duce a revenue. He fancied that we should next hear of an excise upon nails. Prohibitory duties had been laid for the encouragement of this manufacture in America. Progress had consequently been made in the business; and now there was nothing wanting but a smart excise duty to knock it on the head, under the pretence of exacting a revenue. Calico was another article that we should, no doubt, saddle with a stamp duty, as had been the case in Britain, where it produced a great revenue. In the case of the present tax, it would be said that the manufacturer must lay it on his customers. Yes; but will his customers advance him a capital double to what he had before? Besides the tax, he must have visits of excise-men, which are, in themselves, extremely troublesome. Mr. NICHOLAS. We are going on exactly in the steps of Britain, of which this excise is one instance. That country once had a revolutionary spirit. How sunk are they now! Not one-tenth part of them dare to say that they are against the war with France, which is sweeping them with velocity over the precipice of ruin. At least, it is the common opinion in the United States, that their French war is the road to ruin. What has degraded and annihilated the spirit of Britain? Public debts, taxes, and officers of excise. Onehalf of the nation has been loaded with the plunder of the rest. It is too much the American character to bear as right, what does not immediately hurt. It is a duty to keep the citizens alive to the operations of Government. It is somewhat strange to blame this attempt, when there is such an alarming indifference on the subject. As to this tax, it will put an end to the consumption of manufactured tobacco. Planters will make it ready for themselves. They can do so with very great ease by a method in the process of curing it. Mr. N. was therefore against the resolution. Mr. DEXTER observed, that very few of the objections were confined to the question. Some were arguments against all excises; some against all public contributions; some against the nature and administration of our Government; and some against all Government. The statement of the gentleman from Maryland, [Mr. SMITH,] that the duty would make three times the capital necessary, he said, could not be accurate. He had reckoned the cost of the raw material as the only capital employed. If this be true, as he states, tobacco at four cents per pound, and snuff is worth thirty cents per pound, it follows that the manufacturer makes 750 per cent. nett profit. This cannot be true; the principal capital must be employed in preparatory works and labor of manufacturing. He added, that our having formerly protected the manufacture, is no reason against now taxing it; it would rather be a reason for calling on it to contribute to the public burdens. He said, the same gentleman asked, why there is no excise on beer manufactured in New England, as well as on Southern whiskey? I answer, beer is not manufactured there in any considerable quantity; if it were, it ought not to be taxed. New England rum is taxed enormously. The duty on this and whiskey are protecting duties to good morals. The [MAY, 1794. use of snuff and tobacco is certainly a mere luxury, or, rather folly; and all who use, and, of course, pay the duty, are volunteers. A land-tax, which is named as a substitute for this and every thing else, is a tax very unequal, and laid on all the necessaries of life, and oppressive to the laborious poor. It looks like Governmental rapacity, which is so deprecated by the gentleman from Pennsylvania, [Mr. SMILIE.] He has more than once told us that insensible taxation is dangerous; and that we should make the people feel the taxes they pay; the way to make them feel taxes, is to lay those which will be most inconvenient. The argument, then, is, that the most inconvenient tax is the best. The very fact stated to reason from, is the strongest reason in favor of indirect taxation, viz: the burden is so small that the people do not feel it. What the gentleman's meaning is, unless it be that measures ought to be taken which may make the people dissatisfied with the Government, is difficult to say. The same gentleman has said, that all excises are against the spirit of a Republican Government like ours. It is strange, said Mr. D., that the spirit and letter of our Government should be so contradictory; for, by the Constitution, excises are expressly provided. The man who buys his food and clothing in small quantities, as he can obtain the means, does it much more easily than he could purchase a stock for a year at one time; and he who buys dutied articles, and regulates his consumption by the price, pays his tax in small portions, with ease, when he would be distressed by being called on to pay the whole sum in gross annually. Mr. D.. proceeded to say, that as to the fears of the gentleman above mentioned from Pennsylvania, and also of the gentleman from Virginia, [Mr. NICHOLAS,] he had heard them too often to be alarmed at them. They seemed like a sale coat, made for any subject. He said, that a fact satisfied his mind on the subject. Massachusetts is a land of equality beyond any on earth. Scarce a man among them is rich enough to keep a coach, and scarcely one so poor as not to keep a horse; learning is more equally diffused there than in any part of America; their morals are so pure that crimes hardly have names; yet this happy race of equal Republicans never, since the institution of our Government, have sent one member here to whine or thunder about the aristocracy of our Constitution. He said, he would not compare this State with others in the Union; one man was not there disposed of at the will of another. As to the fear of the gentleman from Virginia, that excises would destroy American liberty, Mr. D. said, there was no danger of it. The character of individuals form the character of the Government. A people are never enslaved until they need a master. The American habits exclude all danger. That excises and slavery exist together in some parts of Europe is true; but it remains to be proved that one is the cause of the other. If we have the benefits of Government, we must pay for them.. There was a time, said Mr. D., when laboring under the debility of disunion and the distresses of MAY, 1794.] · Public Credit. [H. of R. a debt which the United States, owed, but another debt, which they never owed. Had not these members supported this system? Was this an act that demanded the confidence and gratitude of the Here Mr. CLARK requested to be heard. "I thought," said he, "that the question before us had been something about tobacco." anarchy, we rejoiced that the people had instituted this Government. It is now represented, not as the guardian of liberty and innocence, but as the assassin of both. What has happened to change our opinion? Under its auspices we have increas-public? ed in strength and riches; we are now free and happy, when the world is in confusion. The gentleman from Virginia seems to despise our present happiness, unless it can be eternal. Why, sir, Mr. MADISON professed an aversion to all comshould we expect this? Nations, like men, come parisons; but, if they must be made, it was proper to maturity; they grow old and perish. The sun to draw them with the strictest regard to truth. must go out in darkness; the earth must be burnt He agreed with the gentleman from Massachuup; nature must expire in agonies. What right setts lately up, that the citizens of that State were have we to claim to be an exception from general good Republicans, but so were the citizens of rules? All nature is in perpetual revolution; we other States. Laws were fast equalizing the manare a part, and must revolve with the whole. Theners of Americans all over the Continent; and system suffers, and probably requires constant renovation. Succession appears to be a law of nature as universal as her works, and as immutable as her Author. no where with more rapidity than in Virginia. The people there are not less truly Republican than others. There had not been a single insurrection in that State, since the first Declaration Mr. CLARK said, that the gentleman, who had of Independence; nor any resistance to the laws. just sat down, had put an end to all further neces-Excise had, indeed, been very unpopular in the sity for discussion on this question. His pane-Southern States, compared with what it was in gyric on the character of his constituents, (the the Eastern; but for this there was a very good people of Massachusetts,) ascertained that they reason. The tax was not only one to which they were undoubtedly the first people, and most en- had not been accustomed, but it fell much more lightened republicans in the Union; and, as they heavy upon the Southern than upon the Eastern would, no doubt, send the best informed persons States, where it was likewise familiar. The peoamong them to Congress, it followed that he [Mr.ple of Virginia had never been discontented, even DEXTER] and his colleagues were the most re- when paying heavy taxes, before the institution of spectable characters in the Committee, and that, the Federal Government, at the amount of taxes therefore, the rest of the Representatives had no- themselves. Their dissatisfaction arose from the thing further to do, but at once give their votes as knowledge that, at that time, but a small part of these gentlemen thought proper. Mr. C. sat down, these taxes went into the Public Treasury. The with hinting at the waste of time, by speeches Collectors, in raising the revenue, speculated upon entirely foreign to the subject before the Com- a bad paper medium, and by certain manœuvres, mittee. (which the member did not explain, but which Mr. NICHOLAS rose again. Because gentlemen are notoriously known) they turned the greater did not adopt every measure of Government, it was part of what they received into their own pockets. said that they were enemies to all Government. This was the only reason why the Virginians had The Federal Government never would have ex-formerly discovered discontent. As to the subject isted, if the people could have foreseen what sort of schemes it was to put into execution. In four years, there had been a complete revolution in the opinion of the rulers of that Government. He thanked God there was still as much principle in the people as would bring these gentlemen back to the point from which they set out. Mr. N. was highly offended at the style of the panegyric pronounced by Mr. DEXTER on his constituents, as it they possessed something about them superior to the citizens of Virginia. He understood that the member knew nothing about Virginia, unless by what he had seen of it upon that floor; and he trusted that he found nothing here that could authorize so derogatory a tone. before the House, it was proper to choose taxes the least unequal. Tobacco excise was a burden the most unequal. It fell upon the poor, upon sailors, day-laborers, and other people of these classes, while the rich will often escape it. Much had been said about the taxing of luxury. The pleasures of life consisted in a series of innocent gratifications, and he felt no satisfaction in the prospect of their being squeezed. Sumptuary laws had never, he believed, answered any good purpose. Something had been said about the difference between direct personal taxes, and those raised by indirect means, such as excise and customs. He quoted an author of respectable character, in England, who estimated the expense of upMr. DEXTER rose a second time, and Mr. NICHO-lifting direct taxes in that country, such as the LAS made a reply. land tax, at three per cent., and that of uplifting Mr. SMILIE. The people of Pennsylvania are indirect taxes, such as those of excise and cusas well educated, as intelligent, and as sound Re-toms, upon the whole, at thirty per cent.* This publicans as any of their neighbors. As to the last was, perhaps, an exaggeration, and must be, State of Massachusetts, we can only judge of it by the members whom it sends to this House. Mr. *Some years ago, the expense of collecting the revenues of S. declared that he had not been able to trace, in Britain was about two millions and two or three hundred thousand their conduct, any superlative marks either of abi-pounds of Pennsylvania currency. The expense has since in creased. Some taxes do not, in many parts of the country, defray ty or of virtue. There had been funded, not only more than half the charge of collecting them. MONDAY, May 5. [MAY, 1794. Ordered, That the said memorial be referred to the Committee of the Whole House to whom is committed the report of the committee appointed to inquire whether any, or what, further or other revenues are necessary for the support of the public credit, and, if further revenues are necessary, to report the ways and means. in part, a conjecture. But such a conjecture proved that the proportion upon indirect taxes was at A memorial of the sugar bakers of the city of least very considerable. Excise had at first been Philadelphia, was presented to the House and resorted to upon a few manufactures. The deal- read, praying that sugar refined within the United ers indemnify themselves at the expense of their States may not be subjected to the excise duty customers. At the same time, they endeavored proposed to be laid by the report of the Committee to evade the duties, and thus there commences a of Ways and Means now depending before the struggle, which has many bad effects, both upon House." industry and public morals. In Europe, when tobacco is excised, the Government forbids it from being planted. [Some years ago, the British farmers were obliged, by an act of Parliament, to pull up and burn their tobacco, before it was full grown.] No such measure, he hoped, would be adopted here, but it was hard to say where the subject might, one day, end. Statesmen, in general, do not study the liberty, the virtue, or the comforts of the people, but merely to collect as much revenue, as they can. Taxes are not, for the most part, the work of patriotism. An excise established in America would discourage the emi-House. grations from Europe, that might, at this time, be so much expected. He was determined to vote against the resolution. Mr. BALDWIN considered that we had only a choice of evils. Upon that principle he preferred a snuff tax to a land tax. Mr. FITZSIMONS knew a time when the land tax of Pennsylvania cost thirty per cent. in collecting it; and, at the same time, the officers employed were more numerous than all the revenue officers of the Federal Government at this day, put together. Mr. F. stated the former to have been about two thousand. A message from the Senate informed the House that the Senate have passed a bill, entitled “An act for the remission of the duties on eleven hogsheads of coffee, which have been destroyed by fire," to which they desire the concurrence of this The Senate have also passed the bill, entitled "An act directing a detachment from the militia of the United States," with several amendments; to which they desire the concurrence of this House. Mr. DEXTER, from the committee appointed, presented a bill authorizing the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES to lay, regulate, and revoke embargoes; which was read twice and committed. The House proceeded to consider the report of the committee to whom was referred the petition of Samuel Franklin, William T. Robinson, and Abraham Franklin: Whereupon, Resolved, by the Senate and House of Repre Mr. GILLON, adverting to some former speeches, sentatives of the United States of America in ondid not rise to compliment that part of the coun-gress assembled, That the PRESIDENT OF THE try which had sent him to Congress. His constituents were men, and this single word implied that they had, like the rest of mankind, the common virtues and vices of human nature. As he had only been a few days in that House, he did not pretend to understand the present question of finance, so well as gentlemen who had devoted weeks or months to the subject. He was against both excise and a land tax. As to the clause of additional duty on the importation of manufactured tobacco, he feared that this was but a bit of gilding to cover a bad pill. The clause referred to by Mr. GILLON, is in these words: "Resolved, That there be an additional duty of four cents per pound upon all tobacco, and eight cents per pound, on all snuff imported into the United States." Is this the return to gentlemen who establish manufactures, that the moment the wheel is set agoing, it must be clogged with a tax? He warned the Committee to proceed in this matter with caution, lest they should excite a spirit of discontent in the country. The Committee then divided on the question. For the tax on manufactured snuff and tobacco 55, against the tax 34. The Committee then rose. The Chairman reported progress; and the House adjourned till Monday next. UNITED STATES be authorized to direct clearances to be granted to any ships or vessels belonging to citizens of the United States, which are now loaded, bound from any port in the United States for any port beyond the Cape of Good Hope, anything in the resolution for laying the embargo to the contrary notwithstanding: Provided, That, before the Collector of either of the districts of the United States shall grant clearances, or any such vessel shall sail, the owners thereof shall give sufficient security, to the satisfaction of such Collector, that she shall not unlade her cargo, or any part thereof, at any port or place, previous to her arrival at the Cape of Good Hope. THE PUBLIC CREDIT. The House again resolved itself into a Committee of the Whole House on the report of the committee appointed to inquire whether any, and what, further or other revenues are necessary for the support of Public Credit, and, if further revenues are necessary, to report the ways and means. Mr. TRACY moved that the number of cents per pound to be laid on tobacco, and snuff shall be left blank. Mr. W. SMITH saw no reason for leaving out the specification. The duty was not too high. This amendment was in reality undoing all that the Committee had been about." Mr. TRACY stated his reasons. He understood, that the duty on tobacco was too high, and that upon snuff too low. Mr. GILES said, that the price of the raw material was two cents, or two and an half per pound, and that so large a duty would altogether knock up the manufacture. He repeated this opinion, and moved that tobacco should be struck out of the bill, and snuff stand at eight cents. The reason of this distinction was, that the planters could with ease manufacture tobacco, so as to serve their own consumption, but they could not, so easily, make snuff. Mr. FITZSIMONS apprehended, that it was proper the duty should be reduced; especially on tobacco. He, therefore, approved the motion for leaving the duties blank. Mr. SMILIE Considered the motion of Mr. TRACY as irregular. It had already been determined that the resolution should stand. Mr. FITZSIMONS explained to him, that the question decided upon Friday was, whether the resolution ought to be struck out entirely? It had been determined that the resolution should remain. But still, as to the quantum of duty, the discussion remained open to the Committee. The motion of Mr. TRACY was agreed to. Mr. S. SMITH moved that the duty on sugar should also be left blank. Mr. W. SMITH COnsidered this practice of leaving every duty blank, as reversing in substance what the Committee had been doing. The motion passed. [H. OF R. the length of the discussion, he did not wish to controvert the position of the gentleman, at an unseasonable time of day, when members were impatient for the question. He now declared his meaning, and he did this more particularly, that he might prevent any mistaken notion of a second assertion, which he was likewise going to make. This was, that in order to carry on the sugarbaking manufacture with advantage, there was required an active capital of fifty thousand dollars. This was exclusive of the expense of pots and pans, and the apparatus of instruments wanted for the actual operation. These would demand sixteen thousand dollars additional. Even the fifty thousand dollars of active capital would not be sufficient, but a man who commanded fifty thousand dollars had likewise the command of an extensive credit, in the banks of the United States. He assured the Committee, that in consequence of the two per cent duty, the sugar-baking would require a double amount of capital, to what it formerly did. This assertion he illustrated by a variety of arithmetical calculations. Thus, said Mr. S., when a man of property has adventured his capital, in establishing an American manufacture, you come down upon him with an excise. You tell him, in the style of the gentleman from Massachusetts, whom I do not now see in his place [he referred to a part of the speech of Mr. DEXTER on Friday last] we have protected you for some time past, and we are therefore entitled to treat you in time coming, as we please. Mr. S. argued, that this was no encouragement to a merchant to hazard his capital. Gentlemen would say, that nails are no luxury; we shall not tax them. He considered this report on excise as the opening wedge. When once taxes on manufactures have begun, where are they to stop? He saw not, in the report, any notice of a drawback on the exportation of sugar manufactured in America. He had already fully explained his idea relative to an excise; and he should not therefore trouble the House any farther. One of the chief reasons for which he had risen at all was, that he had been misunderstood by the member from Massachusetts, as to the amount of capital requisite for the erection of a snuff manufactory. He was satisfied that this duty would end in the ruin of sugar-baking establishments. Mr. S. SMITH moved again that the whole sugar clause should be struck out. He was concerned in the manufacture of refined sugar; but he saw no good reason, for giving a silent vote merely on that account. The land-tax will, in due time, come to be discussed; and there are very few members in the Committee, who are not landholders. But this will not prevent them from giving their opinions. He should, therefore, proceed to explain his sentiments on the present resolution. On sugarbaking, he had for several years been sinking money. It was not till within the last year, that he made any profit by the adventure. The profits on this business were very precarious; and he had felt the full force of this disadvantage. The smallest inattention on the part of the person appointed to superintend the manufacture, was sufficient to render a whole baking totally useless; though it Mr. FITZSIMONS.-Since ever he had been in a was frequently worth five hundred pounds; and Legislative body, he had been a friend to the mahe had twice met with an accident of this nature.nufacturers of this country. The gentleman who He referred to the objection of Mr. DEXTER, where he stated that he (Mr. S.) had advanced as a fact that £5,000 of capital were necessary to prosecute the manufacture of snuff. In that five thousand pounds, he did not, as Mr. DEXTER had supposed, comprehend house rent, or the wages of journeymen, or the purchase of machinery. He meant to say, that five thousand pounds were essential for the purchase and the support of a proper stock of the materials of the manufacture. He would have given this explanation on Friday; but as the Committee had been much fatigued by spoke last had not convinced him, that the two cents of duty would make a double capital necessary, or that the duty would demolish the manufacture. He was of opinion, that the duty might be so modified, as not to injure the interest of the sugar-bakers. There would be adopted a proper mode of protecting the manufacture by non-importation duties; and it had been designed by the select committee to give a suitable drawback on exportation. He said, that raw sugars were at present but fifteen shillings per hundred weight. He did not reckon sugar a luxury. It was an ar ticle of universal consumption. He pledged himself to the Committee that unless the excise could be placed on such a footing as not to injure the feelings and interest of the manufacturer, he would vote against it. [MAY, 1794. into this country, to counteract the effects of the British bounty; and this precaution will be still more necessary, as our American refined sugar will come higher on account of this excise. Much has been said, in the course of this debate, about oppression. What do gentlemen propose to make of this trite word? If they will reiterate their arguments on this question over and over again, what can be said to hinder them? If, in contempt of all experience, gentlemen persist in saying that an excise duty is paid, not by the customer, but by the manufacturer himself; and if, because the Legislature has authority to lay, when they please, any amount per pound on sugar, members argue against all taxes whatever, it is impossible to give them any satisfactory answer. We know that everything may be abused. We know that the Legislature have it their power to lay a large amount of duty on every pound of sugar; we know, at the same time, that they never will do any such thing. having it as cheap as possible. As to the propriety of laying an excise upon manufactures, a large majority of the House have already declared themselves in favor of the principle in general. If there was only one sugar house in the United States, Mr. MUHLENBERG (the Speaker) observed, that and only one inspection required for collecting the he was also engaged in the business of refining whole fifty thousand dollars expected from the sugar, and therefore could, in some measure, speak tax, Mr. S. would like it so much the better. The from experience. The Committee, in laying these drawback granted in Britain upon the exportation duties, had, as it appeared to him, contemplated a of refined sugar is, in reality, a bounty on the mawar; if that should take place, this fund would nufacture of the article. We must take care to prove fallacious, because, during the war, a suffi-add a large enough duty on the importation of it cient quantity of the raw material could not be brought into the country to support the manufacture. This had been the case in the last war, and whatever reliance gentlemen might have on the importation of sugar during a war, on the supplies furnished by successful privateers, that was insufficient and too uncertain to enable the manufacturers of sugar to proceed with such regularity as their business required. In short, it would, in a great measure, stop the business, and induce the owners to turn their capital, at least for a time, into other channels. He was also of opinion that refined sugar already bore too high a price, owing to the high price of raw sugar, which was much beyond what his colleague [Mr. FITZSIMONS] stated, fifteen dollars per cwt., and that had already lessened the demand and consumption, which every one now concerned in the business could testify. If, therefore, two cents were added to the present price, it would lessen the consumption still more, and thereby materially injure the manufac- Mr. S. SMITH explained. He did not mean to ture. He further observed, that owing to the pro- say that the tax would be augmented to an unbable capture of the French islands, sugars in Eng-limited excess upon any single article; but that land must be very low, and as that country paid taxes would be multiplied on all manufactures. but 8s. 6d. per cwt. on raw sugar and a drawback of 23s. was allowed on every cwt. of refined sugar exported, that operated as a bounty, and enabled merchants to import it considerably cheaper than it could be manufactured here. This had been the case last year in the Southern States, and probably would be so again, unless a much higher duty was laid on imported sugars than the Committee at first contemplated. He then called for the reading of the memorial from the sugar refiners which was this day read in the House. The memorial was read, and stated, among other particulars, that there were only seventeen sugar-bakeries in the United States. The tax was estimated to produce fifty thousand dollars; and this sum the profits of the business would not discharge. Mr. SMILIE said, that things of this sort came on by degrees. Excise was at first light in England, and only on a few manufactures. It was then by degrees augmented, and extended over soap, candles, leather, starch, and an endless multitude of other articles. The cider tax continued as unpopular in England at this day, as it was when first imposed. He had no doubt of such an excise being introduced here; and if the people of England, so long familiar with heavy taxes, bore this excise on cider with such reluctance, the citizens of the United States would still less submit to it, and their discontent might be attended with dangerous consequences. Will not this set of resolutions for an excise, at present before the Commit tee, lay the foundation for an universal American excise? He deprecated the system in general. He did not lay the fault of its effects upon this or that Government. They were ingrafted in the nature of the thing itself. An excise, in its very outset, is a violation of the rights of freemen, independent of the extent to which it might or might not be carried, and whether it oppressed the maMr. SEDGWICK.-There has been much repeti-nufacturer, or did not oppress him, by making his tion in discussing this question. The member house liable to be searched, at all hours, it violated from Pennsylvania [Mr. FINDLEY] had said that the natural sanctuary of domestic life. It creates seventeen sugar houses were too small a number a number of artificial crimes; an additional code to rouse a general sentiment in their favor. This of laws must be invented, in order to punish them; was no argument at all. Everybody made use of and this punishment cannot be inflicted without sugar, and every one, therefore, was interested in the ruin of American citizens, or neglected, with Mr. FINDLEY said, that seventeen houses were too small a number to protect themselves from the arm of the Legislature. He was afraid they would be crushed by their duty. The member went into some farther remarks on the bad consequences of this mode of exacting revenue. |