Mr. President: During the last fiscal year the amount of national taxes paid into the Treasury was $234,831,461.77. Of this sum one hundred and thirty million and a fraction was collected under tariff laws as duties on imported merchandise, and one hundred and four million and a fraction as tax on American productions. Of this total of $235,000,000 in round numbers, twenty-seven States which adhered to the Union during the recent war paid $221,204,268.88. The residue came from eleven States. I will read their names: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia. These eleven States paid $13,627,192.89. Of this sum more than six million and a half came from the tobacco of Virginia. Deducting the amount of the tobacco tax in Virginia, the eleven States enumerated paid $7,125,462.60 of the revenues and supplies of the Republic.
Mr. Hill, of Georgia. Will the Senator from New York allow me to ask him a question?
Mr. Conkling. If the Senator thinks that two of us are needed to make a statement of figures I will.
Mr. Hill, of Georgia. Two no doubt can make it better.
The Presiding Officer. Does the Senator from New York yield to the Senator from Georgia?
Mr. Conkling. After the expressed opinion of the Senator from Georgia that the statement needs his aid, I cannot decline.
Mr. Hill, of Georgia. I will not interrupt the Senator if it is disagreeable to him, I assure him. I ask if in the computation he has made of the amount paid he does not ascribe to the States that adhered to the Union, to use his language, all——
Mr. Conkling. Having heard the Senator so far, I must ask him to desist.
The Presiding Officer. The Senator from New York declines to yield further.
Mr. Conkling. I have stated certain figures as they appear in the published official accounts: the Senator seems about to challenge the process or system by which the accounts are made up. I cannot give way for this, and must beg him to allow me to proceed with observations which I fear to prolong lest they become too wearisome to the Senate.