any in
quiry at the custom-house into the actual
cost or value Of the article, and it pays
the precise amount of duty previously
fixed by law. Thcy present no tempta-
tions to the appraisers Of foreign goods,
who receive but small salaries, and might
by undervaluation in few cases, render
themselves independent.


Besides, specific duties best conform to
the requisition in the constitution that
NO preference shall be gi7en by any
regulation Of commerce or revenue to
the ports Of one State over those Of
another" Under our ad ralorem system
such preferences are to some extent in
exitable, and complaints have often been
made that the spirit of this provision has
been violated by lower appraisement of
the samo articles at one port than at
another.


An impression strangely enough pre-
walls to some extent that specific duties
are necessarily protective duties. Moth.
ing can be more fallacious. Great Brit
ain glories in free trude, and yet her
whole revenue from imports is at the
present moment collected under system
of specific duties. 1t is q striking fact
in this connection that, in the commercial
treaty of Odd January, 1860, between
France and England, one of the articles
provides that the ad palorem duties which
it imposes shall be converted into specific
duties within six months from its date,
and these are to be ascertained by max
ing an average of the prices for six
months previous to that time. The re-
verse of the proposition would be nearer
to the truth, because q much larger
amount of revenue would be collected by
merely converting the ad ralOrsm duties
of tariff into equivalent specific duties.
To this extent the revenue would be iu-
creased, and in the same proportion tho
specific duty might be diminished.


Specific duties would secure to the
American manufacturer the incidental
protection to which he is faisl y entitled
under rcvcnuc tariff, and to this surelyno
person would object. The trainers of the
existing tariff have gone further, and in a
liberal spirit have Disseminated in favor
Of largo and useful branches Of our manu-
factures, not by raising the rate of duty
upon the importation Of similar articles
from abroad, but, what is the Same in ef-
feet, by admitting articles free Of duty
which entor into the composition Of their
fabrics


Under the present system it has been
often remarked that this incidental pro.
lection desrcascs when A manufacturer