I am, sir, with high esteem and respect, your humble servant,
GIDEON GRANGER.
[25] An act of Congress has since passed to prevent members from taking government contracts; but the act did not extend to their sons, brothers, and nephews, and the spirit of it has been often eluded.
[26] Mr. Randolph was the great opposer of these claims in Congress, and General Jackson their great opposer in Georgia. It was he who roused the feeling which overthrew the General Assembly who made the grant, and elected the legislature which annulled their act, and burnt the record of it. He was in the Senate of the U. S. with Mr. James Gunn, the Senator alluded to in the debate as being engaged in the fraud, and lost his life in the last of the many duels which his opposition to this measure brought upon him.
[27] With this session ended the first term of Mr. Jefferson’s administration, and the end of that term presents a natural occasion for reviewing the working of the Government in its point of chief contact with the people—receipts and expenditures. These were kept at the lowest point. The internal taxes had been repealed: the custom house duties had not been increased. For, though the change of many articles from the ad valorem to the specific list, had the effect of increasing the revenue, yet it did not increase the duty, the object being to prevent frauds and to simplify and cheapen the collection. The duties themselves, both the specific and the ad valorem, remained at the low and moderate rates which characterized the early periods of our Government. The average of the specifics, on the leading articles, were: on spirits, 29 cents per gallon; on wines, 32 cents per gallon; on teas, 16 cents per pound; on coffee, 5 cents per pound; on sugars, 2½ cents per pound; on molasses, 5 cents per gallon. The ad valorems were simplified to three rates, which in fact were but two, the third and highest rate only applying to luxuries, which were but little imported; and the lowest rate applying to the bulk of the importations. Thus the highest rate (20 per centum) in an importation of near forty million dollars worth of merchandise paying ad valorem duties, only fell upon $425,000 of that quantity, while the 15 per cent. fell upon $7,640,000 worth, and the 12½ per cent. rate fell upon 31 millions of dollars worth. The average of all the ad valorems was about 13 per centum; and such was the cheapness of this simplicity of impost, that the cost of collection was only about 4 per centum, and the revenue cutter service almost null. The net revenue yielded was twelve millions and a quarter, of which there went to the principal and interest of the public debt, about eight millions; to the army and navy, about two millions; miscellanies, about half a million; tribute to Algiers, near $200,000; diplomatic intercourse, $60,000; and about $600,000 to the civil list—comprehending the entire support of the Government in all its branches—executive, judicial, and legislative. And thus the moderate duties of that time, upon the moderate importation of that time, with the economy of that time, produced nearly twenty times the amount of revenue which the support of the Federal Government required.
[28] Okefonokee Swamp, covering one-fourth of Georgia, 15,000 square miles—the great refuge of fugitive slaves, white outlaws, and depredating Indians.
[29] The whole object of the bill was the purchase of Florida, but it not being desirable to avow that purpose, the object was covered up in the vague phrases of extraordinary expenses in foreign intercourse. The following is the act as passed:
That a sum of two millions of dollars be, and the same is hereby appropriated towards defraying any extraordinary expenses which may be incurred in the intercourse between the United States and foreign nations, to be paid out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, and to be applied under the direction of the President of the United States, who shall cause an account thereof to be laid before Congress as soon as may be.
[30] The Marquis de Casa Yrujo. He was recalled.
[31] This expunging was so complete that no vestige of the expunged matter appears in the Journal; but it is otherwise well known what it was. The two named persons had presented memorials, which had been received and read, stating that they were under a criminal prosecution, now depending in the Circuit Court of the United States for the district of New York, for an alleged offence against the laws of the United States, in which, if guilty, they have been led into error by the conduct of officers of the Executive Government, who now intend to bring upon the memorialists the penalties of the laws, to sacrifice their characters, fortunes, and liberty, in expiation of their own errors, or to deprecate the vengeance of foreign Governments, by offering the memorialists as victims to their resentment: that they have also experienced great oppression and injustice in the manner of conducting the said prosecution; and praying such relief therein as the wisdom of Congress may think proper to grant.