I
i
Vor. VI, No. 361
irmnuct
OF TIIF.
HUNTINGDON JOURNAL
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AGENTS.
FO It
T:te Jaurnal,
Daniel Teague, Orbisonia; David Blair.
Esq. Shade Gap; Benjamin Lease. Shirleya
burg; Eliel Smith, Esq. Chitcottstoson; Jas.
Entriken. jr. Crffee Run; Hugh Madden,
Esq. Springfield; Dr. S. S. Dewey, Bir
mingham; i stnes Morrow. Union Furnace;
John Sister. Warrior Mark; James Davis,
Esq. West township ; D. H. Moore. Esq.
Frankstown; Eph. Galbreath. Esq. Haiti
dayabum Henry Neff. Alexandria; Aaron
Burns, Williamsburg; A. J. Stewart. Water
Street; Wm. Reed. Esq. Morris township;
Solomon Hamer, .14eff's Mill; James Dysart.
Muth Spruce C reek; Win. Murray, Esq.
Graysville; John Crum. Manor Hill; Jas.
F. Stewart. Sinking Valley; L. C. Kessler
Mil Creek.
SPEECH
Of Ma. 1RV124, of Pennsylvania, on the
Revenue Bill: delivered in the House of
Representatives, July, 1841.
Mr. eIIAIRmANt Although 1 rise with the
greatest reluctance and diffidence, being un
accustomed to public speaking, yet a sense
of duty to my constituents requires me to
make the attempt, and state my views on the
bill now before this committee. It is one
which my constituents have a deep interest
in, and one which affects them as much if
not more than any other district in this Un
ion.•
Sir, I represent two great and leading in
terests of the country; and which are inti
mately connected with each other, to wit:—
the agricultural and manufacturing, and any
thing that is calculated to injure or affect the
one, bears in an equal proportion upon the
other. From the best information I hove
been able to collect, I believe that near one
fourth of all the wheat and flour exported
from the State which I have the honor in
part to represent, is sent from my district:
and from the statistics furnished by the re
turns of the late census i it appears by a state
knent which I have prepared from the pa
pers now in the State Department, that fully
one-fourth of the whole amount of iron man
ufactured in Pennsylvania is produced from
the ore in the four counties I have the honor
to represent on this floor; and I pi esume
there is no other district in Pennsylvania,
with the same amount of population, which
consumes a greater amount of those necessa
ries of lite which this bill proposes to lay a
duty upon.
Sir, I agree with the honorable chairman
of the Committee of Ways and Means that
it is necessary to raw: additional revenue;
that the finances of the country require it;
and I am as much in favor of providing
ways and means to meet the current expen
ses of the Government, and also to provide
for whatever eeficiency now exists, as the
honorable chairman or any other member
now on this floor. But, sir, I differ in opinion
from the committee who reported this bill,
respecting the propriety, at this time, of
levying a duty or tax on some of the articles
contained in this bill.
Sir, I believe the true and correct policy
of this Government is, to raise sufficient
revenne by import taxes, as being the least
onerous and burdensome to the people: but
in doing so, we should select such articles in
the first place as come in competition with
those produced by our o an citizens, and if
we cannot raise sufficient from them, then
take articles of luxury or such as do not
come into general use, and are not required
or consumed by the great portion of the peo
ple ; but it would only be in the last resort'
that I would consent to levy an onerous or
burdensome tax upon articles that have come
into general use in almost every family,
whether rich or poor, throughout our whole
country. Sir, I consider such a species of
taxation impolitic, unwise, and unjust.—
Why, sir, is it not impolitic in an adminis
tration just coining into power, after profes
sions of relieving the people from their dif
ficulties, topropose a burdensome tax upon
them, ss one of their best measures? Why,
sir, is it not derision to bring this measure
upon the people at the present !ime? Why
pot wait until the regular session, when there
would be tithe for a fain investigation into
the tariff system, and such regulation made
as might be satisfactoi y . ? It cannot be pos
sible that the Treasury is in such a wretched
situation that an able financier could not
carry on the operations of government for a
Rely m onths without this tax on cc Wee and
tea. 'And is it hot iinjuSt to tax th poor man
wino labors for the support of his family, and
earns from fifty to seventy-five cents per
day, as much as the Plan who owns thou,
l ands? And I feel satisfied, if this bill shall
become a law, that hundreds of poor families
in my district will have to p4y more of this
tax than those who are comparatively rich.
fir, the articles of coffee and tea have be
co* among all classess, but especially
among those whd live in towns, and at man
.:‘IIE JOURNAL.
HUNTINGDON, PENNSYLVANIA, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 25, 1841.
ufacturing establishments, necessary article s
of life, and substituted by a great many in
pace of milk, as being more easily obtain
ed, and even cheaver. Then why should
we oppress this class of people more than
they are at present? Why increase their
burdens? Does this bill hold out any relief
to the laboring class of the community?
None—none whatever. _
Sir, it is well known to you and other
honorable gentlemen on this floor, that, ow
ing to the embarrassed and crippled condi
tion of business, for the last two or three
years particularli , it has been with great
difficulty the manufacturing interests of the
country have sustained themselves, and if it
had not been fur the bountiful crops with
which our country ha's been blessed, and the
cheapness of living, many that are yet strug
gling alon7, must have ceased to exist. but
now, sir, just on the eve of another reduc
tion of duties, which takes place at the close
of this year. and which even now is opera
' ting in anticipation on the whole business of
the country, you propose a tax to be levied
on this suffering people of from one and a
halt' to two millions of dollars.
Sir, for one, I cannot give it my supp9rt-
I came here expecting to assist in carrying
cut measures calculated to relieve my con•
stitueuts, not to hurthen them, and if I can
not accomplish the former, I will not lend
my aid to procure the latter.
Mri Chairman, I believe I could prop3se
a measure to this committee, (and have an
amendment I may possibly offer) that, if
adopted, would do as much, if not more, to
relieve the country from its present embar
rassment, than any of the measures that
as yet have been proposed. You may char
, ter a bank, you May restore a sound curren
cy, both of which are very essential to out
prosperity; but unless you adopt measures
that will give employment at fair prices to
the farmer, the Mechanic and laborer, you
will not relieve the difficulties we now labor
under. The measure, in my opinion, at this
time, that would contribute most to relieve
our Wants, and replenish our Treasury,
wodid be to arrest the compromise act at
once; so far as it affects the reduction of du •
ties on articles that come in competition with
the labor or production of our own citizens.
Fcur reductions, or four-tenths of the excess
over twenty per cent. have already taken
place. They have reduced the prices of
our own productions to a point that, to
proceed any further, must prove inevita
ble destruction to three•tourths of all those
concerned in four great interests of the
country, the woollen, the cotton, the iron,
and the coal. if you would arrest the
law now in force at the present time, you
would bring into your Treasury in the
course of (lie present year at least 5500,
000 more than will otherwise be received,
and, besides, would infuse life and vigor
into all branches of industry. What is
the effect of the present law on the gene
ral business of the country? Are nut the
minds of all filled with doubt and uncer •
tainty; not only the manufacturer, but al
so the importer and retail merchant?—
Who is there so wise as to know how to
calculate? Will any person import goods
now, on which a reduction of duties takes
place on the first of January next; or will
there be any importations made in the
lace of a reduction of from ten to twenty
per cent. until after the first of June next,
that can possibly be avoided? Sir, I be,
lieve the Secretary of the treasury will
he mistaken in realizing his estimates for
the balance of this year, and the two first
quarters of the next, unless he has made
very liberal allowances, if the present
compromise bill is continued until June,
1842, without amendment; but, if arrested
in its operation previous to the first of
January next, and we lay a duty on
wines, silks, and some other articles of
luxury, a sullicient amount would be pro
duced to meet the demands on your Tree.
sury. Sir, I may possibly be censured by
seine for saving any thing that would ap
pear to interfere with the compromise act;
but have we not been told by honorable
gentlemen on both sides of the House,
that they did not consider it as binding
on this Congress.
The honorable gentleman from the city
of New York, the other day, in his free
trade and direct taxation speech, which
upon sober second thoughts, he conclu
-1
dad had better not be published in the
Globe, (for fear of its committing the par•
ty I presume,) told us, if I do not mistake,
that he did not consider it binding on him,
and that he would have no hesitation in
reducing protected articles below twenty
per cent. it he had the power; and, cer
tainly, gentlemen on tilt opposite side
have as good a right to arrest it in its in
juricus effects it they can: and if they do
not they are not acting in good faith tow
ards their constituents.
Sir, what was the history of that com
promise act? Who that heard the de
scription given by the honorable and ven•
enable member from Massachusetts the
other day of its concoction and execution,
can consider it for one moment as binding
on the representatives of the people of thi;
Union? What was the language used by
one of the high contracting parties, in a
speech made in the other end of this buil•
ding previous to the passage the bill ? I
allude to Mr. Clay. This was his lan
guage ; "he hoped that the manufactu
rers would go on and prosper, confident
the abandonment of protection was never
intended, and looking to more 'favorable
means for a man considered the question
"ONE COUNTRY, ONE CONSTITUTION, ONE DESTINY."
A. W. BENZ DICT PUBLISIIRR AND PROPRIETOR.
settled forever', or rather did he not con
Bider it as a mere temporary arrangement,
necessary to avert what appeared to be
the secession of one of the States from
this Union; and that long before the time
expired, the good sense of the people
mould see the error that had been commit
ted, and repair it? I well recollect with
what indignation it was received by many
in my district, and the denunciations
heaped upon the authors of it; but, being
rather a peaceable and well disposed kind
of people, we thought it was better not to
nullity, but to make the best of it, as it
gave us a few years of grace, believing
that it never will reach its final consum
mation—which I hope and pray it never
will. We have tried it now for eight
years. Ilas it been productive of any
good to the country? I think it was
shown clearly by the gentleman from
Massachusetts that it has not, but has been
the source of great evil. Why, then, per
persevere in it, when its conclusion must
bring ruin and destruction to thousands of
American citizens? It is an old saying,
and I believe a true one, that "an ounce
of prevention is worth a pound of cure."
If this be true in physic, as I believe it is,
it will also hold good in political economy.
Then why not adopt it; administer to your
suffering constituents at once what would
save them from utter ruin and destruction?
It has been said by some, that with home
valuation and cash duties, manufacturers
could get along under the compromise
act. So far as the iron manufacture is
concerned, I ain satisfied that they cannot;
that it will prostrate every manufacturer
of that kind, except sonic few whose lo
cality gives them a home demand. This
home valuation and cash duties, in my
opinion will not turn out what 'may hon
orable gentlemen ou this floor think it will.
Why, sir, what is home valuation? Is it
any thing more than the fair cost in Eu
rope—insurance, freight, and exchange,
and the twenty per cent. added? This
constitutes the value of the article; and I
know it is so understood by both import
ers and manufacturers that I have conver
sed with in Philadelphia and New York.
And what is there in cash duties that is to
work such wonders in favor of the home
manufacturer? Is the difference of a six
months' credit on $lO or 812, which
would probably be the duty on a ton of
iron, or paying that amount in cash, going
to be much advantage? Why, sir, at the
very extent, it svould not amount to more
than forty or fifty cents per ton. And is
this amount sufficient to have any effect
upon importations? For my part, I am
satisfied that the anticipations of advan
tage to be derived from this clause in the
bill by some gentlemen will bo far from
being realized.
Sir, we have been told by honorable
members on this floor that the encourage
ment of our own industry by legislative
enactments is taxing the many for the
benefit of the few, and of course an impo
sition on the people. Now, I deny this to
ue the case, and will endeavor to illustrate
my position by a few plain, practical facts.
I insist that a tariff or duty on foreign
manufactures, au flicient to reasonbly pro
tect and encourage our own citizens en
gaged in that kind of business, is not
merely calculated to benefit the few cap•
italists who are owners, as has been as
serted, but diffuses its advantages through
out the whole population of the country
in a proportionate degree ; and to state
my case, I will endeavor to show the
practical results in my own district. The
principal manufacture that is carried on
there is the manufacture of iron; there
are many others of different kinds, but of
rather minor importance, arid I will at
this time confine myself to the iron trade
alone. According to the return of the
census now in the State Department, that
branch of industry is put down as follows,
to wit : The number of furnaces now in
operation is 33, producing 24,981 tons pig
metal ; number of forges and rolling mills
42, producing according to returns 25,-
466 tons blooms, and bar iron ; but in this
latter article there is evidently a mistake
in the returns, and I set the quantity down
from the best calculation I can make at
about 20,000 tons, worth about $1,300,-
000. The number of workmen employed
is 3,072, mostly men with families, and
according to an estimate I have made,
and which I believe is very near correct,
probably rather under than over the actu
al amount. There is annually consumed
by those works, of the production of the
farmer, 200,000 bushels of wheat, 400,-
000 bushels rye and corn, three millions
pounds beef and pork, and other articles,
such as potatoes, vegetables, butter,
cheese, hay, straw, &c., to the amount of
$150,000, making in all, the sum of $7OO,
000 of the production of the farmer : then
there is the necessary articles for wear,
which are generally of northern and eas
tern manufacture, amounting to at least
$350,000, and for groceries, salt, tobac.
co, &c.„ a further sum of 8150,000—ma
king, in all, the actual amount of $1,200,
000, which sum has been scattered all
over the country. Nuw does it appear
from this that only a few capitalists were
benefited, or does it not show that the
many have been the gainers? In the first
place, there are upwards of 5,000 work
men, who are employed at better wages
than they could have received at otheria
bor ; then there is the $lOO,OOO paid for
agricultural articles, some of which are
the produce of other States, as a great
portion of our beef and pork comes from
Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana; and 1
would say to the honorable gentleman
front Kentucky, that we have furnished a
pretty good market for the mules of his
State for several years past ; then add the
5350,000 paid to the North for their man
ufactures, (one half at least are cotton
I goods, the raw material of course from
' the Southern States,) and the $150,000
for groceries and other articles paid to
the merchant and foreign importer, and
' you find the advantages spread over the
whole land, and a very small balance left
to be divided among the hundred capital•
ists, as they are called. The truth is,
that for the last year or two the receipts
have scarcely met the expenditures.—
There is one fact I would call the atten
tion of the committee 4o—that we con
sume nearly, if not all, the coarser kinds
of grain produced in the district, and gen
erally at prices equal to the market in
Baltimore, although two hundred miles in
the interior, and I have known corn pur
chased in Philadelphia and boated up the
Pennsylvania canal, and consumed by a
manufacturer in Huntingdon county.—,
Sir, to carry it out farther, I will give you
the statistics of the iron trade of Penn
sylvania; they are as follows: 210 fur
naces in operation, producing 98,350 tons
pig metal, and forges and rolling mills,
producing about 70,000 tons bar iron an
nually, employing 15,000 workmen, using
one million cords of wood, and consuming
annually upwards of one million bushels
wheat, two millions of rye and corn, and
twelve million pounds of beef and pork
and other articles, the production of the
farmer, the whcle amounting to upwards
of three millions, and mer two millions
of merchandise. The coal trade of Penn
sylvania has been rapidly increasing and
in 1840 is set down at 845,000 tons, which
in value is probably Suite equal to that of
iron, and employs quite as many laborers,
and the consumption of agricultural and
other productions about the same, and
will be equally and injuriously affected
bI the operations of the compromise act,
o show the importance and value of the
manufacturing interest throughout the
United Slates, and the intimate and valu
able influence they exert on the agricultu
ral productions of the country, I would
call the attention of the committee to the
commercial statistics of the exports of,
wheat and flour from the United States,
from 1790 up to 1840. They will there
find in 1793, with a population under five
millions, we exported about seven mil
lions bushels of wheat and flour, at an av
erage price of $5 90 per barrel; but for
the last ten years, with a population from
12 to 17' millions, our exports only aver
age between 4 and 5 million bushels,''
plainly showing that our increased pro
duction has been required by the manu
facturing and other interests of the coun•
try. Now, sir, I would ask gentlemen of
the grain-growing states of Virginia, Ohio,
and Indians, if they consider it of no on
portance to them, that Pennsylvania, that
produced last year upwards of 13,000,-
000 bushels of wheat, and 40,000,000 bu
shels of coarser grain, consumes nearly all
of it within her own borders? Are not
they fully compensated for the small ad
vance they have to pay on protected arti
cies by the increased price they obtain
for their wheat and other grain? But
what is the consequence if you change the
50,000 manufacturers and miners, (I be
lieve there tire that many,) who are now
consumers of produce, to become a great
many of them producers? Would it not
most seriously affect the value of your
whole property, real and personal? Sir, I
insist that it is to the advantage of the grain
growing States that they encourage Penn
sylvania to go on with her manufactures,
her boundless and inexhaustible amount
of mineral coal, her millions of tons of
iron ore, her vast and unimproved water
power. The industry and enterprise of
her citizens are a sure guaranty that, if
wise and judicious legislation is pursued,
in a few years she would require touch
more provisions of all kinds than she
would produce. I might say the same to
the gentlemen of the South. Is it to your
advantage to destroy and breajt down the
manufacturers of the North and Middle
' States? Would it not re-act upon your
selves? If you make us so poor that we
cannot buy, does it not affect your mar
ket? But is there no danger that you
drive many that are now otherwise em
ployed to become cotton growers, and
produce niore titan there will be a demand
'for? But there is yet a more important
and vita! way in which your interests may
be affected. Destroy the manufacturing
establishments of the country, reduce the
thousands that are now earning a comfor•
table living to penury and want, and let
once the fact be understood by them, that
it is all brought on them by the slavehold
ers of the South, and that they are even
on this floor called, by honorable mem
bers of the South, the white slaves of the
North—let this idea once take possession
of the minds of the laboring classes of the
North and Middle States, and you bring
down upon you the indignation of thous
ands that are now your friends.
Sir, my ',pinion is, that the more we
can diversify labor in this country, the
more we increase the prosperity and wel
fare of our citizens. Our soil. our cli
mate, our population, and our free inati.
tutions—all conspire to make us a great
and powerful people, unless we ourselves,
by unwise legislation, produce a contrary
effect. For this view of the subject 1 have
the authority of Gov. McDutfie. In an
address delivered at Columbia, on the
26th November, 1840, he said "The
greatest, most prevailing, and most per
' nicious of all the practices which distills
guish and deform the agriculture of this
and the other cotton-planting States, is
the almost exclusive direction of the whole
' available labor of the plantation to the
production of our greatest market staple,
ar.d the consequent neglect of all the
other commodities which the soil is caps-
We of producing or sustaining, and which
are essential to supply the wants of the
establishment. No scheme of reform or
improvement can produce any great and
salutary results, which does not lay the
axe to the root of this radical vice in ourl
husbandry. If I could now reveal a pro
cess by which nor common soil could be
made to produce two bales of cotton to
the acre, I should have great doubts whe
ther the revolution would be a blessing or
a curse to. that great interest;" and he
most strenously urges upon the planters
of the South the necessity of growing their
own corn, and making their own pork or
bacon ; of raising their own horses, hogs,
and mules; and points out the way in
which, in his opinion, and from his own
experience, this may be done. Sir, I hope
that the honorable gentleman over the
way, [Mr. DAwsox,) in his first annual
address to the people of Georgia, which,
if l live, I hope to have the pleasure of
reading next winter, will not only recom
mend the above views of Gov. McDuffie
to be carried out, but will improve on them
by urging their surplus waterpower anti
labor to be used in spinning and weaving
their own cotton, and supplying not only
themselves but other States; and as I un
derstand they have plenty of iron ore,'
build iron works, make their own iron, and
then, if we lay a duty upon foreign man•
ufactures, their own citizens will receive
the benefit of it. But, sir, it would ap
pear, from Gov: McDuffie's remarks, they
intend raising their own horses, hogs, and
mules. This would be likely to interfere
with this Western trade, that has been
spoken of in those articles. I would then
say to the honorable member from Ken.
tucky that he must turn his attention to
the iron establishments of Pennsylvania,
as they will furnish an outlet for a part at
least of their surplus. .
Sir, the gentleman from the city of New
York, who addressed the Ilouse a few
(lays since, talked obout the enormous a
mount that had been collected by indirect
taxation within the last fifty years, up
wards of $600,000,000, and made a great
flourish about extravagance in expendi
tures from this mode of taxation, and that
it our taxes were levied and collected di
rectly, a much mare economical adminis•
tration of the Government would be the
consequence. Now, sir, would this be
the fact ? I, for one, very much doubt it.
Are not our county and city taxes levied
in that way ? And is there more econo..
my made use of in most of our cities and
counties than there has been in the Gener
al Government, at least some years ago?
I appeal to my honorable colleague from
Philadelphia [Mr. leiozasou , ] whether,
fron, his experience, he believed it to be
the case. [Here Mr. INGensoLl. rose and
said One thing he knew, that their taxes
in Philadelphia were very heavy.] Yes,
sir, I have no doubt of it ; from informa
tion I have had at different times I have
understood that to be the fact ; but even
admit that there was a difference in favor
of the former mode, would it make up for
the difference in the mariner of collection?
Sir, what does Professor George Tucker,
of the University of Virginia, who, I pre
sume, is perfectly orthodox, say on this
subject P It is this : 1. But if direct taxes
could be more cheaply collected, they
would be less eligible than taxes on con
sumption. The last compel the prodigal,
the ostentatious, the luxurious, the un
thrifty of every description, who lessen
the amount of the national wealth by wast
ing Their own, to pay a part of what they
spend into the public Treasury, and they
leave to the prudent and industrious their
capital unimpaired. Thus every man
pays his public contributions in the easiest
way and at the most convenient time.
He pays it when it suits him, and as it
suits him—a little this month and a little
[WiroLz No. 296
next. But a direct tax must be collected
all at once, and may be called for when
the taxed party is least prepared to pay it.
If any adverse change has taken place in
his circumstances since the assessment he
cannot, by any voluntary retrenchment of
his expenses, as in the case of indirect
taxes, make any proportional abatement of
his contribution to the Government." It
is on account of these and the like con
siderations that Adam Smith and °thee
writers on political economy have been in
favor of taxes on consumption, and that
one of the latest of them, Mr. McCul•
loch, says : 'Direct taxes on property
have been the curse of every country into
which they have been introdueed.'—lle
adds: Much taxes are, besides, most un
popular as well from their requiring an
odious, though ineffectual, inquisition into
the affairs of individuals, as from their be
ing direct. So much is this case, that we
are well convinced that the raising of
eighteen or twenty millions by direct tax
es would be felt to be a much greater bur.
den, and would really be far more injuri
ous, than the raising of fifty or sixty mil.
lions by our present taxes.'" So much
for what Mr. McCulloch says. But Pro
tessor Tucker says further : "Nor does
there seem to be inure force in the politi
cal reason which supposes that indirect
taxes are favorable to a lavish expendi.
ture of the public money. Without . doubt
the greater facility with which money is
raised by indirect tiles, and the smaller
discount they cause among the people, en
able Governments to raise a much lager
revenue than would be practicable by di
rect taxation. But this is an evil or a
good, according to the use that is made of
the money. It the quicker sensibility of
the people to direct taxation would some
times prove a salutary check on waste
and extravagance, it might, on the other
hand, with equalpropriety, be insisted
that it would yet oftener prove a mischie
vous restriction on expenditures that ought
to be incurred. The people, thus render
ed sore by the tax-gatherer, may object
to preparaing for the national defence; to
give adequate salaries to their public ser
vants; to requite past services by pen
sions ; to discharge just claims ; to say
nothing of those national establishments
whose benefits are remote, or not obvious
to the mass of the people. If, even now,
same of these items of proper expense ti
ford plausible topics to the popular syco
phant, and tempt him to sacrifice the
claims of justice and sound policy to a
false economy, how much more would it
bu the case under the pressure of direct
taxation I On this supposition, too, the
evil would greatly exceed the good--for
every liberal minded man will admit that
it is far better fur a nation to spend some
money uselessly than to refuse to spend
that which the justice or the interests of
the nation requires that it would be less
evil to have some superfluous pensioners
than to have none at all ; to pay some un
founded claims than t 3 refuse to pay hon
est debts; and to have several fortifica
tions too many than one too few." "But
the.advocates of direct taxation object that
"taxes on consumption are so disguised
by being mixed up with the price, that the
people pay them without knowing it," as
if that was not one of their recommenda
tions, and we were not always endeavor
ing to cheat life of some of its disagreea
bleness by semblances and disguises from,
the gilded pill to the illusions of hope and
the courtisies of politeness. The feelings
of a people will always be regarded by a
wise legislature as their interests; and in
imposing taxes, which are an evil at best,
though a neacssary one, it will make them
as little unpalatable as they can. If it
can prevent the people from feeling the
burden at all, so much the better. Surely
where knowledge would make us more
unhappy, "tis fully to be wise.'" "On all
these accounts, I should he disposed to go
yet farther than Mr. McCulloch, and say,
that in this country it would be easier to
raise twenty millions by direct taxes."
Now, sir, this is what Professor Tucker
and Mr. McCulloch, both, I believe, state
rights and to some extent free trade men
say, on the object of direct taxation.
Whether shall we agree with their views
on the subject, or the very learned and
wise legislators, and political economists,
Mr. McKeon of New York, and his coad
jutor, or rather his portotype Mr. Rhett,
of South Carolina. For my part 1 agree
with Messrs. Tucker and McCulloch, and
l am perfectly willing to have it submitted
to the people.
But, sir, the honorable member from
Nen? York, not satisfied with direct tax
ation, as though that was not tar enough
(or any reasonable man to go in this coon.
try, must have free trade with it, and
equality and all that sort of thing, anik
talk about Switzerland and Germany, and
how prosperous they were, and that there
was no protection there ; bet ho did net
tell us about mechanics and laborers work
ing for sixpence per day, and living upon
black broth and rye-bread, and eatlng
meat once or twice a month, probably lest.
No, sir, he forgot that part of the story,