JUNE, 1813.] The Ways and Means. [H. OF R. sion of Congress he therefore wished a report | principles of free Government as he was of the which should expose the fallacy of its argu- character of the people of Massachusetts. ments. Mr. BRIGHAM spoke in favor of treating this petition with all the respect due to its importance and the respectable source from which it came. He was sorry that a disposition was manifested to prevent the remonstrance from coming fairly before the House. This memorial had been addressed to Congress by Massachusetts in the day of her distress. Should not the people of that State have the liberty of stating their complaints? He should be sorry to see gentlemen frown on the petition of an individual, much less of the State of Massachusetts, for whom he claimed no other respect or distinction than that to which all the States in the Union were entitled. Mr. MACON said, that whenever the subject of British or French influence was started in this House, the members did just what the two Governments of Great Britain and France, equal in wickedness, wished us to do-widening divisions already sufficiently obvious. Does either of those nations, said he, love a free Government? Has either of them ever protected a free Government any where? If those Governments ever have a secret understanding with people among us, they will not let you know with whom; but they will throw out hints, and make public declarations and insinuations, to sow distrust among a people who are free, and whom they therefore envy and hate. Let us not then help them in the work, but bear with one another. The motion to except from printing that part of the memorial which relates to Louisiana, was negatived; and the memorial was ordered to be printed--yeas 108. Protest of Minority. Mr. RICHARDSON presented an address of the minority of the Legislature of the State of Masand principles contained in the remonstrance sachusetts, protesting against the statements above stated, as unseasonable in their origin, and pernicious in their effects.-Read, and reprehensible in language, erroneous in facts, ordered to lie on the table. The Ways and Means. On motion of Mr. FISK of New York, the House again resolved itself into a Committee of the Whole on the resolution, yesterday submitted by him, for imposing a duty on spirits. The resolution having been again read— Mr. INGERSOLL read the following resolutions, which he proposed to offer as amendatory of and additional to that of Mr. FISK: Resolved, That the Committee of Ways and Means be instructed to inquire into the expediency of taxing all successions to the estates of persons dying after the day of next, within the United States, whenever such decedent shall leave a clear estate, real, personal, or mixed, worth five hundred dollars; and that the said committee have leave to report by bill or otherwise. be instructed to inquire into the expediency of taxResolved, That the Committee of Ways and Means ing all ascertainable income from all estates, real, Mr. BAYLIES rose to support the remon-personal, and mixed, whenever the yearly amount of strance. Being a Representative from the State income shall exceed five hundred dollars; and that which had transmitted it-a State whose blood the said committee have leave to report by bill or had flowed as freely as that of any other in sup- otherwise. port of our independence; a State which contributed as much to support it as any other-it was certainly incumbent on him to do his utmost that this memorial should be disposed of in a respectful manner. Why had this memorial, which all appeared to admit to be couched in respectful language, called forth the indignation of gentlemen? The Legislature, availing itself of its constitutional right, had performed that duty which, as guardians of the people's rights, they owed to their constituents; and he trusted, whatever might be said out of the House, that the doctrine never would be countenanced on this floor, that after a measure has become a law, it is not admissible to oppose it. Mr. B. spoke of the sufferings of the people of Massachusetts as being very great, and the sentiments contained in the memorial very general. He urged a temperate consideration of it, and reply or refutation of it if the people were proved to be in error. The gentleman from Maryland had charged this with being a treasonable paper, and of course the Legislature as being guilty of treason. A proper respect for Massachusetts and himself, Mr. B. said, forbade any other reply to such remarks, than that the honorable gentleman was as ignorant of the Resolved, That the Committee of Ways and Means be instructed to inquire into the expediency of taxing all law suits, offices, and pensions; and that the said committee have leave to report by bill or otherwise. Mr. INGERSOLL.-Mr. Chairman, as long as the business of this session proceeded without interruption, I held myself bound, by a sense of imperious public duty, to refrain from disturbing it with any observations of mine; and on all the various subjects of debate have never taken the floor, except for a few minutes at an early day after our meeting, when I deemed it necessary to explain my vote to those against whom I gave it. But the harmony and regularity of our progress being now unfortunately broken up by the resolution of the honorable gentleman from New York, (Mr. Fisk,) and we in danger, I am afraid, of being cast adrift upon a sea of troubles, the same sense of public propriety which enjoined silence on me heretofore, requires that I should now solicit your patience, and that of the committee, which I am apprehensive I shall severely exercise, during the discussion of the elaborate and uninteresting matters involved in the subject of taxation. Tedious and dull as they are intrinsically, they will prove peculiarly so in my treatment, be H. OF R.] The Ways and Means. and deeper, I will add nobler principles-prin ciples which will outlive this and every other Administration. I support, and will continue to support, this war, so long as I shall remain in the conscientious belief, together with the majority of the American people, that the hos tilities we ought to be waging are indispensable to the welfare, the character, the union, the existence of the nation. [JUNE, 1813. cause, besides having no ability to impart to always been so exemplarily exerted in the them an extraordinary interest, I shall endeavor purest public service. But, sir, I espoused this to restrict myself to the subject to be kept in just and inevitable war, not because it was a view. Consecrated as I consider this special measure of the present Administration-and I session to this special deliberation, and anxious am wedded to its fortunes-not merely because to afford, as far as I am able, without regard to the present Administration is intrusted with its minor considerations, a good system of perma-prosecution. My affiance is founded on higher nent and productive internal revenue, I beg leave to disclaim all mere party and State professions, to divest myself of their livery, and to approach the inquiry with no other inclination than that for the fairest and most eligible system. I will not, therefore, inflame the debate with the causes of the war which has rendered taxes indispensable. It is enough to say that war, without taxes, is body without a soul. The physical material you may have without Sir, having said thus much, let me add, with finance; but that moral momentum must be a full foresight of the responsibility I incurwanting, which gives to the physical material having well considered what I am about to say its movement and alacrity. The armor of war-and prompted in its public declaration by a is, to be sure, fabricated of iron, but it never will be lasting unless burnished with gold; nor can the attitude of war be what it ought to be -an attitude of defiance and annoyance to the enemy, of protection and safeguard to us-unless it be erected on a well-founded Treasury, capable of perpetual reproductiveness and neverfailing replenishment. powerful sense of public duty, I proceed to add, that I am afraid this war has been mortified with too pacific an aspect; I fear its vigor has been cramped for the purpose of pampering a premature peace. I am as warm a friend to peace as any man, and would subscribe to it on as moderate terms; but after war has been declared, in my humble apprehension, peace-seekThe Secretary of the Treasury has recom- ing is not the avenue to peace, is not pacific mended taxes to our enactment, as "necessary policy. If this war had been waged with a evils." I do not mean my honorable friend and boldness, such as has marked our incessant enmost morthy townsman, the acting Secretary deavors to put a stop to it, which have followof the Treasury, but that distinguished Secre- ed each other ever since war was declared, tary of the Treasury who is now, I suppose, in an increasing ratio of iteration and intensity, about half seas over on his way to the arctic I have no doubt that the enemy, long before circle, in pursuit of peace; intoxicated, I am now, would have been panting for peace, pent afraid, with vain hopes of at least a very doubt-up within the walls of Quebec, if indeed even ful and dangerous success-a success reposed on the remote and uncertain mediation of a foreign empire, rather than the native energies of our own. Most heartily, for my part, do I wish the Russian mission a speedy accomplishment of all its objects! But, though I have avoided inflaming this debate with a recapitulation of the causes of this just war, permit me to avail myself of this occasion to throw in very briefly my ideas of its legitimate progress and proper termination. If I differ in opinion with any of my friends, as it is an honest difference, there can be no impropriety in my exhibiting the grounds of the sentiments I entertain. I am one of the last individuals in this House who would wantonly utter a disrespectful or ungracious sentiment concerning any of the measures of that Administration, to which I am attached, or toward that excellent person in particular, who, so much to the interest and satisfaction of his country, fills the Executive Magistracy of these United States; whose strong and pervading hold on the confidence and affections of his fellow-citizens have been signally proved within these last few days, by the almost universal expression of their fervent wishes for his recovery from the illness with which he has been visited, and his restoration to the full enjoyment of those eminent faculties which have the last resort of his annoyance, the ultima As soon as war was declared, I would have almost forgotten that we had such an office as the Department of State, much as I revere the irreproachable gentleman in that Department, and would have limited all my views to the belligerent departments, now so well replenished with talents, experience, and competency JUNE, 1813.] The Ways and Means. [H. OF R. At any rate I would have looked to them alone | ever. If we are to be victorions, this is the as long as a remorseless enemy was thundering meridian for victory; if to be vanquished, this at the gate with bombardment and conflagra- is the spot to fall upon. There is no wisdom, tion in his train. If I am not mistaken in my no policy, in courting peace; and I do anxiously historical recollections, in the year 1738, when trust that no hope of peace to be obtained in the English Cabinet sent Mr. Keene as their another hemisphere will be suffered to procrasMinister to Madrid, to treat of the embarrass-tinate the war in this. ments at that time superinduced between Spain Whether it would be possible, and how long, and England, by the resistance, the pertinacious to carry on the belligerent operations of Govand invincible resistance, opposed by the latter ernment by loans alone, without taxes pledged to a claim of search exercised by the Spanish for their regular and faithful redemption; and Guarda Costa in the American seas-precisely whether loans, as a system, be a good or a bad, the same sort of search which England now as I am not now about to inquire, though I am inpertinaciously and triumphantly asserts-if I clined to believe, from the abundance of money am not entirely mistaken, the Spanish Govern- in the country, and the facility with which it ment repelled all discussion, while Admiral has been procured, provided a high interest is Haddock's fleet was hovering in the Mediter-offered, that perhaps for some time it would ranean on the coast of Spain, and insisted on the withdrawal of that fleet as a preliminary sine qua non to any overture for peace. If I am not equally mistaken, at a much later period, so recently as 1807, when Sir John Duckworth forced the Dardanelles, and ranged his squadron before Constantinople, with springs on their cables and matches lighted, threatening the favorite residence of the Musselmen with the devastation of their mosques and harems; the Turk, sir, the despised, the outlawed Turk, who never paid a tax but by exaction, peremptorily refused to treat with his invaders, on any terms, until their batteries should no longer overhang the Turkish shore; and Admiral Duckworth with, if I am correct in my remembrance, Mr. Arbuthnot, an able Ambassador on board, as much so probably as Sir John Warren, found it necessary to withdraw without the Dardanelles, in order to open his negotiation. These, sir, indeed, are Moorish precedents, unbecoming perhaps American imitation. But I must confess, when I preceive how this conflict lingers in America, however rapidly it may be hastening, for aught I know of, to a profitable and goodly end in Russia, I do not think it due to that large portion of the community, whose opinions I am sure I speak on this occasion, to refrain from a decided but decorous expression of regret, that the Secretary of the Treasury should have gone-while yet a whole province, I mean the Territory of Michigan, is under the enemy's subjugation-that he should have gone, scorched with the fires of Havre and of Georgetown, coolly to sue for peace, under the influence of the North Pole. Accede to such a mediation as that of Russia I always would, without a moment's hesitation, and by all fair means cherish the Russian alliance; for undoubtedly Russia is the only European power of the first grade that has always treated America with respect and amity; though, to be sure, not to give Russia more credit than she is entitled to, we never have come in collision with her, and never can, unless we should disagree about the lands in Kamschatka. But move one single furlong from the American soil in quest of peace I never would, under any foreign auspices what not be impracticable to obtain such loans. But then it must be in a ratio of interest always increasing, in a ratio of amount obtained always decreasing; and when the economy, independently of the dignity of the Commonwealth, is taken into view, there can be no question of the necessity and advantage of taxation. You otherwise fall into the hands of brokers. You have not incurred that misfortune yet. But as your first interest was six per cent., your second seven and a half, or some fractional sum between seven and eight, I do not know exactly what, nor is it material-so your next must be ten, after that twenty, or some such exorbitant remuneration, and so on until the interest almost equals the principal. That a system of loans, therefore, is a bad system, without a corresponding arrangement of taxes, is not to be disputed. The Committee of Ways and Means have recommended, as the principal resource, a direct land tax. After we had been engaged for a week and more on the laborious details of this tax, and had arrived, as I flattered myself, very near their termination, most unexpectedly an objection to the whole is stated by the honorable gentleman from New York, who wishes, first, to substitute a whiskey tax to the amount of two millions in the place of the land tax, which he proposes to relinquish altogether; and, secondly, his plan is to convert the whiskey tax from a collection on the capacity, as the committee have reported it, to an excise on the gallon. As to the substitution of the one tax for the other, I am averse to such a change for a variety of reasons. All direct taxes are preferable to indirect taxes, in a republican country; and accordingly, in all the debates on this subject, in 1791, 2, 3, '4, '5, '6, '7, '8, and '9, the republican and agricultural representation in Congress expressed the predilection for such a tax. I do not pretend to be intimate with its details, nor competent to decide on the expediency of one establishment in preference to another. I am not yet perfectly aware of the merits of the controversy involved in the modification introduced by the honorable gentleman from Kentucky, (Mr. MONTGOMERY,) and voted against that modification, not because I H. OF R.] The Ways and Means. [JUNE, 1813. clearly saw that the plan proposed by the com- | tunity for the alteration of such taxes as may mittee was preferable in its assessments-for on be enacted at this, and the introduction of such that point I have not formed a judgment-but additional taxes as may be devised. because I am convinced that the optional subsequent arrangement should be left with the respective States, as proposed by the committee, and controverted by the honorable gentleman from Kentucky. On that point I have a decided opinion. The Federalist, in the 36th and 45th numbers, explicitly asserts the position now taken by the committee; which convinces me that such a method of taxation was contemplated at the moment of the adoption of the constitution; and I am equally clear of its expediency. A land tax is the principal item of taxation, I believe, in all countries where the agricultural interest predominates. Peuchet, a late French statist, gives the income of France, for 1804, at 684,000,000 of francs; which is about 34,200,000 pounds sterling. Of this sum no less than 206,908,000 proceed from the direct land tax. In England the land tax and assessed taxes afford but 7,399,000 out of an income of 71,000,000, exclusively of loans for the year 1812. So that the land tax in France amounts to nearly one-third of the whole national income, and to but a tenth in England. I am myself attached to a system of income taxes. All economists agree that taxes are preferable which bear on income, to taxes which bear on principal, as I have before intimated. The tax on successions would be a fair and a profitable one, and easy of collection. I would provide for it, as is done in England, by a clause or two in the stamp act, declaring that receipts to executors and administrators should not be valid unless stamped with a particular kind of stamp, together with other securities for the attainment of the tax. The public would thus be, in fact, the heir of every decedent; and his heirs or devisees would be obliged to pay but a small discount on the receipt of their successions. This is a tax as old as the age of Augustus Cæsar, and in operation, I believe, in most of the countries of modern Europe. The tax on law suits I would arrange also by a clause or more in the stamp act, declaring that, on the institution of any suit for a demand exceeding $100, the party plaintiff or complainant should be obliged to pay down a certain sum, say never less than one dollar nor more than five, which should abide the event The other taxes reported by the committee of the action, like other costs. If the plaintiff are mostly the same with those formerly in succeeded, the advance should be refunded to operation; but altered in their principles of dis- him by taxing it on the defendant. If the detribution and collection, according to the amend-fendant succeeded, the plaintiff should not have ments which experience and time have dictated. In the tax proposed on pleasure carriages, it appears to me-and at a proper state of the proceeding I intend to submit an amendment to that effect-that by the substitution of pleasure houses for pleasure carriages, we shall equalize the taxation and increase the product. The former carriage tax fell in very unequal burdens on Massachusetts and Virginia; and I should suppose that such a tax would now prove more unequal than it ever was before. But by laying it on pleasure houses instead of pleasure carriages, or on pleasure houses as well as pleasure carriages, the imposition would be equalized. it back again. I cannot speak with any precision of the number of suits brought in any other jurisdiction than that of the several courts of Philadelphia. I compute there about 3,500 a year. Taking this number of suits, and calculating the product on the whole United States at the same rate, and I make an annual income which might amount to $300,000, from this item of internal revenue. But the best of all taxes, in my opinion, is an income tax. It is true it was reserved for one of the last struggles of finance in England, where it did not appear until the time of the late Mr. Pitt. But it affords, as appears by the British budget for 1812, upwards of thirteen millions sterling a year; and must be, of all taxes, the most just, because it is nothing more to be bestowed in the public service. It is perhaps true, that very serious difficulties would occur in its collection. But I do not think it would be found indispensable to put every citizen to his oath as to the amount of his income. The amount might be assessed according to his visible or ostensible property, as I believe is the case with other rates in Philadelphia, leaving to the party a right of appeal in all cases of grievance, but fixing him with the burden of disproving what he had been rated at. The sources of income contemplated in the resolutions I have laid on the table, are brought into view, not so much for the purpose of press-than a deduction from superfluity and wealth, ing them forward at this session, as in order to show that there probably are as many projects in imagination as there are members in their seats and if indeed the honorable gentleman from New York persists in his scheme, contrary to the report of the committee, I do not know why every other theorist may not be indulged in the prosecution of his, too. The result of it all will be, I have no doubt—I am certain from reflection and observation on the course of our business-that after floundering for a fortnight, at this intemperate season, through a mire of schemes, we shall at last return, nothing the wiser or nearer our respective objects, to the report of the Committee of Ways and Means. At another session there will be abundant oppor WEDNESDAY, June 30. The question, whether the Committee of the The House then resolved itself into a Committee of the Whole on the bills for laying and collecting a direct tax. The committee proceeded to consider the bill for laying a tax on licenses for distilling. Mr. TAYLOR, after a speech of considerable length, moved to strike out the whole of the 2d section of the bill, which lays a tax on the capacity of the still. [A debate of considerable length took place on the motion, in which Messrs. BIBB, DUVALL, WRIGHT, FISK of New York, ROBERTS, FINDLAY, BOWEN, SHIPARD, and PICKENS, successively spoke.] [H. OF R. whole House have leave to sit again on Mr. | be paid by the Western people, men without FISK's resolution for laying an excise on do- capitals, farmers, whose distance from the seamestic distilled spirits, was taken up and decid- board compels them to distill the product of ed in the affirmative-yeas 63, nays 48. their farms, in order to take it to distant marAnd the further consideration of the same kets in the only shape that can reward them was then postponed to Monday four weeks- for their labors. The tax, as proposed in the yeas 63, nays 61. bill reported by the Committee of Ways and Means, is one dollar and eight cents per gallon on the capacity of each still. I fear that this will be more than our farmers can pay; men who are obliged daily to labor on their farms for the support of their families, cannot command the money that will be required to pay the tax on their stills. A license on a still of the capacity of one hundred and fifty gallons, for one year, will amount to one hundred and sixty-two dollars, which not one farmer in two hundred can advance. The certain consequence, then, will be to prevent all who are owners of stills (and who cannot command the amount of duty) from distilling at all. Mr. DUVALL.-Mr. Chairman, I rise with re- The revenue, contemplated even under the bill luctance to address you on this subject. But as it now stands, will fall far short, I fear, of the interests of the nation, and particularly the the calculations already submitted, which is Western States, are deeply concerned in the seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars. The subject now under consideration. Sir, I was tax is now too high. It will not yield as much opposed to the amendment offered to this bill revenue as can be raised by lessening the duty, by a gentleman from New York, (Mr. Fisk,) on for if the duty was seventy-five cents per gallon yesterday, changing its principle by laying an upon the capacity of the still, I assert that excise duty of nine or twelve cents on each three stills would be in operation under the gallon of domestic distilled spirits; and the duty, when not more than one in five will be proposition now made by another honorable employed under the regulations which are now member from the same State, (Mr. TAYLOR,) to submitted by the bill as reported. But change strike out the first and second sections of this the principle of this bill, and lay an excise of bill, is made with the avowed intention of nine or twelve cents on each gallon of domeslaying an excise duty on the gallon; it is the tic spirits distilled, and, I venture to predict, same proposition, made only in another manner. that the revenue from this source will be but I fear, sir, if this motion should prevail, the an illusion. Men in moderate circumstances, first and second sections of this bill be lost, and such constitute the large body of the peoand its principle entirely changed, its final pas-ple in the Western States, will be completely sage will be rendered doubtful. I ask but the attention of this committee for a short time to prove to their satisfaction that the motion to strike out ought not to prevail. To do this, I shall not exhaust your patience by a learned display of ancient and modern history, or by a recitation of the fiscal systems of Great Britain and France. For the honorable member from Pennsylvania (Mr. INGERSOLL) has taken a wide and learned view of all these subjects. I shall account myself fortunate if I can come to the point in controversy, and mix up a little common sense in the opinions I shall advance. I admire the book learning that has been displayed by several gentlemen on this subject; but let me assure you that common sense and practical knowledge of the operation of this tax, are worth all the learned theories and disquisitions which we can have on this subject. I ask who are to pay the tax on stills? The people of the Western country, who have already sustained the weight of the war. The people of the Western country, are they to do all the fighting, and to pay all the taxes? Will the people of the South, East, and a great portion of the North pay this tax? No. It will debarred of the use of their stills, and the Government defeated of its revenue by an avaricious and over-calculating spirit. The thousands that this tax has been calculated to produce will vanish like a morning dream. If it is our serious business to raise money for the war, let me ask if it is wise or prudent to lay such a weight on one article, when it is evident that, if overstrained, it will sink at once with all our prospects, all our hopes of revenue? I was surprised when I heard the gentleman from New York (Mr. FISK) gravely tell you, that the whole revenue now wanted by the Government, ought to, and could, be raised by an excise on distilled spirits. But, surprise was changed to astonishment when that gentleman said a revenue of twenty-five millions of dollars could be raised in the way proposed, and that he would vote for the raising of that sum if necessary. Yes, sir, I have no doubt that that gentleman and many others will vote for laying an extravagant excise on distilled spirits, because they hope by doing so to avoid (what they view with trembling apprehension) a direct tax; their own constituents will not then feel the weight of the taxes, and if this motion |