alone, but upon the immutable principles of justice and equity, which will be violated by the operation of the proposed system, whenever it shall be resorted to in this country. Sir, I consider the measure proposed hostile to the personal liberty and security of the citizen, which legislators should at all times attentively regard; and I consider it also subversive of that general distribution of public burdens on various sections of the Union, which, as far as practicable, should be an object of primary attention. The principles of an excise system are justly odious in this and every other free country. Because they sub ject the domicil, and every apartment provided for the comfort of civilized man, to the unceremonious visit and search of a train of petty officers-men whose powers cannot be strictly defined by law-and, if defined, would too often be disregarded. The powers of such officers, if you mean that your laws shall be enforced, must be incompatible with the immunities held sacred in the domestic relations of society.

H. of R.

test the principle contained in the amendment offered by the gentlemen from Maryland. I entreat the House to remember, that principles do not change with circumstances, and that it is wholly inconsistent with the foundation of republican Governments, and with the genius of the American Constitution, to permit private property to be invaded at the arbitrary caprice of public functionaries.

I have said that a tax of twenty-five cents per gallon on whiskey will operate almost exclusively on particular sections of the country. It is a fact well known, that the Western States, to which may be added a part of Pennsylvania and Virginia, distil more whiskey than all the other States in the Union. And can gentlemen think it reasonable that these States should pay so great a proportion of the money to be raised by taxation?

Situated at a remote distance from the only market at which they can vend the surplus products of their labor, the inequality which would Permit me, sir, for a moment to glance at the be introduced by this amendment would produce causes out of which the contest in which we are the most oppressive effects upon the people of the about to engage has arisen. We complain (and Western country. But, sir, we are told by the justly) of violations of our national rights on the gentleman from Maryland, (Mr. McKIM.) that a high seas; and to restore these rights to their le- tax on this article will diminish the quantity gitimate standing, we have determined to exert consumed, and thereby check the vicious habits our strength against one of the great belligerents of intemperance, and promote the great cause of of Europe, unless that Power shall within a virtue and morality. In these moral reflections, short period voluntarily surrender its unjust pre- on which the honorable gentleman seemed to tensions, and cease its lawless aggressions on the dwell with so much zeal and confidence, it is a persons and property of our citizens navigating matter of astonishment that he did not include the ocean. I admit, it is not for the benefit of com- the consumers of brandy in the State in part repmercial men alone we are contending; the best resented by himself. Adopt the proposition of interests of the agriculturist are involved in the the gentleman, and the Maryland farmer who protection of commerce, which, as an independ- distils his two, three, or four thousand gallons of ent nation, we can never relinquish. At the same brandy from his large and profitable orchard, time, I wish it to be understood, that I can never will pay to the United States the small sum of consent to destroy the internal tranquillity of the five dollars a year on each still employed, while country for the attainment of an object not in- the distillers of grain in the Western country are dispensable to our national existence. No, sir, I called on to distribute nearly one hundred per will never surrender the proud privilege of an cent. on the present value of all the spirits disAmerican citizen to repose in quiet and safety tilled. I hope the honorable gentleman will comunder his own roof, for any consideration what- mence his good work of reformation among the ever. Let us consecrate the maxim that a man's brandy-drinkers of his own State, before he house is his castle, where the owner finds an asy-strides over the Allegany to teach us lessons of lum in which he is sole master, Better would it be to leave our countrymen abroad to the changes and chances of fortune, than to subject our citizens at home to the arbitrary details of an excise duty on the products of their industry, which must lead to the destruction of individual liberty, happiness, and security. Sir, willing as I believe the people I have the honor to represent are to contribute their just proportion of any revenue which the exigencies of the country may require, and to exert their physical force to assert the rights and vindicate the honor of the country, yet I will never agree that their houses of every description shall be thrown open to the inspection of excise officers, who would often find a pretext for such a demand to evince the plenitude of their power, and from various motives would vex and harass the best citizens. These remarks I thought it proper to make, in order to

temperance, and that, too, by the imposition of an enormous excise to enforce their observance. The injustice of the proposed tax is too obvious to require further illustration, and I should now dismiss the subject, but for the liberality of sentiment displayed by the gentleman from Vermont, (Mr. Fisk,) which claims a moment's attention. That gentleman it seems is in favor of this tax, because he sees in it a relief afforded to his Western brethren from the pressure of the direct tax. We duly appreciate the motives of the honorable gentleman, but as we cannot discern the advantages of relieving our constituents from the payment of about four hundred thousand dollars, by compelling them to pay four millions, he will excuse us for not accepting his beneficent offer. For, sir, in fact such would be the effect of that course of proceedings recommended by him. He says you can raise six mil

lions six hundred thousand dollars annually by a tax of twenty-five cents per gallon on whiskey. Cannot every man see that at least four millions of this sum would fall on that section of the United States which I have before described, and this sum we are asked to pay to redeem ourselves from the payment of four hundred thousand, which will be nearly our proportion of the direct

tax.

MARCH, 1812.

surely to adopt that which has been offered. I frankly own, sir, that I have no substitute to tender which would not be liable to all the exceptions which have been taken to the report under consideration. I wish some gentleman would enter upon the task and perform it to the satisfaction of this House and the nation; for myself, I confess the want of talents to devise a plan of taxation, which shall fall more equally than this system Mr. Speaker: There are other objections to upon every section of the country. I have strong the proposition of the gentleman from Maryland objections to some of the resolutions for which I which deserve consideration. We all profess to shall vote, taking them unconnected with the redesire the rapid promotion of our domestic man-mainder of the report. The resolution before ufactures; protecting duties are about to be voted us is one of this description; it will bear heavily on articles of foreign manufactures, to give to upon myconstituents; but I discover, that they are these, I mean our home establishments, a monop- almost entirely relieved from the operation of the oly in the markets of this country; and, sir, are duties on stamps, as now modified by the comwe not departing from principles of sound pol-mittee. Banks and commercial men will almost icy, when we single out any one article of do- exclusively be affected by the latter, and, theremestic manufacture, and from it attempt to raise fore, I do not consider it unreasonable in the comso extravagant a sum as six millions six hundred mittee to require the payment of a tax on stills, thousand dollars? This will in effect produce an agreeably to their report. You cannot, Mr. increased consumption of imported spirits, and Speaker, select any one article for taxation which spirits distilled from foreign materials. will not be felt more sensibly by the people in one quarter of the country than in another; you must, therefore make several, and by causing one to operate upon the people in one direction, and another upon those who reside in a different part of the country, you will, as far as practicable, equalize a system of internal taxes. This, I believe, the Committee of Ways and Means have done to as much advantage as possible. I shall, therefore, not follow the example set me by the gentleman from Maryland, by proposing to raise the whole sum required upon some one article, by taxing which to an unreasonable amount, my district would be entirely relieved. I know my constituents would not wish to hear of my making such a proposition. I am willing, by a vote on these resolutions, to give a pledge to the lenders of money to the public, and I am willing to redeem it with good faith. For the people I represent, I ask no exemption from public burdens; but against that injustice which would be inflicted on them, should the proposition of the gentleman from Maryland succeed, I protest.

The plan proposed will be found deceptive in practice; the law will be evaded; the tax will be so oppressive as to tempt men strongly to violate it. And should this take place, or should the quantity distilled be greatly diminished, the revenue of the country will fail, which is an event in a state of war productive of the greatest calamities. Having declared my intention to vote for the entire report of the Committee of Ways and Means, I ask the indulgence of the House to state concisely some of the reasons which influ ence my conduct on this occasion.

At the opening of the present session of Congress, the President informed us that every effort to settle our differences with Great Britain by friendly negotiation had been employed without effect. Under such circumstances, as every other expedient had failed, we determined that the only justifiable course left was to put the nation in arms, and by force redress the violated rights and honor of an injured and insulted people. We accordingly provided for a large increase of the regular army, and took corresponding measures Mr. JOHNSON said he had, on a former day, listo meet that state of things which we shortly ex- tened with indifference to the proposition to pect. The expenses incident to these prepara-levy an excise of twenty-five cents on each gallon tions must of necessity be great; we were com- of domestic distilled spirit of domestic materials pelled to incur them, or relinquish the ground we throughout the United States, from a most thorhave taken, and submit tamely to British inso-ough conviction that so unjust, so unreasonable, lence and outrage.

The debt has been created on the contingency of war, and we are bound by every moral and political consideration to provide immediately for the punctual discharge of the interest, without doing which no capitalist in the country will advance the sum required. Were we not to make this provision, I fear, sir, at the very commencement of this contest we should bankrupt the credit of the nation. It is admitted by all, that the sum asked for by the committee is the least which they could have demanded. They have submitted plan by which it may be raised, and, unless some plan less objectionable can be proposed, we ought

a

and so oppressive a tax would be rejected by a great majority, without exposing its tendency. He said he was not disappointed in that just and reasonable expectation of the views of the members of this House. He said twenty-five cents tax per gallon upon whiskey would be as ruinous to the people of the Western country as it would be unjust to that portion of the United States, who would never be backward in furnishing their just proportion of men and money to prosecute a war necessary to maintain inviolate their sovereignty and independence; but, whatever might be their willingness, they should not, with his vote be called upon to support a system which would

be alone destructive to them by the inequality of its operation.

H. OF R.

half. These modifications were produced by a spirit of accommodation. And if the House continued to be animated by the same spirit, he said, the motion to commit would not succeed. The Secretary of the Treasury has told you, that a land tax, or rather a direct tax, would operate most severely upon the Western States, on account of their distance from market, their want of capital, their infant settlements; and, with a correct knowledge of the actual state of the different parts of the Union, the Secretary had, with his usual impartiality and discernment, given the House a system as nearly equal in its operation as the nature of the subject would admit; and it was evident, that if a material alteration was made upon it, chaos would prevail, and the whole plan be rejected; and then the enemies of the Government would say with triumph, that the Republican Administration could not vindicate and support the rights of the nation, and that their Representatives were afraid to trust the people to send the ways and means to avenge their own wrongs. Mr. J. said the House had been engaged a long time on the subject; despatch was necessary, that Congress might have a little time to listen to the warning voice which now comes from the Wabash, the Mississippi, and Detroit, which makes it probable that as soon as the season will admit, the savages will rush down upon the defenceless frontiers, and destroy their inhabitants.

But, he said, he could not remain silent to hear the same gentleman seriously make a motion to re-commit the report from the Committee of Ways and Means, for the purpose of making the self-same proposition of laying a tax of twenty-five cents on whiskey and other distilled spirits, the prime cost of the article in the way of wholesale in the Western country. Upon the subject of taxation, he said, he had never entertained but one sentiment, and he never would agree to lay internal taxes upon the people of the United States, to support any permanent expensive establishment; that nothing on the present occasion should induce him to vote for taxes, but war. In consequence of this opinion, the Committee of Ways and Means had reported in one of their resolutions that the tax should not be levied until a declaration of war, or the issuing of letters of marque and reprisal; and, he said, he was a little surprised that any member should dislike such a resolution, and try to demonstrate to the people and the world that the taxes proposed were war taxes, and intended to meet that state of things. Another resolution declares, that the taxes shall not continue more than twelve months after the conclusion. With these resolutions incorporated and made a part of the system, be was astonished to hear gentlemen say that the people would be alarmed at these resolutions. He said he was never afraid of the people; they would act cor- Mr. WIDGERY.-Mr. Speaker, on a motion to rectly; but he had more reason to fear that this recommit the report of the Committee of Ways House would be alarmed. He said the people and Means, I have not been able to discover how understood their interests and their rights, and the arguments, either of the gentleman from Virwere not to be alarmed at a vindication of their ginia, or those in answer to him, by the gentleman rights and their independence. Mr. J. said that from North Carolina, can apply to the question Mr. Gallatin had been called upon by the Com- before the House. Sir, I am of opinion that if I mittee of Ways and Means to furnish them had suffered myself so far to have wandered from with a system of internal taxation, predicated the question, I should deservedly have heard from upon actual war with Great Britain. The Sec- the Chair. The question before the House is not retary was not a volunteer in proposing this sys- the repeal of the non intercourse, or whether we tem. In that letter, the Secretary had proposed ten shall submit to the edicts of Great Britain. It is, cents upon distilled spirits from foreign materials, will the House recommit the report for the purand three cents per gallon on domestic distilled pose of amending it? To this subject I shall conspirits of domestic materials, which was consid- fine my argument. I am in favor of recommitered equally hard upon the Western country when ting the report, first to amend it as respects the taken in connexion with the whole system pro- duty on imports. Many of these articles have posed. Departing from this equal system, the already a duty of fifteen per cent. ad valorem ; gentleman from Maryland would raise it to add to this one hundred per cent. and you will twenty five cents-a most unreasonable derange- either prohibit them entirely, or you will give a ment of the whole plan. Mr. J. said that he had bounty to smugglers, which will destroy the fair objected to this whiskey tax on account of the trader, as the smugglers will always be able to excise principle when it was before the Commit- undersell him; and thus will the fair trader, who tee of Ways and Means, and upon his objections wishes to support the Government be obliged to the excise part was changed to a direct tax upon give up his business or be ruined. The tonnage the still, differing only in amount with the tax duty is also too high. The former tonnage duty upon carriages or any other article; by which was about fifty cents on the vessel, of foreigners, modification, numerous officers would not be em- and six cents on our own vessels in the foreign ployed, oaths would be dispensed with, no search trade. The committee have added a little over would be nade into the houses or cellars of dis-one hundred per cent. to the tonnage of foreigners, tillers, nor would we have excise officers breaking locks and invading our firesi les; and in this modification, the sum to be raised by a tax of three cents per gallon was reduced from $400,000 to $275,000, making a deduction of almost one

and upwards of four hundred per cent. on our own tonnage. If the tonnage was not very much out of the way heretofore, the committee have reversed the rule of all other nations. Great Britain has always encouraged her own merchantmen

by making a great distinction in favor of her own ship-owners, between them and foreigners; she is the greatest commercial nation in the world, according to the report. Our vessels in foreign trade must pay thirty-one cents per ton every time they enter, so that a vessel of three hundred and thirty tons, if she enters three times, must pay the Government upwards of three hundred dollars a year, over and above all her custom-house fees. and the hundred per cent. on the duties of her cargo. Why the committee should have added four times as much on tonnage as on merchandise, I am at a loss to imagine, nor do I believe the Chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means can give any good or satisfactory reason for so doing. In the case of tonnage, it operates as a direct tax on the owner, because while ships are plenty, lying by the wharves, no man will give one cent more on account of the tonnage. Sir, in the case of the salt tax, the maritime and middle country pay the whole, the Western section pay nothing. There are 1,500,000 people exempt from this duty on salt, because they have plenty from the salt springs. As this is a necessary of life on which the Western section of the Union pay nothing, they ought to be willing to pay an equivalent on something else.

MARCH, 1812.

The gentlemen say they are at a great distance from market. Be it so. Sir, the material from which the whiskey is chiefly distilled, is Indian corn. The middle country raise of this article about ten bushels to the acre; the Western country about fifty bushels to the acre, and with much less labor this article will give about two gallons to the bushel; so that the middle country can obtain about twenty gallons from one acre, while the Western country will give one hundred gallons-five times as much. This will more than pay for their extra distance from market; in addition to which, their liquor will bring them enough more at market to pay for the trouble of transporting it. Sir, Massachusetts will be willing to pay more than her part if necessary in defence of the just rights of the nation. But when a system of taxation is brought forth, it ought to be so modified as that each member of the Union should pay its due proportion of such taxes. It is said, this report is a system of compromise. Sir, I am not one of those humble imitators of any man, or any body of men, who will, without investigation, tamely submit to anything they may please to lay before me, and vote it down as law. We are told that when the bill comes in will be the proper time to amend. If It is true, these gentlemen say, they are willing the House are determined not to recommit, I will to do their part in support of the war; yet when help to vote the report through, but with the same they are called on to augment the tax on whiskey reserve I made when I agreed to reconsider the they say their objection to that is the creation of vote which went against the salt, if no amendment excise officers, to which the people are very much or modification takes place so as to have a more opposed. Sir, there is a small tax on the capa-equal bearing on the different sections of the city of the still, let this duty be multiplied on the still until it will give about twelve and a half Mr. WRIGHT and Mr. Fisk supported the motion. cents on each gallon, as near as can be computed, [The arguments for and against the motion towhich may be distilled in the course of a year. day, as well as yesterday, were grounded on the In that case the same persons who may collect expediency or inexpediency of an excise tax on the tax on the capacity of the stills, as now taxed, whiskey. On the one hand, it was said, that, if which does not exceed one cent and a third per the proposed tax of 25 or 28 cents per gallon on gallon on the liquor, may collect it with as much distilled spirits were to take effect, it would proease when augmented, as they can if the amend-duce a revenue of five or six millions of dollars, ment should not take place. This therefore will do away the difficulty of excise officers. I ask them to take but twelve and a half cents per gallon on their spirits, while in the maritime States we pay the duty proposed, sixty cents. This is a debt for which we are all alike liable. Surely, sir, the Western gentlemen cannot think hard to pay but one-fifth part as much as their friends in a different section of the Union, when they consider that we pay twenty cents on salt, from which they are exempt. Sir, the last internal tax which was laid amounted to $989,533Massachusetts paid of that tax $282,566. According to the present system, Massachusetts will have to pay more than one-fourth of the internal tax, while she will not have more than one-ninth of the representation. Augment the whiskey tax as I propose, and you may do away your land tax altogether. There is in the United States distilled from home materials about 24,000,000 of gallons of spirits. This will give you $3,000,000, which is about what is laid on the land. A land tax is the last tax which ought ever to be laid. Every kind of luxury ought to be taxed before the land. '

Union.

and preclude the necessity of other taxes; that it would eventually be paid by the consumer, and would therefore operate equally; that domestic spirits ought to be taxed a little, when the duty on foreign spirits was about to be doubled, as there is no reason why a man who drinks brandy or rum and water should be made to pay double price, while the whiskey-drinker paid nothing; that the excise system was already proposed as to fine sugar, and might be extended to whiskey with much less inconvenience than would result from the collection of the variety of small taxes proposed by the Committee of Ways and Means.

On the other hand, remarks were made on the severity with which this tax would operate on those who already have to bear the chief burden (with the least ability to pay it) of the land tax, viz: the people of the Western country; that, considering the paucity of their saleable productions in the Western country, a tax on whiskey, which would put a stop to its distillation, would wholly disable them from paying the land tax; that it was, besides, grievously heavy, partial, and unequal. The evils of an excise system were

depicted in vivid colors; and it was said, that, although any tax on whiskey was unjust, and somewhat oppressive, they were willing to incur the responsibility of a tax on stills, rather than defeat the great work in which the nation was engaged.]

Mr. RANDOLPH moved a recommitment of the whole report to a Committee of the Whole.

This motion was supported by the mover at considerable length, and opposed by Mr. ALSTON, Mr. CHEVES, Mr. CALHOUN, and Mr. MACON.

[The recommitment of the report was supported on the ground that the budget of taxes reported was of the most oppressive character; that, moreover, they were unnecessary and impolitic, because Congress had only to repeal their own restrictive law, and revenue would accrue to the United States, to a much greater amount than was contemplated to be provided by the taxes under consideration.

In reply, it was urged that the gentleman's project was a peace project, and not calculated for the exigency; that, besides, it would not produce the effect he anticipated, because commerce was destroyed by the orders of Great Britain, and by the municipal regulations of France; that all taxes are disagreeable, and though the committee had exercised much deliberation on the subject of their report, it might be expected there would be a difference of opinion on some items; but that now to recommit the report, as proposed, would be shrinking from the pressure of the crisis, and would stamp indelible disgrace on the House and nation.] The question on recommitting the report was taken, and determined in the negative-yeas 34, nays 83, as follows:

H. of R.

ants, junior, Benjamin Pond, William M. Richardson, John Rhea, John Roane. Jonathan Roberts, William Rodman, Ebenezer Sage, Thomas Sammons, Ebenezer Seaver, John Sevier, Adam Seybert, Samuel Shaw, John Smilie, George Smith, John Smith, Rich'd Stanford, William Strong, John Taliaferro, Uri Tracy, George M. Troup, Charles Turner, jr., Robert Whitehill, Richard Winn, and Robert Wright.

So, Mr. RANDOLPH's motion was negatived; and the House adjourned.

WEDNESDAY, March 4.

Mr. ORMSBY presented to the House a resolution of the Legislature of the State of Kentucky, instructing their Senators, and requesting their Representatives in Congress to procure a grant of ten thousand acres of land lying in the Territory of Louisiana to Daniel Boone.-Referred to the Committee on the Public Lands.

Mr. RHEA, from the Committee on Post Offices and Post Roads, presented a bill to alter and establish certain post roads; which was read twice, and committed to a Committee of the Whole to-morrow.

Mr. GOLD, from the committee appointed on the twenty-fourth ultimo, presented a bill providing for the removal of the causes depending in the respective District Courts of the United States, in case of the disability of the Judges thereof; which was read twice, and committed to a Committee of the Whole on Friday next.

FINAL SETTLEMENT CERTIFICATE. Mr. GHOLSON, from the Committee of Claims, made a report on the petition of John Dixon; which was read, and referred to the Committee of the Whole on the report of the same committee made on the petition of John Murray. The report is as follows:

YEAS-John Baker, Abijah Bigelow, Harmanus Bleecker, James Breckenridge, Elijah Brigham, Epaphroditus Champion, Martin Chittenden, William Ely, James Emott, Asa Fitch, Thomas R. Gold, Charles Goldsborough, Edwin Gray, Richard Jackson, junior, That, from documents exhibited by the petitioner, it Philip B. Key, Lyman Law, Joseph Lewis, jr., Robert appears he is the assignee of Lucy Dixon, his mother, Le Roy Livingston, Archibald McBryde, James Mil- of a certificate which was issued in her favor by the nor, Jonathan O. Moseley, Joseph Pearson, Timothy Commissioner for settling the accounts of the RevoluPitkin, jun., Josiah Quincy, John Randolph, William tionary war in the State of Virginia, for the sum of Reed, Henry M. Ridgely, Daniel Sheffey, Philip Stuart, $329 84.90, payable with six per cent. from the first Lewis B. Sturges, Benjamin Tallmadge, Laban Whea-day of January, 1781, and dated the 23d of December, ton, Leonard White, and Thomas Wilson.

1786. The original certificate is produced, and, by an endorsement on it, it appears the interest was paid to the first of January, 1785; a certificate of the Register of the Treasury is likewise exhibited, showing that Lucy Dixon stands a creditor on the records of that Department for the said certificate, which “remains unliquidated by the United States."

NATS-Willis Alston, jun., William Anderson, Stevenson Archer, Ezekiel Bacon, David Bard, Burwell Bassett, William W. Bibb, William Blackledge, Adam Boyd, Robert Brown, William A. Burwell, William Butler, John C. Calhoun, Langdon Cheves, Matthew Clay, James Cochran, Lewis Condict, William Crawford, Roger Davis, John Dawson, Joseph Desha, Sam- As an apology (as it is presumed by the committee) uel Dinsmoor, Elias Earle, William Findley, Meshack for not presenting this claim at an earlier period, Lucy Franklin, Thomas Gholson, Peterson Goodwyn, Isaiah Dixon, in a petition formerly offered by herself, alleges L. Green, Felix Grundy, Obed Hall, John A. Harper, that she, in the year 1793, left Virginia, and went to Aylett Hawes, Jacob Hufty, John M. Hyneman, Rich- the State of Georgia, where she remained until 1799 ard M. Johnson, Joseph Kent, William R. King, or 1800; that on her return to her residence in VirAbner Lacock, Joseph Lefever, Peter Little, Williamginia, she, on looking over papers, found the certificate Lowndes, Aaron Lyle, Nathaniel Macon, George C. Maxwell, Thomas Moore, William McCoy, Samuel McKee, Alexander McKim, Arunah Metcalf, Samuel L. Mitchill, James Morgan, Jeremiah Morrow, Hugh Nelson, Anthony New, Thomas Newton, Stephen Ormsby, Israel Pickens, William Piper, James Pleas

in question, and likewise others that were supposed to have been entirely destroyed; that she was ignorant as well of the value of such certificates as of the mode in which the law provided for their payment; that one of her sons took with him to the Mississippi Territory the said certificate, where he kept it until a few years