Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

Georgia, (Mr. Seaborn Jones,) who opened the debate, so directly and so frankly appealed in its behalf. It will be carried through, if at all, by the mere force of party cohesion and allegiance. And its result, if it ever goes into operation, will be, as I firmly believe, to deprive the Government of no inconsiderable part of the revenues which it is now enjoying. I declare to you, Sir, that if I desired to cripple the Administration; if I saw reason to think that all its solemn professions of moderation in relation to Mexico were hypocritical and hollow, and that it was bent on a campaign of ruthless aggression and aggrandizement; and if I desired, as I should in such a case most heartily desire, to sever, at a blow, the very sinews of so abhorrent and monstrous a movement, I would do all in my power to speed the passage of such a revenue bill as this.

My first and leading objection to this bill, therefore, is, that it will be destructive to the revenue. My first and strongest complaint against the present financial movement is, that at a time of war-at a time when considerations of patriotism call for the amplest provision for replenishing the treasury — at a time when it is peculiarly incumbent on the party, by whose aggres sive policy war has been brought upon us, to make arrangements, at any sacrifice of mere party expediency, for meeting its expenses; that it is proposed, at such a time, to break up a system of duties upon imports, which has yielded, and is yielding, a rich and reliable income to the treasury, in order to substitute a merely experimental tariff; framed in defiance of all the best example of other countries, and all the best experience of our own; and which, in the judgment of not a few of our most sagacious and practical financiers, will depress our industry, derange our currency, cut off the revenues, and go nigh towards involving both the Government and the people in bankruptcy, within eighteen months from the time it takes effect.

Let me not be misunderstood or misrepresented. I am not here to maintain, that the existing tariff is yielding enough for all the present wants of the country. I do not forget that we have a debt of seventeen millions already incurred, and that there is an estimated deficiency of nineteen millions more for the service of the approaching fiscal year. I am quite ready to admit,

that it is incumbent on the party in power, to make some provision for increasing its resources. And upon them must rest the responsibility for originating such a provision. But any practical economist would tell you in ten words what that provision should be. An issue of eight or ten millions of treasury notes, and a moderate specific duty upon tea and coffee, would answer the whole purpose; and they are the only measures which can do so. Not a twenty per cent. ad valorem duty on tea and coffee, to be put on and taken off at the discretion of the President, or to be levied during the uncertain period of the war. Nothing could be more absurd or frivolous. The time at which the duty should begin and end should be fixed, and the term of its duration should be long enough to outlast the stock of these articles now on hand, or the duty will be a mere nullity. A term of less than two years, commencing on the 1st of September, would not be sufficient to make the measure effective. The duty, too, must be specific, or it will hardly be worth laying. An ad valorem duty of twenty per cent. upon both articles would scarcely yield two millions of dollars a year, while a specific duty of four cents a pound upon coffee, twenty cents a pound upon green tea, and fifteen cents a pound upon black tea, (rates less than those which formed a part of our permanent revenue system a few years ago,) would insure you a round sum of seven or eight millions a year. Ad valorem duties upon teas, as indeed upon most of the other articles to which they are applied in this bill, will be attended with all manner of inequalities and frauds in their collection, and will be injurious alike to the interests of the Government and the honest importer. The experience of the whole commercial world condemns them. The commerce of our own country, with one voice, deprecates them. Even the highest free-trade authority of England testifies against them. Turn to the celebrated Parliamentary Report of Mr. Hume, in 1840, and read what is said of them by two of the principal witnesses.

Dr. Bowring states, (British Report, p. 61,) that the German Commercial League or Customs Union levy all duties by weight, except on four articles, corn, seeds, wool, and stone. He says the principal disadvantage of the system is, that it imposes the

[ocr errors]

heaviest duties on the coarsest articles. But when asked whether he would abandon the system on this account, he says "No; it is the simplest and most efficacious, because there is no officer, however uninstructed, who cannot easily apply the system; and because it is least liable to evasion."

John Dillon says, (p. 221,) "The fairest mode of levying a duty, theoretically, is upon the value; but to that, very great practical objections lie. It is exposed to evasion, and is constantly evaded. It is admitted almost by all, and few attempt to deny, that when they make returns of value, they make false returns; it is done in the most open and undisguised manner."

Ad valorem duties involve, moreover, this hardship both on the importer and on the consumer of the articles on which they are levied, that they increase as the price increases, and thus render dear articles dearer. In this way, too, they aggravate the causes which may at any time be in operation to diminish importation and revenue, while specific duties continue the same in all fluetuations of price.

The Secretary of the Treasury lays great stress on the fact that more than half the revenue was collected last year from ad valorem duties. Well, Sir, I suppose that if this bill takes effect, the whole revenue of next year will be collected from ad valorem duties, and for the conclusive reason, that there will be no specific duties in operation. But neither the one fact nor the other can prove any thing to the Secretary's purpose. He states, with an air of triumph, that the revenue from ad valorem duties exceeds that realized from specific duties, although the average of the ad valorem was only 23.57 per cent., while the average of the specific was 41.30 per cent. From these premises he draws two conclusions; first, that ad valorem duties are better than specific; and, second, that lower duties increase the revenue, Nothing could be more absurd than these inferences. Even the premises are not correct. The Secretary has included among the ad valorem duties the cotton minimums, which are virtually specific duties. He has omitted, too, all allowance for the specific duty on wool. Transfer the duties received on cotton goods and half the duties on wool to the other side of the account, and the revenue from specific duties will exceed that

from ad valorem duties. But even if the premises were correct, the conclusions would be preposterous. The whole amount of the matter is, that, during the last year, the importations of articles subjected to ad valorem duties were nearly twice as large as of those subjected to specific duties. According to the Secretary's tables the value of the former was $60,191,862, and of the latter $34,914,862. And the fact that as much revenue was derived from the latter amount of importations under high specific duties, as from the former under low ad valorem duties, -instead of proving that ad valorem duties are better than specific, or that low duties increase revenue, would seem, to common apprehensions, to prove precisely the reverse. Certainly, Sir, everybody must admit that the duty which produces a revenue of about fifteen millions on an import of about thirtyfive millions, is more effective, than the duty which requires an import of sixty millions to produce the same result.

But let me return from this digression. I have said that an issue of Treasury notes, and a moderate specific duty on tea and coffee, are the only measures which can be relied on for supplying the exigencies of the present moment. Sir, I have no fancy for these measures in the abstract. A tax upon tea and coffee, I know, will be odious. But I greatly prefer such a duty to that scheme of direct taxation which has been proposed by one of the friends of the Administration from Tennessee, (Mr. Andrew Johnson.) I greatly prefer such a measure, too, either to sacrificing the public credit, or to plunging the country deeper and deeper into debt. And if the tax be odious, Sir, upon whom should the odium rest, but upon those who have occasioned the necessity for its imposition?

At all events, believing, as I do, that no other measures adequate to the exigency can be devised, I am willing to say, that if the friends of the Administration will take the responsibility of bringing forward such measures as these, to be of limited duration, and for the single purpose of defraying the expenses of the war, and if the tariff in other respects shall be left undisturbed, I, for one, am ready to vote for them; but not otherwise. In other words, I will vote for a duty on tea and coffee to supply the wants of the Government, but not to eke

heaviest duties on the coarsest articles. But when asked whe ther he would abandon the system on this account, he says "No; it is the simplest and most efficacious, because there is no officer, however uninstructed, who cannot easily apply the system; and because it is least liable to evasion."

John Dillon says, (p. 221,) "The fairest mode of levying a duty, theoretically, is upon the value; but to that, very great practical objections lie. It is exposed to evasion, and is con stantly evaded. It is admitted almost by all, and few attempt to deny, that when they make returns of value, they make false returns; it is done in the most open and undisguised manner."

Ad valorem duties involve, moreover, this hardship both on the importer and on the consumer of the articles on which they are levied, that they increase as the price increases, and thus render dear articles dearer. In this way, too, they aggravate the causes which may at any time be in operation to diminish importation and revenue, while specific duties continue the same in all fluctuations of price.

The Secretary of the Treasury lays great stress on the fact that more than half the revenue was collected last year from ad valorem duties. Well, Sir, I suppose that if this bill takes effect, the whole revenue of next year will be collected from ad valorem duties, and for the conclusive reason, that there will be no specific duties in operation. But neither the one fact nor the other can prove any thing to the Secretary's purpose. He states, with an air of triumph, that the revenue from ad valorem duties exceeds that realized from specific duties, although the average of the ad valorem was only 23.57 per cent., while the average of the specific was 41.30 per cent. From these premises he draws two conclusions; first, that ad valorem duties are better than specific; and, second, that lower duties increase the revenue. Nothing could be more absurd than these inferences. Even the premises are not correct. The Secretary has included among the ad valorem duties the cotton minimums, which are virtually specific duties. He has omitted, too, all allowance for the specific duty on wool. Transfer the duties received on cotton goods and half the duties on wool to the other side of the account, and the revenue from specific duties will exceed that

« AnteriorContinuar »