HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.
FRIDAY, February 20, 1863.Petitions were presented--one from citizens of Marshall county for a military board of one from each Congressional District; one from Fountain county on the same subject; and one from Randolph county praying for a law prohibiting negroes from carrying arms.
REPORTS FROM COMMITTEES.
Recommending that Senate bill 28, (see page 79;) and House bills 56, (p. 57;) 124, (p.110;) 131, 134, (p. 112;) 148, (p. 122;) 179, (p. 135;) 183, (p. 141;) and 217--introduced last Tuesday--be laid on the table, were severally concurred in.
BILLS ON THE THIRD READING.
Mr. March's bill, [S. 24] providing for the conveyance of school lands to assignees who hold certificates from School Commissioners, was finally passed, by yeas 81, nays 0.
Mr. Gaff's bill, [S. 30] providing for the erection or repair of bridges across streams forming the 'boundary line between counties, was read the third time and passed; by yeas 81, nays 3.
FEES AND SALARIES.
Mr. HUMPHREYS, from the Committee on Fees and Salaries, introduced a bill, [233] to repeal the law in reference to fees and salaries, which was read the first time.
THE MORRILL TARIFF.
The Committee on Agriculture returned the joint resolution H. R. 21--see page 93 of these Reports--recommending its passage.
Mr. ANDERSON objected to the passage of the resolution as unwise and unjust. It was an echo of a speech made by a leader of the Democratic party, who complained that the West is ground down by the ex- page: 162[View Page 162] actions of New England to enrich its manufactures, till we are made hewers of wood and drawers of waters to them, and that when it could not be endured he would speak as a sectional man. He also essayed to show that the interests of the West were intimately connected with the South in stead of the East. He thought few of the members had read the Morrill tariff, or understood its provisions, yet they claim that the agricultural population of the West bears the greater portion of the taxes under the tariff law. Indiana is an agricultural State, and has a fertile soil. Massachusetts has a sterile soil, and is fitted for manufactures. Yet Massachusetts has an agricultural population, too, and they are crushed quite as much as the tanners of Indiana, for they are consumers, also. We must consider the whole question. Our revenue can be raised by tariffs, direct taxation, or indirect taxation, on the principle of the internal revenue, law. Instead of a direct tax, we have the tariff law and internal revenue Saw. It was unwise to stigmatize one part of the system and overlook the other. What is not raised by the tariff must be raised by the internal revenue law. Had the capitalists of the East owned the Administration, they would have compelled them to levy a direct tax, which would come on the farmers directly. The State of Indiana, as an agricultural State, would have been heavily taxed. Indiana has a population of over 100,000 more than Massachusetts, and an excess of white male adults of nearly that amount. As the direct tax is levied according to representation. Indiana would pay more than Massachusetts But under the income tax Massachusetts pays far more than Indiana as we have few capitalists, and very few whose incomes are over $600 a year; while Massachusetts has a large amount of capital in few hands, which has been accumulating for one hundred years. Massachusetts manufactures largely. There is a large amount of traffic, and consequently a much greater number of contracts are made there than here. Every contract must be stamped, and the amount of duties paid there is much larger than is paid in this State. Undoubtedly Massachusetts will pay five or six times more revenue for stamps than Indiana. As to bank stock in the two States, it was in Indiana, in round figures. $4,000,000, in Massachusetts, $64,000,000. These banks pay heavily in stamp duties on checks, certificates, etc., and will, under the new financial act of Congress, about to pass, pay a tax of three per cent. on their circulation. Take into consideration the relative investments in insurance stocks, and the proportion is about $1,000 here to $1,000,000 there. For every dollar of revenue from the tax on the income from these investments the Government will receive about $1 here to $10 there.--Your farmers have no license to pay; the traffickers of Massachusetts, her dealers, her manufacturers, must take out a license as the first step to business. Their manufacturers pay a tax of three per cent. on all they manufacture, and on some manufactures it amounts to far more than three per cent. It may be said that they get it back from consumers by adding it to the price of the manufactures. They are compelled to go into the market, and run their own risks. Suppose a tax of three per cent. was levied on produce, do you think farmers could compel their customers to pay the three per cent, additional ? Massachusetts has also a large amount of capital invested in commerce, which involves a large amount of commercial transactions, adding to the revenue, under the income law. Let me refer a moment to the tariff. How does it affect the East? If the tariff does prevent the importation of foreign goods, then it cripples her commercial enterprise, and ruins a large amount of her industry. It strikes as heavily on the commerce of the East as on the production of the West. What would become of her merchant marine in such a case? Take the Internal Revenue Law, and see how it bears on all professions, manufactures and commerce, and you will find that for every dollar paid by the people of Indiana, ten dollars are paid by Massachusetts. He thought, including the income tax, the proportion would be the same. Suppose the tariff does bear heavier on the West than on the East, the internal revenue tax bears ten times more on the East than the West. While he was not disposed to misstate the opinions expressed by other gentlemen, he would, nevertheless, say, if you by harangues or resolutions, could embitter the people of the West against the East, and make them believe that they are borne down by its oppression; if you wish to get up a Northwestern Confederacy, the surest and best way to do it is to till the people of the West with haired of their brothers of the East. If you wish to cause separation of the Union. you can pursue no better course than to pass resolutions of this character, and make speeches denouncing the East. Hence we should hesitate to pass resolutions calculated to excite hostility against New England.
Mr. PUETT said that the gentleman (Mr. Anderson) did not seem to understand the first principles of a tariff. What was a tariff? He would quote Silas Wright and John Quincy Adams. They had declared it to be a tax on the country. The farmers, the planting men--that class that produced everything--bore all the burdens. They bore the burdens of the Government, and would continue to do it so long is we had a Government, the gentleman's talk about a Northwestern Confederacy to the contrary notwithstanding page: 163[View Page 163] By the Morrill tariff the agricultural interest of the whole country was ground to the dust. The' Morrill tariff was nor, for revenue, but for protection. The million paid by Massachusetts was paid by us, and we had to pay a half a million to pay that. He quoted from statistics to show that imports had fallen off since the passage the Morrill tariff some $68,000,000. They cold not have passed the Morrill tariff even through the present depraved Congress if it had not been tacked on to the revenue bill. We know we of the West were burdened, and that our money goes into the pockets of the Yankee manufacturers. If that money went to sustain the Government, cheerfully would the West pay it. It everything, discriminations were made in favor of New England and against the great West. Even in the matter of ammunition needed by our armies all over the country, the Chief of Ordnance (Gen. Ripley) had refused to purchase of the Indiana Arsenal a better article at one-third the price he was paying to contractors in the East. He eloquently exhorted gentlemen to throw aside their party predilections and stand by their whole country, the Constitution and the Union. If they did not do it--if the politicians did not do it--the people, very speedily, too, would take the matter in hand, and, telling them to get out of the way, save this their country and their Government themselves.
Mr. CASON thought that on its face the resolution might not seem to mean much, but its tendency should be looked to. If we have imported $68,000,000 less of foreign goods, we have just so far failed to protect the pauper labor of Manchester. You must choose whether you will support the labor of England or New England. Whenever New England has been stigmatized there has been applause here. This shows a bitter hate against New England, which forbids a fair examination of the question. The Morrill tariff brings in a revenue of $39,000,000, an expense of about $1 to each person in the United States, and yet you claim to be ground down by it. The Great West don't pay all this tax. It is absurd to talk about being crushed by the tariff The farmers of the west use but a small portion of the imports, and are not the chief consumers. How, then, can the Western farmers be borne down? The Arsenal had been dragged in. What State in the East owns an Arsenal? Not one. The eastern Arsenals belong to the United States, and are worked by it.
Messrs. PUETT and HARNEY contended that Gen. Ripley was disposed to discriminate against the West.
Mr. CASON said if the West proposed to repudiate the tariff it gave New England an excuse for refusing to pay her tax under the internal revenue law.
AFTERNOON SESSION.
Mr. HALL offered a resolution, which was adopted, requesting the State Auditor to report to the House the amounts of the several funds of the State, parts of which belong to the School Fund, and whether they are in a condition to be invested according tot he provision of the Constitution, and if so, what amount.
NEW PROPOSITIONS.
The following bills were introduced, read the first time, and severally passed tot he second reading, to-wit:
By Mr. NIBLACK. [234] supplemental to the swamp land act.
By. Mr. GREGORY, [235] to relieve Jacob Haines, of Warren county.
By Mr. PACKARD, [236] to confirm the purchase of certain real estate in Porter county by the Northern State Prison Board of Control.
By Mr BUSKIRK--Mr. Holcomb in the Chair--[237] to amend the act relating to the State University. It provides for the election of eight trustees, and reorganizes the Board.
By Mr. HERSHEY, [238] to amend sections 14 and 15 of the license law.
By Mr. PACKARD, [239] to amend the 28th section of the election law--as to the duties of Judges.
By Mr. KEMP, of Dubois, [240] to amend the act relating to guardians and wards.
By Mr. PACKARD, [241] to amend the 7th section of the act relating to fees of county officers.
By Mr HANNA, [242] an act to relieve G.F. Cookerly and Calvin Jones; $2,500 to Cookerly and $500 to Jones, for printing offices destroyed by mobs. (Read twice and referred to a select committee of five.)
By Mr. PACKARD, a joint resolution [32] against the acceptance of League Island, near Philadelphia, for a navy yard.
By Mr. MILLER a joint resolution, [33] to print 10,000 copies of the laws relating to the descent of estates, in pamphlet form.
THE MORRILL TARIFF.
The House resumed the consideration of the question pending at the morning adjournment--the joint resolution with reference to the Morrill tariff.
Mr. NIBLACK was surprised at the energy with which gentlemen in opposition to the resolution had enforced their views. He entered his protest at the outset against considering the question as a sectional one. It was simply a question legislative consideration, having only an incidental reference to anything sectional.--He had thought that every one in the Northwest had long since taken for granted that tariffs for protection alone ought to be exploded. The agricultural interests of this country had always been opposed to protective tariffs; to laws indirectly taxing them for the benefit of man- page: 165[View Page 165] ufactures. The Morrill tariff never could have passed Congress had it not been tor the secession of the Southern States; for the absence of those who represented a constituency opposed to tariffs for protection. He was in Congress at the time the bill was under consideration, and he voted against almost every proposition it contained. Nobody pretended to deny that the bill was not passed to protect the interests of manufacturers in opposition to the interests of agriculturists. It was universally conceded, and therefore he was surprised at any serious opposition to the resolution, But gentlemen could not talk about these public questions without talking about a Northwestern Confederacy.--Simply because a man was born in the West it was taken for granted that he was opposed to New England. This idea was pursued so far that it was beginning to be ridiculous. Why, if he was a single man, he would almost be afraid to propose marriage to any other than a Yankee girl, for fear it might be said that his proclivities were for a Northwestern Confederacy.--But, seriously, he felt like standing on his reserved rights as one of the great Northwestern people. He could remember the time when, unless a man had the Yankee nasal twang, he was not considered fit to hold an office. But times had changed, and now, when everything is claimed for New England--brains and all the rest--and measures were adopted for her benefit, and oppressive to us, he involuntarily put his hand upon his pocket, and said they should rob us no more. He had an admiration for whatever was great, noble and patriotic in New England; but he had an equal admiration for all that was great, noble and patriotic in the Northwest. The two portions of the country were equal under the Constitution. Because this had been forgotten had such sectional legislation as this of the Morrill tariff obtained. The people of the West had always been opposed to such class legislation--to the odious and unjust distinctions and discriminations of tariff laws. Again, the people of the West, who had no hand in bringing on this war, were cheerfully bearing its burdens. They had promptly filled their quotas by volunteers and drafted men, while that of Massachusetts was not yet full. And all this while New England was being enriched by the war, and our burdens were almost greater than we could bear. It was natural, then, that we should complain of and resist all oppressive measures enacted for the especial benefit of those for whom we had and were now contributing everything. Every Northwestern man asked for nothing but what was just and right, and he insisted that by a modification of the tariff our burdens might be lightened. He had regarded with astonishment many of the measures passed by the present Congress. Measures which, in times of peace, would not have been considered at all, were in time of war adopted. Among these measures was the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia; another was the Pacific Railroad bill. He never could understand why men should advocate such measures. In time of war these measures had been adopted. And now our first great duty was to do that which was right, maintaining our own rights and conceding the rights of others. We must stand by our own State, our own section, granting what is due to every other State and section. In the Valley of the Mississippi was the seat of future empire. The interests of the great and growing people of that valley must be consulted. They were not consulted by such measures as the Morrill tariff, and the sooner it was got out of the way the better. He defied any intelligent man to take that law and read it, and say upon his honor that it was a law doing equal and exact justice to the people of the West. It was because of such measures as he had indicated, because of peculations and plunderings of the public Treasury, and because of the diversion of the war from its original objects, forcing men to fight in a cause for which they never enlisted--it was because of all these things that that "moral power" so much talked of by the gentleman from Jefferson, had been lost by the Republican party, now drifting before the wind. The Democratic party, by reason of divisions, jealousies and treacheries among its leaders, lost that "moral power," and in 1860 was overwhelmingly defeated. Now it was regaining it, and it would be used to restore the Government, the Constitution and the Union once more.
Mr. ANDERSON said it was not a political, but a statistical question. It was a Democratic Congress which passed the Morrill tariff, and it was signed by James Buchanan. The gentleman had said the Democracy were honest, and couldn't steal. He knew why they succeeded last fall. 90,000 men were in the field, and some members who are here were elected because they claimed to be in favor of a vigorous prosecution of the war. He had asked the friends of the resolution to give the facts, and they had not been given.--Those best informed had given little information. The tariff had been called a protective tariff. In 1857, we had a revenue tariff. In 1860-1, to June, it yielded $39,000,000. Then this was passed. It went into effect when war was destroying our industry. Yet the revenue was, for the same time, $49,000,000--an increase of $10,000,000. It was a revenue tariff.--Under the indirect system, these high livers, who have no property, are compelled to aid in supporting the Government. Under direct taxation, the tax would come oft the land, and that would almost crush our agriculturists. In reference to our de- page: 165[View Page 165] pendence on the South, he granted that our Southern outlet was important before railroads and canals were built, which all run cast. The greater portion of our produce goes east.
Mr. BUSKIRK asked if it, did not cost four times more to carry a bushel of corn to New York by railroad than by river.
Mr. ANDERSON admitted it might now, from river towns. He then quoted statistics showing that in 1850, sixteen times more grain went east than to New Orleans, and a similar proportion of other produce. He would admit there wera defects in the tariff, and the internal revenue law, but, as a whole, it was a system not to bo set aside. If it was to be repealed and a direct tax laid, the people would soon hurl from power the men who imposed it on them.
Mr. HANNA denounced the Morrill tariff as the most wicked and monstrous measure over imposed on the American people. The New England delegation in Congress had made it an ultimatum hat the Morrill tariff should be adopted before they would vote for a single proposition of the revenue law. They made this demand to fill their own pockets at the expense of the people of the West. He proceeded to show in detail the manifest injustice of the tariff operating in favor of the East and oppressively on the West.-- The people of the West, the consumers, were bearing the burdens of the war by taxation out of all proportion. And yet, under the operation of the tariff, not one dollar, or fraction of a dollar, went into the hands of the Government, but into the pockets of a most remorseless set of speculators. He wonted the New England States to enjoy their rights under the Government--no more no less. But the labor of the West--the source of all our wealth--was burdened with a taxation the heavy load of which must be removed.
Mr. BRANHAM stated that he was disposed to agree that whoever put himself in the way of the people would have to get out of the way. In regard to the resolution, he contended we had a right to express our opinion on public measures, but there was a question of expediency as to speaking that. At the present time he thought it doubtful, he favored a revenue tariff with incidental protection. It was no fault of the Morriil bill that tea and coffee were taxed, but of Jeff. Davis. It was admitted free till the war. Had the country been at peace, its effect might have been very different. Bring your manufacturing establishments as near the consumer as possible. If the New England manufactories were in Indiana, it would make the price of produce higher, and goods lower. The same rule holds good in reference to foreign manufactures. It was the interest of Indiana to develop her manufacturing interests, and that is the best mode of protecting the farmer. Cotton cloth had not advanced at all over the rise in cotton. This rebellion, which was brought on the country by arch-traitors, was caused by their revolt at the decision of the people. The war had caused an increased demand for all the materials of war, which New England had. The West ruined ? Corn was sold at sixty cents per bushel, and the price of wheat and cattle had never borne such prices before. Our true course was to give implicit confidence to the Government, as far as we can. If there had been a great expense in the war, men of both parties were responsible. The army of the Potomac had been the most costly, and was controlled by men of Democratic associations. As to the prohibition on steel, New England did not have the benefit, but Pennsylvania. A united interest could control legislation to some extent. Mr. Bright had said it was not for the interest of the Democracy to allow slavery to be destroyed, because no other interest would unite them as one man. The present high rates of transportation were due to Jeff. Davis, for the war had called into requisition the railroads, and used the transportation of the country, sometimes for months at a time.
Under the previous question the resolution was ordered to an engrossment--yeas 50, nays 28.
Mr. HOLCOMB offered a resolution limiting speeches to fifteen minutes, which was laid over under the rules.
