Abridgment of the Debates of Congress, from 1789 to 1856, Vol. 4 (of 16)

by United States. Congress

Monday, June 22.

Additional Duties.

An engrossed bill for imposing additional duties upon all goods, wares, and merchandise, imported from any foreign port or place, was read the third time, and recommitted to a Committee of the Whole to-day.

The House accordingly resolved itself into a Committee of the Whole on the bill; and, after some time spent therein, the Committee rose and reported the bill to the House without amendment.

Mr. Bigelow.—Mr. Speaker, it is well known that I have been uniformly opposed to the measures which have drained the Treasury of its money—more particularly to those measures of the present session, which have rendered necessary such large appropriations, and laid the foundation for an expense which no man can calculate. But, sir, as those appropriations have been made; as expenses have been and must be incurred; the means of payment must be provided. Sir, I hold it to be a sound political principle—a principle from which this Government never ought to depart—that the creation of public debt ought to be accompanied with the means of its extinguishment. This principle was strongly recommended in the administration of Washington, by the then Secretary of the Treasury, in a report to Congress on the subject of finance. He stated it to be the true secret for rendering public credit immortal, and expressed a fervent hope that the Government of the United States would always adhere to it. The arguments in favor of this principle are plain and obvious. The public credit must be supported, or the Government will lose the confidence of the people. The public credit must be supported, or you put at hazard the best interests of the country; you hazard, indeed, the very existence of the Government. In popular Governments there is always a reluctance to laying burdens upon the people. If, then, while creating a public debt, we neglect to provide the means of payment, what will be the consequence? Will it be less difficult or unpopular to do this after the debt has accumulated to an enormous amount? No, sir. Depend upon it, the longer you delay to provide the means for discharging the public debt, the greater will be the risk and difficulty of doing it. What will be the consequence of such neglect? Sir, the country will be deluged with Treasury notes; these notes will depreciate, like the old continental money—the whole history of which every one, acquainted with the history of the Revolution, knows to be a history of public and private frauds. Sir, the floodgates of corruption will be opened upon us. Already, sir, tigers and sharks are feasting, in anticipation, on their prey.

Impressed, as I am, with the importance of the principle, that the creation of public debt ought to be accompanied with the means of its extinguishment, I confess it was with no little astonishment I learnt, that doubling the duties on imported articles was the only means to be provided; that, after the House had solemnly resolved upon a system of taxation, embracing various subjects, and intended, as was stated, to equalize upon the people of the different States, as far as possible, the burden of taxation, that only one of those has been selected, and that one the most unjust, the most unequal, and the most mischievous of the whole. These remarks are not made, Mr. Speaker, from an apprehension that doubling the duties on imported articles will not effectually open the eyes of the people. Sir, it will be the most unpopular tax you can impose. The people of this country—particularly the eastern sections of it, upon whom this tax will bear peculiarly hard—are too enlightened not to know, to see, and to feel, the operation which an additional duty of 100 per cent. upon imported articles will have upon them. They are too enlightened not to know that this will be but the beginning of sorrow. Neither, sir, are they so ignorant as not to know that the five millions of dollars which it is calculated to raise by doubling the duties, will not discharge a loan of eleven millions, and Treasury notes to the amount of five millions more; much less that it will defray the expenses of the war. Yes, sir, they will at once see, that, sooner or later, other taxes must and will be resorted to. The true policy, then, of the United States is, in the outset, to lay the foundation of a sure and certain revenue, and not to depend, in a state of war, upon a revenue to be derived from a source so uncertain as that of commerce. My objection is not that revenue ought not to be raised, but to the present mode.

I have stated, sir, that this is an unjust measure. Let us for a moment look at its operation. There is, probably, at a moderate calculation, seventy millions' worth of imported goods now in the United States, which have paid only the present rate of duties. Taking the calculation of the Secretary of the Treasury as correct, that thirty-five millions of imported goods yield a revenue, at the present rate of duties, of five millions, the seventy millions now in the United States have paid duties to the amount of ten millions.

What then will be the consequence of passing this bill? The owners of the imported goods now in the United States are men who understand their own interest. The moment, therefore, you pass this bill, and impose double duties upon goods to be imported, the owners of goods now on hand will increase the price as much at least as the amount of the present rate of duties. The purchasers of these goods, therefore, will have to pay to the owners ten millions of dollars more than the present value. You will of course lay a tax of ten millions of dollars upon the purchasers and consumers of these goods, without benefiting the Treasury a single cent.

Does this, sir, comport with the principles of justice? Is it right to take from one part of the community ten millions of dollars and put it into the hands of another part? In opposing this measure, I am not advocating the interest of the merchant, but of the farmer, the tradesman, and mechanic. I am not willing that the people whom I represent, in addition to the taxes they must pay to carry on the war, should also pay such an enormous tax to the merchant.

Mr. Mitchill expressed his sentiments as being favorable to an augmentation of the duties on imports; though he was quite unprepared to give his assent to such increase in the terms proposed by the bill.

It is therein proposed, sir, to double the existing customs. I think this is not the best way of accomplishing the object intended. The bill is brought before us for the avowed purpose of raising money. The mode proposed is, by an addition of one hundred per cent. on the sums levied upon imported merchandise. Now, although I am friendly to a revision of our tariff, and to such an amendment of it as will materially increase the receipts at the Treasury, I am very far from believing the method now proposed for that purpose is the one we ought to adopt.

I object to the plan, because it takes for granted that the rate of duties now extant in our statutes is precisely what it ought to be. This I humbly conceive is not the fact. A brief recital of our commercial system inwards, will show it. The impost, until the adoption of the constitution of 1787, belonged to the respective States. When the Government went into operation in 1789, it took the direction and the profits of the custom-houses. One of the earliest acts of the legislators, which, on that occasion, assembled at New York, was to fix the sums which each denomination or parcel of foreign merchandise should pay on being admitted into our country. This was done, in the first instance, with all the skill which the patriotism and intelligence of the members of the first Congress permitted. From session to session, and from time to time, it was altered and improved. The last memorable amendment, was, if I recollect right, in the year 1804. Then, a variety of articles which had paid an ad valorem duty were specifically enumerated and charged with duties conformably. At that time our tariff was admirably calculated to answer its several purposes. Much thought and profound knowledge had been bestowed, to mature it, and render it as complete as possible. It was at that time peculiarly and happily calculated for the good of the nation.

But eight years have elapsed since that table of duties was arranged. During that term, prodigious changes have taken place in the commercial world. The principal part of the European Continent, from the Baltic to the Mediterranean, and from the Atlantic to the Adriatic, have bowed to the sovereignty of the Emperor of the French. He has published his modern and enormous tariff, and caused it to be enforced throughout his extensive dominions. Tobacco, cotton, and other great articles of American produce, have been subjected to excessive and almost prohibitory imposts.

Memorable alterations have been made, during the aforesaid period, in the insular tariff—I mean of the British dominions. Their regulations, as relate to lumber and the heavy materials of our growth, as well as to the exportation of their own manufactures, have been materially tightened and straightened. Their charges for convoy, port accommodations, light-houses, and quarantine, are exceedingly heavy. It is high time they should be examined, and thoroughly understood.

A great change has also taken place in the colonial system. France has lost Martinique, Guadaloupe, and the Isle of Bourbon. Neither the East nor the West Indies contain any provinces owing allegiance to the Corsican Emperor. All the rum, sugar, coffee, and molasses of those productive regions, were now English—and with the English nation we were now at war. In like manner, the Batavian colonies had been forced to submit to the Mistress of the Seas; and Guiana, the Cape of Good Hope, Batavia, the Spice Islands, and all the other foreign possessions of the Dutch, had yielded to her conquering power. All their productions were now Anglican; and we could only obtain them from or through an enemy.

Our own country had been transformed, during the last eight years, into a situation exceedingly different from what it had ever been before. It has taken many strides towards independence. The soil has been more profoundly explored, and found to contain innumerable and invaluable productions, which the mineralogist examines with pride, and the economist turns to profit. The forest and the fields have been proved to rear more indigenous plants, and to be capable of maturing more exotic ones, than any observer had supposed. And the arts, trades, and manufactures, which have arisen among us, have progressed with a thriftiness of which I can cite you no example.

Mr. M. then took a survey of the three great purposes intended to be furthered by the duties on imported merchandise. The first of these was the collection of money for the Treasury; the second, was the countervailing of other nations, by accommodating our duty to theirs; and the third was to protect our infant and growing manufactures. He contended that the mode proposed by the bill now before the House was very imperfect in all these relations. It was unskilfully devised. It did not contain those evidences of care and sagacity that ought to beam in every feature. He was not willing to legislate in this way—by a hop, step, and a jump. He wished the tariff to be varied in such a manner as to suit the actual state of things, and the existing condition of society and business. With such vast changes in the commercial and manufacturing departments, both at home and abroad, who could reconcile himself to a regulation, now antiquated, and differing almost toto cælo, from the real desideratum.

Double duties on articles where great value was united to small bulk, as in watches of gold and silver, and in precious stones, pearls and jewelry of all kinds, might be an inducement to smuggling. Already we know the temptation was too great to be resisted under the present duties, and if they were augmented to the amount proposed, what evasions might not be feared?

Mr. Bleecker.—Mr. Speaker: I was happy to observe on Saturday that the vote of the majority was not so uniform on this bill as usual. This circumstance very much fortifies the arguments urged against it on this side of the House, and proves that the opposition cannot be referred merely to the spirit of party. Indeed, sir, the objections to the increase of duty contemplated by this bill are so palpable and obvious to my mind, that I still hope it will not finally pass. It will be unequal and unfair in its operation in many respects. It will give a vast advantage to the merchants who now have goods on hand over those whose goods are not yet in the country, and which will be imported after the passage of this bill. The additional duty will by the former be added to the price of the goods, and thus an enormous profit will be given them. But this is comparatively a minor consideration. It is to be regretted, sir, that we have not a fair, just, and equal system of internal taxation, judiciously devised, with a wise reference to the feelings and temper of the people. But, in all our late plans and schemes, we appear to go on without any reference at all to the temper and feelings of the people. A revenue derived altogether from duties on imports must always be unequal in its operation on different parts of the country, and different classes of the community. There will be districts of the country—there will be whole States—in which manufactures will be carried on to a great extent; while other parts of the country, and other States, have few or no manufactures. In this respect there will be a serious inequality between manufacturing and nonmanufacturing States. Again, sir, it is said that the duty will be paid by the consumer. But it is not invariably true that the consumer pays the duty. The whole of it is sometimes paid by the consumer; it is sometimes divided between the importer and consumer, and not unfrequently falls altogether on the importer. This depends on a variety of circumstances—principally the state of the market. When the market is overstocked, a great portion of it must fall on the merchant. There must often be in this country a state of things which renders it difficult or impossible to add the amount of the duty to the price of the commodity. What the state of things, and what the market will be during the war, for which this revenue is to be provided, it is difficult to foresee; for what sort of a war we are to have, no one can tell. It will perhaps be another anomaly furnished by American politics. I believe, however, by the way, that gentlemen, who expect much of "the pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious war," will be much disappointed.

But, sir, admitting with the gentlemen on the other side, that the additional duty provided by this bill will be paid by the consumers of imported articles, if the consumption is much more in one part of the country than in another, the burdens of the war will be imposed very unequally and unjustly. Now it was proved to demonstration by the intelligent and accurate gentleman from Connecticut, (Mr. Pitkin,) that the consumption of imported articles is much greater in one section of the country than in the other. His statement and arguments on this subject have not been denied. Indeed, the candid and honorable gentleman who advocated this bill on Saturday, (Mr. Bibb,) admitted that it would not operate equally. It will impose the burdens of the war on the Atlantic, the commercial, States. It is true, sir, that many imported articles are consumed in every part of the Union. Tea and coffee, as the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Smilie) told us, are used in the Western country. But the great consumption of foreign goods is in the Atlantic States; and, more than anywhere else, in the Northeastern section, the most commercial States.

I know, sir, that this topic is regarded by many gentlemen as ungracious and invidious. But legislating as we are for a confederated Republic, it is worse than idle not to regard the character, situation, and interest of the people, in the several sections of the Union; and I ask gentlemen who are so ardent in the war, whose bosoms seem to glow with patriotic fire, is it just and fair to abandon the internal taxes and impose so much of the burden of the war upon the people of the Northern and Eastern States, the majority of whom are known to be opposed to it; whose hearts and souls are not in the business; who are driven, and dragged, and forced into a war, in which they will go with you no further, nor any longer, than a patriotic obedience to the constitution and laws of the country requires; a war which they consider unwise, impolitic, inexpedient, and ruinous; a war which must annihilate their commerce; that commerce to which they owe their rapid progress in population, in the arts of civilized life, in knowledge, in literature, in all that adorns and makes society valuable and interesting? From this people, in such a war, you have little to expect. While we are talking of the protection of commerce and the violation of neutral rights, they see us adopt the most effectual means to destroy all their commerce.

Another objection of no little importance, that has been urged against this bill, is its tendency to promote smuggling. Before the restrictive system, which, however well meant by many, has proved so inefficacious and ruinous, we had in this country a system of commercial morals, of which we had much reason to boast. Such was the purity and fairness of the mercantile character that in no other country in the world was the revenue arising from duties on imports so punctually paid, so easily and cheaply collected, and with the aid of so few officers. But the unfortunate policy adopted in 1806 has destroyed the purity and elevation of commercial morals. Evasions and violations of the laws are no longer disreputable. And what, sir, must be the situation of a country in which a constant evasion and open violation of the laws are not reprobated by public sentiment. The moral and patriotic observer will see with pain and mortification that we are about to add to the temptations to increase the stimulus to evasions and violations of the laws, still more to debase and degrade the commercial character of the country.

There is, sir, another important view of the subject before us at this moment. The increase of the duty, a reliance upon the impost as the means of supporting the war, in connection with the abandonment of the internal taxes, affords an instructive practical lesson on the nature of our Government. It teaches you that it is unfit for the purposes of foreign and offensive war. If gentlemen are now afraid to impose the taxes, they must believe that the people will not bear them. And, indeed, sir, few cases will occur in which the people will submit to support the burdens of an offensive war. Seldom will the Government be able to carry on such a war. But, sir, the conduct of those gentlemen of the majority who are for imposing additional duties and abandoning the taxes, proves another thing. If, when they have just entered upon the war, they hesitate, and are afraid to exact of the people the means necessary to carry it on, they must be conscious that the war is not so popular as they have imagined, for if the people are so hearty in the business as gentlemen have professed to believe, if they think the war a wise, politic, and necessary measure, they cannot be unwilling to be taxed a little for its support.

Mr. Brigham.—Mr. Speaker, the protection and the regulation of commerce has become a prime object of legislation. This bill provides for the doubling of the duties on all imported merchandise.

Sir, the restrictive system has operated very severely on the commercial part of the community—it has been the source of much complaint. The commercial class of our fellow-citizens have been oppressed; they have been impoverished by the policy of their own Government, and they have been soliciting their rulers for relief. They complained of the first embargo; what did they get? why, non-intercourse. They complained of the non-intercourse, and you soon gave them non-importation; when they complained of the non-importation, they had, in addition to the evil complained of, a second embargo. They then complained and prayed for the repeal of both these laws, and you have given them a declaration of war—an open war against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the dependencies thereof. They complain of this war, and you give them double duties on all imported merchandise.

Sir, commerce, and the regulation of commerce, have become the Alpha and the Omega; it is the cause of war—it is the professed object and end of war; and by this bill, you are making provision for this very class of citizens, who have been thus complaining, oppressed and impoverished, to support the war by paying double duties.

Mr. Speaker, this increase of impost is a tax which, in my opinion, will operate unjustly and unequally. It is imposing a heavier burden on the Eastern and Northern, than on the Southern and Western States.

The former are under the necessity of importing and of consuming more of the foreign manufactures, than the Southern States; and though they are a hardy race, they are not able to encounter the severities and rigors of the Northern winters without a much greater quantity of clothing than is necessary for the people in the Southern climates.

Sir, the people in the Eastern States have been reduced in their supplies; they have not been able to carry on their ordinary domestic manufactures for want of the necessary means to prepare the crude article for manufacture; and during this long session they have been memorializing Congress, and praying that they might be allowed to import the article of wire, and of such size as is not manufactured within the limits of the United States, for the making of cards, necessary to prepare cotton and wool for the making of cloth; but they have not been permitted. Many have solicited Congress for leave to import such goods and merchandise as were ordered and paid for before the issuing of the President's proclamation in November, 1810; but without success.

Mr. Potter was in favor of a recommitment, but for other reasons than those assigned by the mover. He wished it referred, to give an opportunity to ascertain the sentiments of the House on the subject of the repeal, or the partial suspension, of the present non-importation act.

Mr. P. said he had found more pleasure in the pursuit of many of the things of this world, than in the possession of them; and he found it, in some measure, so with those who had been very zealous in the pursuit of war. They appeared to him to have taken more pleasure in the pursuit of their favorite object, than in the enjoyment of it; and he was not sorry to see that the war spirit had already began to evaporate, and the cold calculating spirit, so much reprobated at the commencement of this session, becoming more fashionable.

Mr. P. had been induced to believe from the zealous patriotism displayed this session, that this was to be a fighting, and not a trading war; that those who had so generously pledged their lives in support of the present war, would have had an opportunity of fighting, and that those who had in the same manner pledged their fortunes in support of any measure adopted by the Administration, would have an opportunity of paying.

Mr. P. thought we had commenced this war for the protection of our commerce and the encouragement of our manufactories, and not for the purpose of extending the commerce and encouraging the manufactories of Great Britain; as by this war, with the partial importation act, (contemplated for the purpose of revenue,) we at once destroy our own commerce, by placing in the hands of the English the greatest part we have at sea, leaving the remainder useless, to rot at our wharves. We destroy our manufactories of cotton by the strange selection, in our partial importation act. We give to Great Britain advantages in this war, that she has not enjoyed in time of peace. We surrender to her what many say she has been contending for—the commerce of the world—by giving her an opportunity of supplying us with her merchandise under the flag of her friends; and, in the first onset of this war, implicitly acknowledge our dependence upon them; that we cannot do without their manufactures to clothe the nation, nor without their commerce, to raise a revenue to carry on the war. Mr. P. said, if he had been in favor of this war, it would have been painful to him to be compelled to acknowledge that the people in this country, who pretended to sigh so much for war, would not bear the least privations, or consent in any event to pay taxes, but must depend upon their enemy to clothe them, and to furnish them with an indirect commerce to raise a revenue to fight them with. Mr. P. said a war thus carried on must be without an object—very ruinous to this country and of long duration; for, if Great Britain can send her manufactures into the United States at high prices, and purchase our produce almost at her own price, and be the exclusive carrier, both ways, in her own ships, under the flag of neutrals entirely under her control; she can have no object in making peace.

Mr. P. said if the non-importation act should be repealed or suspended in part, agreeable to the letter of the Secretary of the Treasury, and we are to have a trading war, we shall have a revenue sufficient to answer all our purposes, without increasing our duties at all, as we can disband our army and reduce our expenses, as the difference of expense between a trading and a fighting war will be so great that the present rate of duties will answer all our purposes; but, if the non-importation act should not be repealed or suspended, we shall have no importations of importance for the double duties to operate upon; for, if you double your duties under such circumstances, by which you raise one million of dollars, what is the operation upon the consumer? Allowing, which is certainly the fact, that the whole amount of goods in the country at this time is equal to one year's importation, which would have given the Government a revenue of at least fifteen millions of dollars, the present holder of the goods in this country will immediately add the double duties to his present price, which will be increased in consequence of the war; so that the consumers will have to pay the present holders of the goods now in this country at least fifteen millions of dollars, of which the Government's obtaining one million of dollars on future importations, you compel the consumer to pay at least sixteen.

Mr. P. said he would for a moment examine the letter from the Secretary of the Treasury on the subject of revenue, recommending a partial suspension of the present non-importation act. He calculates that, by doubling the duties on such partial importation, allowing that we should import only half as much from Great Britain in time of war as in peace, that the duties would amount to the same. Here again, you have no mercy on the consumers; as the operation in the first place will be to give Great Britain double her prices for her goods, on which the Government gets double duties, all which is to be paid by the consumer, when the price of his produce is to decrease in much the same proportion.

Mr. P. had heard much, on former occasions, about the encouragement of our manufactories, and, although he never was himself for encouraging them at the expense of the farmer, or the depression of our commerce, yet he could but lament that, after the commercial spirit of the country was almost broken down, and many of our commercial and seafaring citizens had been compelled to quit their former employment and resort to manufacturing for the support of their families, that the labor of that valuable class of citizens were next to be assailed; for, in examining the bill on our tables, in consequence of the letter of the Secretary of the Treasury, recommending the partial importation, what will be the effect upon the cotton factories? All cotton cloth under fifteen pence and over three shillings per square yard, prime cost, is to be prohibited, and all between these two prices are to be imported, so that the quality almost exclusively manufactured, and in general use in this country, is to be permitted.

Mr. P. thought this a very left-handed way of encouraging the manufactures of this country; but it seems as though every consideration in time of war as well as peace, is to be sacrificed for the purpose of collecting money from the people in a manner the most likely for them to remain in ignorance of the burdens that the Government imposes upon them.

A motion was then made by Mr. Randolph to amend the bill by striking out the words "one hundred" before the words "per centum" in the first section; and the question thereon being taken, it was determined in the negative—yeas 50, nays 75.