Copy 1 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS iiiiiiiiiititiMiiiirMiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit 012 028 300 5 Conservation Resources LlE-Free® Type I _ K) . DJ . U ^jt^^-xxJL^ :r{ V. -\-\u^ Gass h -^5?.^ Book - V91- '^^J SPEECH HON. D. ¥. VOORHEES, OF INDIANA. DELTVERED IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, MAY 21, 1862. The House having under consideration the bills Nos. ITl and 1T2, Mr. VOOEHEES said : ■ Mr. Speaker, The financial policy of a Government has always been consid- ered by men of reflections as second only in importance to national bonoi and nation-al existence. Indeed, no nation can long maintain ^^ 'honorable exit- enee which makes an unwise or a dishonest use of the resources of its people- It is a fundamental principle of constitutional liberty tlia the citizen ^^^all o wn and enioy the wealth which the labor of his hands extorts from the bosom of the eartl^ subject only to that portion which he may justly be ^a led upon to pay fow the i^otection of government and the b essings of social order He has this dominion over the fruits of his toil by divine right, and when thi rigU is invaded by the Government, through impolicy or fraud, and the citizen is rob- bed untr the forms of law, it becomes his highest duty to repel he invasion and r^ist the wrong. In a free Government this is done through he peacetul instrumentality of the ballot-box, and a change in the agents of t'^e pe;pl« who are responsible for the unnecessary oppression. In despotisms whcie the Dopular voice has no weight and cannot be heard, the toihng millions when they can endure no more, enfore justice with the sword. But the nght to a man's own, under all circumstances, is an inherent right, and human nature has held it saci-«d in all ages, and enforced it la every form in which the human will ''''l TaveVeen L to these observations by what I humbly concieve to be the unsound, false, and ruinous system of finance which has been imposed upon the people of this country within the last twelve months and though I ha^ e not Fhe claims of age or extended experience, yet I.begto be '^''^'fj}^,^^\^^^l the House and the country while I submit my views in that regard The ^^ ants the wishes, the hopes, the fears, the feelings, and the thoughts ot the labo nng classes are all familiar to me. I was born one ot them, reared m then nnd.t and partook of their toil. I represent such a people on this floor and i feel my heart swell with pride when I call to my mind -the honest the loyal, the intelligent, and the industrious constituency whose inteie.ts and whose equality before the law in the distribution of the burdens of tbi Gov- ernment shall be my theme to-day. And with solemn /everence I heie say that as I shall prove faithful to them to the utmost oi my abilitj, and thus promote the true cause of American prosperity and glory, so may God, in His mercy, deal with me and mine. , Sir during the past year we have been engaged in a most stupendous war. Itas'umed, from the fiist, proportions of the most horrible magnitude. Any eye could 'see at the opening stages of this conflict that he struggle of this Government to maintain its just authority within its 'awful jurisdiction was to be one of the most terrible and, perhaps, protracted that ever shook the worid Courage chivalry, patriotism, devotion to the Union and the laws, all came forwafd'and still stand ready in an inexhaustible quantity. The country has glowed from end to end and throughout all its vast extent ^f^Jf^^^^^^t for the Government as our fathers made it. But, sordid and practical as it s '^ • V ^.4 may seem to some, one of the main sinews of war is monej, plain money Without It armies do not move and navies do not float, and the purse of the nation IS to be found in the pockets of the people. Sir, in view of these facts, what has been the course of those in authority since the war commenced, in re- gard to the great question of national economy? Have our resources been carefully husbanded ? Have our public moneys been strictly guarded from the baud of the plunderer ? Have our public officers been held to a rigid account- ability m their use of the hard earned revenues of the country ? Has financial mtegnty marked the conduct of those in whom the people placed their trust when the present Administration came into power ? Has common honesty been observed bj those who won their way to popular confidence by their fierce de- nunciations of the alleged corruptions of former Administrations ? I speak not as a partisan nor in the spirit of party. I trust I can rise above all such con- siderations; but tliese are questions in which the people of all parties have a deep and overwhelming interest, and they are questions, too, which all men Ib every part of the country who desire -an honest administration of our pubHc affairs are now asking with serious and startling emphasis. The answer which must come, and of which impartial history will make an everlasting record, is one which b-jws the head and burns the chee-k of every lover of his country's good name with humiliation and with shame. Let us look calmly and carefully at a few fiijnres, not of alluring and capti- vating fancy, but figures of cold and repulsive reality. The vail which a pleasing and hopeful sophistry weaves around its object 'with 'which to beguile *u ^j^'i '"*" ^ slumbering sense of security must be torn away. Nothing should be hid from the honest eye of popular scrutiny. It is the duty of the Representative to fully portray those facts of vital importa'nce on which the governing power of this free country, the people, will soon be called upon to act. I presume, sir, that at this time no one can, with entire accuracy, e=?timate the amount of our public debt. It is one of the alarmino- sii^ns of the times ttiat either from confusion and incapaeit}', or from the shrinking dread of recog- nizing an appalling truth, we have an unusual silence in ofiRcial quarters in regard to the extent of Government liabilities. We are, however, relieved in a great measure upon that point, by the statements which have been made from time upon this floor, and especially by the chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means, [Mr. Stevexs,] who has a right to speak on that subject as one in authorit}^ From that source we learn that our expenditures have, for many months past, exceeded the enormous sum of §3.000,000 per day. One year's expense at this rate reaches the sum of $1,095,000,000. That our indebtedness at this moment is equal to that vast amount will hardlv be denied by any in- telligent and candid person who has Jiad the opportunity to observe" the pro- fusion and recklessness with which the resources and the credit of the Govern- ment have been used since this most unnatural strife fell like a blight upon the land. A little more than one year ago we beheld the inflamed and wrathful visage of .ivil war for the first time disturb, like a baleful comet, the peace of this Republic. Since then battles have been fought, equal in numbers Engaged, in heroism of conduct, and in the ghastly heaps of the slain, to the renow'ned conflicts of an ancient story. Victorj^^ too, under an overruling Providence, has chosen the standard of the Government, and our armies are"^steadiiy pen- etrating that immense scope of country in which the banner of revolt has been reared. But assuming that the smiles of fortune will continue to rest upon our arm.s, and that no reverses are in store for our troops, yet nothing is plainer to the thinking mmd which resolves the future by considering the pi\st than the fact that the expenses of this Government for tlie ensuing vear will fully equal, and most likely surpass, what we have witnessed in^the vear that "has just closed. As our armies push forward their columns into the 'distant parts of a desolated and impoverished and hostile country, the difl^icultv and cost of their support will rapidly multiply. The value of transportation will abnost doubls the price of the stores transported. There has been much undigested and crude declamation on this floor in regard to subsisting our forces on the pro- dncts of tlie country we invade. This, however, is simply one of those an- / substantial theories which, unhappily for the country, have so plentifully abounded in this body since our national calamities came ilpon us. All the great authors on the art of war show its absurdity, and our own experience has already exploded it. It has already been found that where one armv has swept over a country, but a barren reception awaits another; and especially IS this the case when a retreating army is impelled by the strongest military reasons to leave nothing for the subsistence of its victorious pursuer. Destruc- tion then marks every field, and war, with its iron-mailed hand, scourges the bosom of nature herself into sterilitj^. Attila, the fierce barbarian conqueror, at the head of his ravaging hordes, announced to affrighted Europe that grass would never grow again where the hoofs of his war horse had left their mark. Scarcely less blighted will be the track of defeated and retreating southern armies, when no longer able to meet us in general engagements. But little will be left after their own wants are met, and that little will be destroyed. Our supply trains will have to move with our armies from the loyal Slates, thus augmenting the public expenditures at every step. It is safe, then, to conclude that the year that is to come, and on which we are just entering — the second year of the war— will swell the indebtedness of this Government to the alarm- ing sum of $2,000,000,000. This amount will have accrued about the time the toiling citizen is fairly called upon to commence the weary task of meeting its awful proportions by taxation. It is a task, sir, that no eye which now be- holds the sun will ever see completed. The child is not born, and will not be for more than a hundred years, who will escape the visits of the Federal tax- gatherer in the incessant labors of future generations to wear away by the steady droppings of a perpetual tax this mountain of debt. This is no high- wrought or extravagant statement, but the sad and melancholy truth, as ea^ih succeeding year of the approaching future will but too truly bear witness. It is said, however, here and elsewhere throughout the country, that we are a nation of inexhaustible resources, almost fabulous wealth, and that burdens which would cause_ other Governments to reel and stagger are as light as feathers to us. This is a pleasing tribute to our national vanity ; it sounds well in our self-complacent ears. We have been so long exalted "in happiness over all other people, so long blessed in every enjoyment above what God has ever vouchsafed to any other nation, that we are even now unwillino- or una- ble to realize the fact that the hand of affliction has at last fallen upo^n us with a force almost as cruel as that which visited Jerusalem when Titus was en- camped before her walls. It is true, however, that we abound in wealth. It IS true that our lap has been filled with treasure ; but things in this world exist principally by comparison. That which constituted immense wealth a little more than a year ago, in view of a public debt of less than fifty millions, diminlBhes 3'apidly when brought to bear on a debt of forty times that amount. By the census report of 1860 we find that the assessed value of all the real and person al^property of the entire United States, both loyal and rebellious, is |12,006,'756,5S5. Thus it will be seen that our public debt is now equal to one-twelfth of all the taxable property of the Government, and that ia one year from now it will be equal to one-sixth of everything the people possess jNo cunning and studied speeches made to mislead and deceive can hide the na- ked fact that this is the people's debt, and they will have it to pay. Every sixth acre ot land, every sixth ox, every sixth borse, every sixtb sheep, every sixth hog, and every sixth dollar, under the financial mismanagement and fraud of the party now in power, will, in one year from to-day, be covered and swal- lowed up by the amount of the Government debt. It will be equal to an in- terest on every taxable substance in the land of si.xteen and two-thirds per cent. Every business man knows that in the private transactions of life such a rate of interest is the speedy prelude to individual ruin in him who nays it- and the nation on which such a weight is imposed is on the brink of over- whelming bankruptcy. In this estimate it will be seen that I have taken Ihe figures ot the census report as they were made when the unruflied calm of peace and prosperity gave to property its highest value. To what extent the ravages of war have depreciated this value it is impossible to calculate ■ but that the property of the people of the United States is to-day worth ntore than two-thirds of what if was one year ago, will not be pretended- and to the extent of that depreciation is the proportion which the public debt bears tc it increased. But again. By the census report from which I have just quoted we find that the population of the United States in the _year 1850 was a little more than thirty millions. Of this population about five millions are voters. A moment's calculation in the simplest rules of arithmetic shows tliat each indi- vidual voter of these five millions is in debt to-day $200 on account of liis'pro- portion of the national expenses, and that one year hence lie will be in debt |)-iOO on the same account. The liability of my own great State of Indiana, according to the rule of taxation which has been enacted against her by the present Congress, will be $100,000,000, of which enormous sum the people of the district whicli I have the honor to represent will stand charged with some- thing over twelve millions of dollars. Wliere, sir, in all the dreary history of profligate nations were eversuih bur- dens as these imposed on the shouHers of any people in so short a time ? The mourning children of Israel, captives in the brick'j-ards of Egypt, were scarcely more slaves to their Egyptian masters than the American people will be to the constant demands and exactions of the national debt. It will come upon them like the lean and hungry kine rising from the river of Pharoah's dream to de- vour the well-favored and fat-fleshed cattle of all the land. Tell me not of the blessings of a public debt. That ciy is simply the cheat and the falsehood by which men who have abused their authority seek to cover up the outrages which they have inflicted on confiding people. It is as old, too, as- crime in high places, or the principle of base cupidity in the heart of man. The Phari- sees of Jerusalem over their hoarded gains, the kings of Bab}"lon on their couches of gold, Alexander at his gorgeous banquets, the Sultan in the midst of his soft dalliances of expensive love, corrupt, etfeminate Roman senators in their villas of marble magnificence, the Bourbons of France surrounded by the splendors of the Tuilleries, the Stuarts of England, clinging to their maxims of kingcraft, lustful tyrants, debauched princes, and dishonest statesmen of all ages and ev- ery clime have all talked wisely and profoundly of the sweets and comforts ■which flow to the people from that fountain of bitter waters — a great public debt. If they can convince the people that this monstrous heresy is right, then all check and restraint on extravagance and wasteful indulgence nt once are withdrawn, and avarice and corruption are left free to prey with unbridled li- cense on the substance of the nation. It is alarming, sir, that this fatal doc- trine is foutid creeping into the debates of the American Congress. Has~it come to this? Has this great nation, so famed for its wealth and pecuniary respon- sibility, been driven so soon to seek refuge in the mischievious principle that it is a national benefit to be sunk in indebtednessi It becomes the people, before it is too late, to arouse themselves against this baleful dogma of despotism, and prove to the world that they are woi-tliy of the freedom which they as yet pos- sess. Let them seek wisdom and warning on this vital subject in the teachings of that great founder of American- democracy, Thomas Jefferson. Discussing this question in 181-3, he said : " At the time we were fuailinc; our national debt, we heard much about 'public debt being a publie blessing;' that the slock representing it wiis a creation of active cai>ilal for the ali- ment of commerce, manufactures, and agriculture. This paradox was well adapted to the minds of believers in dreams, and the sails of that size entered bonajide into it.'' " We are warranted, then, in aflirming that this |)arody on the principle of the public debt, being a public blessing and its muiaiion into the blessing of private instead of public debts, is aa ridiculous as th« original princii)le itself. ' And again, in a letter to Albert Gallatin, this profound statesman and politi- cal philosopher says : " But if the debt should once more be swelled to a forniidab'e size, its entire dii»cliarge will be despaired of, and we shall be committed to the English career of debt, corruplion, rotten- ness, closing with revolution. The discharge of the serve the public interests may possibly have inaueneed the choice that wasmade. The time, too, at which this arrangement w<\s made by which such a vast and disproportionate amount of the p"ublic money was paid for so inconsiderable a service, was peculiarly unfortunate. The coun- try was engaged in a war in which its very existence was at slake. The nation had been aroused, and was contributing men and money without stint to defend the national lilC, vin- dicate the national honor, and restore the rightful supremacy of the Constitution and the laws. The energies and the industry of the country were to be taxed as they never had been before, and the pressing necessities of the Government had compelled it to resort to new and untried sources of revenue. The hut of poverty and the splendid mansions of wealth were alike called upon to aid in bearing the burden which rebellion and civil war had thrown upon the nation All this was borne, and would have been borne cheerfully, if the tax-payers had seen or been convinced that their money was to be faithfully and economically applied to the purposes f>r which it was raised. But when they see immense sums lavished upon personal or political favorites for small and inconsiderable scj-vices, eonfldence in the Goverumentis impaired, public credit is paralyzed, and the very existence of the nation is imperiled." And in commenting on this alarming state of corruption in the Navj? Depart- ment, a very distinguished Senator (Mr. Hale) used the following strong lan- guage : " When the country was taxing itself as it never had before, when it was bleeding at every pore, when new and untried sources of revenue were resorted to, when you were taxing the necessaries of the humblest inhabitant of your land, and when the land was straining itself and all its citizens, and they were sending their young men to the field and giving their money to the Treasury — at tiiat time and in that hour when it seemed as if the very existence of the nation stood in the scale, doubtful. which way it *vas to turn, George D. Morgan, a merchant of New York, a brother- in-law of the Secretary of the Navy, was receiving from the hard «arnings of this hard taxed people a compensation equal to about twelve thousand dollars a month." He further saj's : " I regret to see what has been stated in several of the papers, not tbat tJiey believed this was an honest tran-action, not that it was a fair one, not that it was one that deserved to re- ceive the approbation and the sanction of the Government; but the excuse is, that it is not »half 80 bad as what has been done in other cases ; and I have no doubt tbat that is true. I have nodoubtthat if some of the investigating committees go on they will find tliat there have been transactions compiired with which $70,000 was a small sum, and that it will be considered un- gracious to call up one of these petty offenders that has only taken $70,000 and deal with him when there are others going off staggering under the load of hup.dreath. "This sad page in the history of the late commander of this department, gathers a deep shadow from tlie circumstanets under which these declarations were made General Fremont had a few weeks before talccH and subscribed the following military oath : ' I, Jolin C. Fre- mont, do solemnly swear tbat I will bear true faith and allegiance to the United States, and that I will serve t'hem honestly and faithfully against their enemies or opposers whomsoever; and that I will observe and obey the orders of the President of the United States, and the orclera of the officers over me, according to the rules and articles of war.' He thus in sight of God and his country, had plighted faith with his Government that he would bear to it ' true allegiance,' and he stood pledged by the most solemn of human sanctions to siTpport th^ C " Corruption wins not more than honesty.'' But is that true in these latter days ? I have shown that, by the delibarate finding of a committee raised under the authority of this House, and by the action of this House itself, the late Secretary of War, Simon Cameron, is de- clared guilty, in this awful crisis, of plundering, and witli criminal knowledge permitting to l)e plundered, the resources of the people, the Tieasury of his country. With that b/aird upon him, he steps from one exalted station to another, and goes as our accredited minister to the court of the greatest and most friendly I'owr to us on the continent of Europe. The conclusions which the Russian Emperor may draw in regard to the American sense of public morality will not, perhaps, advance us much in his estimation. Let Mr. Cam- eron present the following resolution, adopted so recently by this House, as a part of his credentials, and our degradation in that (quarter of the world will be complete : licsolved, Tliat Simon Cameron, late Secretary of War, by investing Alexander Cummlnga with the control of large sums of the pul>lic money, and authority to purehasL- niililary sup- plies without restriction, without rccpiiring from him any guarantee for the faithful perform- ance of his duties, when the services of competent public officers were available, and by in- volving the Government in a vast number of contracts with i)ersons not legitimately engaged In the business pertiiining to the subject-matter of such contracts, e8i)ecially in the purchase of arras for futun-! delivery, has adopted a ])olicy highly injurious to the public service, and deserves the cetisure of this llouse. I have shown that, bj' the deliberate finding of a regular committee of the Senate, the present Secretary of the Nav}', Gideon Welles, in connection with his brother inlaw, George D Morgan, has unlawfully extorted from tlie tax- payers of the Government $70,00U of their money. With neither justification nor rcstilulion on his part, he yet retains his seat at the board of the Cabinet ^/ 11 coiincil, wears fine linen, and fares sumptuously every day, while the wives and children of soldiers have died in the great philanthropic cities of the North for the want of bread. I have shown that a commission of most eminent gentlemen appointed by the President himself have proven, eonohisively proven, that the blighting touch, of John C. Fremont during his hundred days in Missouri palsied public credit, defrauded the people of millions, filled the bloated purses of his favorites by fraud, demoralized the public service in every branch, and sought to destroy the Constitution itself The exhausted soldier is put to death for yielding to iiTesistible slumber at his post, the victim of pinching poverty is sent to the penitentiary for stealing provision for his wife and children ; but this exalted criminal finds appi'oval for his conduct, is surrounded by flatterers, is restored to the field, and sits in the saddle of command and of power. Sir, Cicero, brought the haughty Verres to trial and to condemnation for his fraudulent practices in the Sicilian province; and Burke enriched the English language by his tl^iuneiatious of the extortionate measures imposed by Warren Hast- ings on uie people of the East Indies ; but in the midst of fraud aiid robbery in the very highest departments of this Government we have as yet seen no ofiicial delinquent brought to answer the law for the plunder of the publie Treasury, but rather we have seen the perpetrators of these wrongs receiving still greater marks of confidence and of favor, and niounting to still loftier lieights of honor. But, Mr. Speaker, having established by the highest proof, the charge which I make of fraud in the management of our pecuniary afi'airs by which our public debt has been so fearfully increased, I shall now proceed to the brief consideration of a few other points ju-operly in this connection, and which I conceive to be of publ'ic interest. We seek to take refuge, sir, from the enormous figures of our national in- debtedness whenever they are brought to our attention, in the fact that we can defer its payment, and bequeath it as an inheritance to coming generations. Admitting that this unworthy thing may to some extent be done, yet let us see^for a few moments, what amount of money this Government will be com- pelred aninially to raise in order to prevent open and confessed bankruptcy before the world. I will content myself 'with a specific statement of the vari- ous items of current yearly expense which must be regularly met. Against the substantial correctness of this statement I challenge successful contradiction. The interest on the public debt, at a very low estimate, $100,000,000. The ordinary expenses of the Government, including appropriations for the increased magnitude of the Army and Navy after the war is over, will reach $150,000,000 at auother low estimate. I am especially warranted in fixing this amount in view of the declaration on this floor, by the chairman of the Com- mittee on Military Aft'airs, [Mr. Blair, of Missouri,] tiiat hereafter our peace establishment will consist of a standing army of a hundred thousand men. The pension list comes next. This Government must not fail to meet the re- quirements of civilization and of humanity. It must and will provide for the support of its maimed and wounded, and for the maintenance of the widows and orphans of those who have fallen on the field of battle, or been stricken down by disease while in the public service. It is of course diflicult to calcu- late the amount which will be required to meet this item of expense; but no well-informed person will pretend that it will be less than the sum of |100,- 000,000. To the above must be added at least §.50,000,000 more as a margin for claims against tlie Govei'nment, contingent expenses, and unforeseen events during this convulsive and unsettled period of the world's history. We have thus an inevitable annual expenditure, without making any pro- vision whatever for the payment of the public debt itself, of the sum of §400,- 000,000, This amount will make its demands on the resources of the peo[)le in each succeeding year, as regularly as the season come and go, and in a voice as imperative and inexorable as the cry of fate. You need not -avert your frightened gaze fiom the sore contemplation of this terrible fact. It is the lion in the pathwa}- of the future, but it must be met. Death itself is not more certain to all than is this monstrous annual burden on the shoulders of the 12 American people. And now, sir, bearing this fearful fact in mind, from which there is now no escape, the question necessarily arises with immense, over- whelming force, as to what system of finance shall he adopted to raise annually this monstrous sum of money. It is the vital question of the day, and para- mount to all others save civil liberty and republican government. • I live, Mr.'Speaker, in a land of corn, in a land where the fruits of the earth constitute the reward of labor. I live in a great valley, beside whose agricul- tuial wealth the famed valleys of the Euphrates and the Kile and the richest fields of Euiope sink into utter insignificance, and whose more than Egyptian granaries invite the markets of the civilized world. The plow, the harrow, the reaper, and the threshing machine are our implements of industi-y, and compose the coat of arms of our nobility. The soil is our fiuitful mother, and we are her children. We fill our cribs with grain, and stock our pastures with cattle, and with these we seek to purchase those other neeessai'y articles of life which are not made in our midst. These are our possessions, which we offer in barter and exchange with the trading mei'chants of the world who gk'e us the best returns. This we conceive to be our right, and that the Government in which we live should protect us in its enjoyment. But turn to the contemplation of another region of this country. You there behold the land of manufacturing machinery, and hear the soupd of the loom and the spindle. The people of the Xorth and East make fabrics of cloth, and manufacture all those articles which man needs and which do not grow. These constitute their wealth and their stock of merchandise for trade. The markets of the world are open to them, and of right ought to be. The West is an immense consumer of those articles which they have to sell. We are willing to buy of them of our own choice if we can buy theie as cheap as we can elsewhere. But I here aver that the unequal and unjust system of finance now adopted by the part}' in power gives to the vast manufacturing interest of this country tlae arbitrary power to fix its own exoibitant prices, and the laboring agriculturist is compelled to pay them. To this no people can submit. Against this outrage the people of the West will cry out. You have fastened upon this countiy the most odious sj'stem of tariff on imported goods that oyer paraljzed the energies of a nation or oppressed its agi-icultural citizens. You say by that tariff that the manufacturing institutions of this country shall not be brought in competition with those of other parts of the wurld. You say that our ports shall be closed to foreign ti'aders for fear they will undersell the manufacturer of New England or the ironmonger of Pennsylvania. You re- quire, of the European merchant a dutj' which he cannot pay, and thus you banish him fiom our commercial intercourse. You say to the western farmer, to agriculturists everywhere, that there shall be but one market in which they may buy. You drive them to the counters and founderies of men whuni you protect in a monopoly of the sales wliicdi they make. You do all this for the sole and avowed leasoii that goods from abroad can be sold heie cheaper than they can be made and sold by our own citizens, and that a protection must be given to high prices. Every school boy in political science knows who pays this increase of price. Keed I, at this period of American history, discuss the operations of a iiigh protective tariff ? Need I stop to show its folly and its injustice? No, sir. It is one of the settled questions of governmental policy. Twenty years ago it was fairly tried, and the American people passed an intel- ligent verdict of condemnation against it. It was full}- heard by greater advo- cates than it has today, and repudiated as an unfair and ruinous system. If any question was ever, in the historj- of this Government, distinctly tried be- fore a tribun.il of the people and condemned, it was the question of a protec- tive tariff. Tiie couuti-y. prospered by its repudiation, and the laborer bought where his money would buy most. I^ut this issue has again risen, and in a shape more ofl'ensive and injurious to tlie true interests of the country than ever before. Tiie present tariff is one which no party in the past would have sanc- tioned. Il would liave alarmed the old Wliig party as much as any other by its stringent and prohibitory features. It goes far'beyond wliat was deemed wise or piudent bj' tlie strongest protectionists of former high tariff periods. And now allow me to stale some of its specific practical operations as a part of the financial jiolic}' of the present hour. ^f 13 ■ It forces the laboring man, the consumer, the farming classes generally, to pay for manufactured articles, which embrace a large portion of the necessities of life, an increased price over tlieir proper value, and over that for which they can elsewhere be bought, of from forty to one hundred per cent. Thus a tax of most fearful rate is levied on one bi'anch of iinlustry, not to support the Government, but to contribute as a gratuitous donation to a privileged and favored business. That is the first extortionate species of taxation whicli meets us in the examination of ihis subject. It is one wliich at any time would fall with oppressive cruelt}' on a large majority of the loyal people of the country; but, at a time like this, when the government itself is claiming almost the entire substance of the land for its maintenance, no language can be found sufficiently strong with v/hich .to characterize the enormity of such a policy. In Uie next place, the present tariff robs the Government of a much-needed revenue by keeping imported goods from our shores. Under its operations during the past year, according to a statement made a few weeks since in the British Earliament by the Chancellor of the English Exchequer, our importa- tions from Great Britain alone have fallen off to the amount of $8.3,000,000. The report on the finances of our own Government for the year ending June 30, 1861, shows a loss in our receipts arising from customs during the first three months after this tariff went into operation of over ten millions of dollars as compared with the receipts during a similar period a year previous. Under the tariff of lS-t6, a revenue to support the Government was tought b}' liberal terms of trade with foreign nations, and richly obtained. The rule is now re^ versed, and for the unworthy purpose of protecting a class of business which ought to sustain itself or be abandoned, this great fountain of pecuniary sup- port to 'the nation is dried up. It no longer flows into the Treasury, and the mone}' which is thus diverted from the public to private and individual benefit has to be replaced under this Administration by direct and specific taxes on the people. Thus taxation grows and augments its alarming proportions in order that the interests of a favored few may be cherished and promoted. But the manner in which this taxation is to be levied, and in which it is to • affect the different interests of the country exceeds all the preceding features of criminal outrage on those who live Ipy producing from the soil. By the provisions of the tax bill which recently passed this House a tax of three per cent. oA valorem is laid upon all articles of manufacture in the hands of the manufacturer. It is estimated tliat there will thus be raised $.50,000,000 of the annual income arising from taxation. This the manufacturing interest is to pay for the support of the Government, and the airs of patriotism which are assumed in consequence are eminently characteristic. But inasmucli as this manufacturing interest is guarded by a Morrill tariff* from all competition in selling, and strictly protected, in inci-easing its prices uf sale to its forced cus- tomers to an almost unlimited extent, will any oife, in his simplicity, pretend that the three per cent, wherewith it is taxed, the $50,000,000 which it has to pay, will not be charged up to the buyer when its goods are sold. The tariff and taxation are kindred measures, born of a common origin, and, like leashed hounds, hunt for their innocent prey coupled together. The tariff stands guard over the interests of the manufacturer, while taxation hunts for every other substance in the land on which to fasten its fangs. And if, for the sake of appearances, the manufacturing interest is meutio,ned in a tax bill, the tariff steps forward and enables its cherished friends to recover back every dollar which they are assessed by raising the price of the woolen clothes, the linens, the muslins, the calicoes, the plowshares, and the implements of husbandry, and the articles of daily necessity which the American Government forces its citizens to buy of its protected monopolists. This is the culmination, the climax of wrong. A Government which plunders one citizen to enrich another needs the strong, stern hand of reform on its helm. Though perfect equality should prevail in meeting the immense taxation which is coming like a mountain avalauche^upon this people, yet it will be born amid sorrow and weary pain ; but when it shall all fall virtually on a given class of citizens it will become an intolerable, suffocating nightmare of ruin and of death. I challenge the attention of the country that such is the lofC. u worliing of tlie present sj'stera, wliieh it is pretended has been adopted for the support of the Government. Already we eee its effects. The s;reat manufac- turing corporations of the East are crowding their bloated pockets with rapid and gigantic gains. Their dividends of profits are swollen some thirty, some sixty, and some an hundred fold. This is no random statement, but is sus- tained by the statistics before me. It is a fact, too, of "Tirhich the whole country has taken cognizance. Sir, no sectional boundaries to my lore of country prompts these remarks. I call God to witness witli what devotion I love every sod and rock, and river, mountain, prairie, and forest of my naiive land. For its happines-? and glory it would be sweet and honorable to die. I reckon no section of it above ano- ther. It is all alike to me, all dear and hallowed by the principles of consti- tutional liberty. But I speak in the name of justice, which is everywhere present, in the name of fraternal and American equality, and I ask you, I im- plore you, to look at the condition of the western people. Their interests have been abandoned on this floor by more than half their Representatives, and thej' stand today bearing the hard brunt of tlie pitiless storm which has burst from the angry sky. They are shut out from all fair markets for their pi'oduce. Their natural channels of trade to the South are closed by the im- pious hand of war, and their avenues to the markets of the North are ob- structed by the avarice of railroads. It costs sixty cents to freight a bushel of corn from the Wabash river to New York, and leaves from seven to fourteen C€nt8 to tlie farmer who has caused it to grow and gathered it in, as the re- ward of his toil. For everything else he receives the same beggarly return. And yet who has lifted up his voice here in behalf of that great, that honest and oppressed people? Where is their representative in the Committee of Ways and Means, that great despotic committee which matures measures of tariff, of taxation, and of finance, and whose decrees on this floor are as un- alterable as the laws of the Medes and Persians? On that committee, which speaks the voice of fate for the weal or woe of the tax-payers of all the land, the great imperial domain of the West, from the feet of the Alleghany Moun- tiiins to the Pacific ocean, has had no member during this impoitant session. Blow after blow has fallen on her naked head, and now she stands exposed to tlie payment of four-fifths of all the burdens which this Government has to bear. I speak advisedlj'. She has been trarn]>led under foot. Her rights have been disregarded. She has been plundered for the benefit of others. And from here I call upon her to vindicate herself, to assert her e(|uality, to resist oppression, to scorn the tribute which ^he is called upon to pay to a branch of industrj' which God and nature never intended slie should support, to demand from her Government the same protection which others obtain, and toreckon witli her oppressors at thet) allot- box. As for me, I shall join in no such sj'Stem of injustice, inequali^ty, and wanton extortion against tl» people whose interests are confided to my care in this House. I shall resist it in all consti- tutional methods, and denounce it ever3'where ; and in doing so I shall perform what I conceive to be one of the highest duties of honest, fearless patriotism. I might here stop, Mr. Speaker, and rest this great subject with the American people. Tlie vast debt, tlie unparalleled fraud by which it has been accumn- iated, and the iniquitous mode of assessing taxes on the wealth and labor of the country, are all before them. But the political party now in the ascendancy in the executive and legislative departments of this Government have never considered any measuie of policy on any subject complete or perfect unless it embraced a connection, however unnatural, with the African race, unfortunately in large numbers on this oonlinent. These are strange days that hare con>« upon us. We liave all lived to see the abolition of slavery be>come a pecuniary question, and the abolition party become a direct tax upon the pockets of th« poople. Tlie Federal tax gatlierer will visit evei-y house in the land in the next six months for money to carry out its schemes. In the midst of a war mow expensive tlinn the worhl ever witnessed before; with an army and navy cost- ing us more tlian llie armies of England, France, Austria, and Russia combined; witli the hand of jdunder deep in tiie sacred vaults of the national Treasurj'; with tlie hungry «pirit of taxation, like the gaunt and insatiate specter of fam- ine, hunting for the smallest substances of a laborious people, out of which fc« //9/7 15 ■wring an income ; with markets closed, prices depressed, bankruptcy casting its appalling shadow on the horizon of the future, and dismay gathering in the faces of the yeomen of the nation, this, sir, is the time chosen to startle us with a deliberate and most earnest proposal to purclinse with money ami set free the slave population of the South. The President of the United States and both branches of the American Congress have solemnly pledged this Government, in the face of its own citizens, and before the attentive gaze of the nations of the earth, to buy and liberate, if their owners will sell, the entire four millions of slaves which are held in the southern States of this Union. This is the » pledge, and it stands recorded by a vote of this House, by a vote of the Sen- ate, and by the approval of the President, who amazed the country in its zealoiis recommendation. It is now a part of the financial poli(.-y of the pres- ent Administration, made sfi by a full party expression. Nor has it been bai*- ren of fiuits even thus early. The slaves of the District of Columbia have already been bouarht by a forced and unconstitutional sale, and over one million of dollars appropriated from the earnings of the people to pay for them. This act of fanaticism fixes the meaning which the authors of this pledge attach to the phrase '■ pecuniary aid." It has received a severely practical illustration, and the doubting mind is set at rest. But if anything further was needed to convince the tax payer of the designs of abolitionism, 1 have it before me. I hold in my hand a pamphlet of twelve pages, written by Daniel R. Good\oe, an officeholder under this Administration, evidently a man of ability, but un- fortunately led astray by a spurious philosophy and a mistaken philanthropy on the subject of slavery. He warmly and ably espouses the policy of the President, and makes the following statement of the cost of that policy to the American people: " I have shown what the compensation to the border States would be at two different ratee of payment per capita for the si aves, and it will h.ivo been seen that I liave favored the more liberal scale. I now proceed to show what would be the cost of redeeming the whole slave population of the Union at the same rates. " By the census of last year there were 3,S.')2,S01 slaves in the United States and Territories. I have already shown that 45-l,4it, which belonged to the border States, would be worth, al $250 each, .$1 lo,610.250, and at $300 each, $1.36,.S32,.S00. There remains to be disposed of, there- rore, 8,4i*8,.9(;o slaves embraced in the country subject to the rebels, but including, of course, large numbers belonging to friends of the Union, who have been constrained into obedi- ence to the rt-bel autliorities against their wills. At the lowest estimated average value of f25'V these slaves of the rebels would be worth $874,590,000, and adding the compensation to tlie border States, on the same terms, the aggregate cost to the Government would be $988,200,250. At the higher rate of .$300, the" slaves in the rebel S.ates would be worth $1,049,508,000; and adding the cost of compensation to the border States, at the same rate, the aggregate expense of emaiicipation would be $1,185,840,300. Or for the convenience of round numbers, the cost of emancipation would be, at $250 per head, $1,000,000,000, and at $800 p^ head, the cost would be $1,200,000,000." These are the figures made by an ardent friend of the system, who is now employed, by appointment of the President, in asse.«sing the value of the slaves of this District. Sir, I turn from thera with horror. I cannot linger over them. I iiand them over to the white sons of toil throughout the land, and call upon them to consider well the lesson which they teach. The Pharisees of eighteen hundred years ago provoked the maledictions of the Saviour by their intemperate and hypocritical zeal in the affairs of other people ; and a portion of the citizens of the North, in the contemplation of the above figures, may find a curse upon an exactly similar offense, which will prevent its com- mission in the future. Abolitionism has hovered in our heavens like an angel of death, and from its wings has shaken pestilence and war ; and now, like a grizzly terror, it comes to every household for every tenth of the fruits of the earth and the flocks of the field. Like the fierce locusts of Egj-pt, it eomes to devour our green fields and blast our golden harvests. It conies announced by the President and sanctioned by both Houses of Congress, and it remains to be seen whetlier the sinews of strained and oppressed industry will submit to its ravenous and illegal demands. I now take leave of this subject. I have dwelt upon it to-day, not to dis- courage or depress the energies of the people, but to awaken my countrymen to a sense of their perilous situation, in ord*er that they may gird up th-eir loins and meet it in a manner becoming the intelligent, free citizens of Amer- ^\ 16 ica. The present-, it is true, is dark, and filled with the elements of the tem- pest; hut in the sky of the future the star of hope is still burning -with all its ancient lustre. I believe in its promises of returning prosperity, honor, and unity to this Government. A)% sir, Hope, Hope, the sweet comforter of the ■weary hours of anguish, the merciful and benignant angel, walking forever by the side of mourping sorrow, the soothing, ministering spirit of ever}' human woe, the stay and support of great nations in their trials, as well as of feeble men ; hope, that never dies nor sleeps, but shares its immortality with the soul itself, will bear us through the Red Sea and the wilderness that are before us. 1 indulge, ill*. Speaker, in this hope, and cherish it as my friend — a friend that always smiles and points upward and onward to bright visions bejond the bale- ful clouds which now envelop us as a shroud. But the basis of this hope with me is the future action of the people themselves. In the wise, patriotic, and Christian conduct of the American people, I behold this nation lifted up again from its prosti'ation, purified of its bloody pollution, robed in the shining gar- ments of peace ; the furious demon of civil war, which has rended us and caused us to sit howling amidst the tombs of the dead, cast out by the spirit of the omnipotent and merciful Master, who walked upon the waters and bade the winds be still. I expect to see the people raise up the Constitution of our dear and blessed fathers from .the deep degradation of its enemies as Moses reared aloft the brazen serpent amidst the stricken children of Israel for the healing of a nation. I expect to see them, wielding the sword in one hand and appealing to the ballot-box with the other, crush and hurl from power cor- rupt and seditious agitators against the peace and stabilitj' of tliis Union, armed and unarmed, in the North as well as in the South. I expect to see a Congress succeed this, coming fresh from the loyal and honest masses, reflecting their pure and unsullied love for the institutions handed down to us fi'om the days of revolutionary glory. To this end let all good men everywhere bend their energies. .Then will come again the glory and the happiness of our past — those days of purity, of peace, and of brotherly love, over which all America now mourns as the Jewish captive who wept by the waters of Babylon, and refused to sing because Judea" was desolate. This Union will be restored, armed rebellion and treason will give way to peaceful allegiance, but not until the ancient moderation and wisdom of the founders of the Republic control once more in this Capitol. Unnatural, inhuman hate, the accursed spirit of unholy vengeance, the wild and ciuel purposes of unreasoning fanaticism, the debasing lust of avarice and plunder, the«unfair and dishonest schemes of sec- tional aggrandizement, must all give way to the higher and better attributes and instincts 'of the human heart. In their place must reign the charitable precepts of the Bible and the conservative doctrines of the Constitution ; and on these combined it is m}' solemn conviction that the Union of tiiese States will once more be founded as upon a rock which man cannot overthrow, and which God in His mercy will not TOWERS, PRINTERS. in i-> mtr ISSi^F^O LS?''^ O*" CONGRESS LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 012 028 300 5 ^ r^^_<.»..,.«:<^_ n.