The Commission arrive at the conclusion, that all our manufactures are by these taxes increased in cost from ten to twenty per cent. In the language of Senator Sherman, when defending the Internal Tax Bill in the Senate last year, the nation required funds to maintain its armies in the field; it had put forth its arms and grasped the money of the country, and would reduce and equalize the taxes when the war was ended. The Revenue Commission find the taxes on our manufactures and their materials an incubus upon the industry and a check to the progress of the country, and recommend their remission. And this we may reasonably expect from Congress at its present session. But, it may be urged, how are we to meet the interest on our debt and current expenses of $284,000,000 in the aggregate, if we repeal these taxes? The answer is a simple one. The Commission estimate our imports at $400,000,000, and our duties now average forty-seven per cent. Should this continue, we should draw from this source alone $188,000,000. There is also the revenue from public lands and miscellaneous sources, which the Secretary and the Revenue Commission both rate at $21,000,000, making an aggregate of $209,000,000; although the Commission, to guard against the effects of any change in the tariff, modestly rate these items at only $151,000,000.
To these they add for excise, viz.:—
| From five cents per pound on Cotton, | $40,000,000 |
| One dollar per gallon on Spirits, | 40,000,000 |
| Duties on Tobacco, | 18,000,000 |
| Malt Liquors at one dollar only per barrel, | 5,000,000 |
| Twenty cents per gallon on Refined Petroleum, | 3,000,000 |
| From Spirits of Turpentine and Rosin, | 2,000,000 |
| ————— | |
| $108,000,000 | |
| Licenses, | $15,000,000 |
| Stamps, | 20,000,000 |
| Banks, | 15,000,000 |
| Salaries, Sales, and Successions, | 9,000,000 |
| ————— | |
| $59,000,000 |
They thus provide a revenue of $318,000,000, or $30,000,000 more than that required by the Secretary,—a surplus which, with the annual excess of duties, to say nothing of the future growth of revenue, would extinguish our debt in little more than thirty years. But to guard against all contingencies, they propose to levy on incomes taxes to the amount of $40,000,000; and on the gross receipts of railways, bridges, canals, and stages, $9,000,000. These change the aggregate to $367,000,000; an excess of $81,000,000 over the estimate of our requirements by the Secretary.
The Commission give us the Budget of France in the following summary, viz.:—
| Direct Taxes, | $63,072,280 |
| Registry Stamps and Public Domains, | 81,537,833 |
| Forests, | 8,051,300 |
| Customs and Duties on Salt, | 29,485,000 |
| Indirect Taxes, | 115,600,400 |
| Post-Office, | 14,482,000 |
| Sundry Revenues, | 26,441,989 |
| Miscellaneous, | 11,736,360 |
| ————— | |
| Total, | $350,407,212 |
Also, the revenues of Great Britain and Ireland for 1865, viz.:—
| Customs, | $115,023,808 |
| Excise, | 97,048,180 |
| Stamps, | 47,659,870 |
| Fund and assessed Taxes, | 16,439,670 |
| Income and Property Taxes, | 39,928,865 |
| Post-Office, | 20,852,197 |
| Grain Lands, | 2,212,000 |
| Miscellaneous, | 14,967,183 |
| ————— | |
| Total | $354,131,773 |