Friday, December 7.
Post Roads.
Mr. Jackson, from the committee appointed on the sixteenth ultimo, presented a bill making provision for the application of the money heretofore appropriated to the laying out and making public roads leading, from the navigable waters emptying into the Atlantic, to the Ohio river; which was read twice and committed to a Committee of the Whole on Monday next.
On a motion made and seconded, that the House do come to the following resolution:
Resolved, That a post road ought to be established from Knoxville, in the State of Tennessee, by the most direct and convenient route that the nature of the ground over which it is to pass will admit, to the settlements on the Tombigbee river, in the Mississippi Territory, and from thence to New Orleans; and that a post road ought also to be established from —— in Georgia, to the said settlement on the Tombigbee, to intersect the former road at the most convenient point between Knoxville and the Tombigbee.
Ordered, That the said motion be referred to a Committee of the whole House on Monday next.
Duty on Salt.
Mr. Thomas said, he rose with a view to propose an inquiry relative to the duty on salt. On this article a duty of six cents per bushel was first laid, in the year 1790 it was raised to twelve cents, and in the year 1797 eight cents more were added, making the duty twenty cents per bushel of 56 lbs.; at which rate it now stands. But, as every measured bushel of good strong salt which is imported into this country will weigh 80 or 90 lbs., this is in reality a duty of 30 cents per bushel.
Three years ago, when the repeal of the stamp act, excise, and other internal tax laws, were before Congress, an attempt was made to reduce the duty on salt, and retain a part of that system.
At that time, although he was conscious the duty on this article of real necessary consumption was too high, and fell extremely heavy on the agricultural part of the community, particularly those living back from the seaboard, who were obliged to use large quantities of it, for their black cattle and other beasts of pasture, notwithstanding the increased price at which it came to them, in consequence of the transportation, and the profits charged on the amount of duty as well as original cost by the several merchants or traders through whose hands it passed, yet he did believe it better to allow this duty to remain as it was a while longer, rather than not be enabled to abolish that expensive, inconvenient and anti-republican system of internal taxation.