CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



175 



fabrics, there is the capital which moves the 

 thousand busy fingers of industry, and there 

 is the town built up by those whose time is 

 employed in these productions ; and where the 

 town is, there is the schoolhouse and there is 

 the church and there is the State. 



"These are productions which, under a 

 proper adjustment of the tariff, as I conceive, 

 every Senator I apprehend would say it were 

 better should be on this side of the Atlantic 

 than on the other. The men who appear be- 

 fore these committees are citizens of the United 

 States, part and parcel of the body-politic, 

 having all sorts of politics and political affilia- 

 tions, with their thoughts turned to the pro- 

 ductions of these industries which are required 

 for consumption by the people of this land. 

 They furnish employment for the people, the 

 thousands and tens of thousands and millions 

 of people who find employment in these estab- 

 lishments, fashioning for our own people the 

 fabrics our own people consume. They are 

 those most interested in this question. They 

 furnish employment. 



"Sir, the condition of things which I have 

 described renders a revision of the tariff not 

 only possible, but necessary. We have arrived 

 at that condition in production that puts it in 

 our power to take off these large and excessive 

 duties, for I hold that, keeping to the idea that 

 revenue is the object and purpose in laying the 

 duty upon the manufactured article as against 

 the raw material, that should never rise one 

 penny above a perfect equality with this. Put 

 the American producer, in levying your duties, 

 simply upon an equality with the foreign pro- 

 ducer ; make up the difference between the in- 

 terest on his money, the cost of his living, and 

 the wages which he pays; just even them up 

 and no more; lift up and not pull down; for if 

 you desire an interchange of produce, he who 

 can manufacture the cheapest will in the end 

 triumph over his neighbor. On any other ba- 

 sis, if you maintain these industries in this land, 

 you must cut down the pay of the laborer to 

 a level with the pay of him with whom you 

 compete, or you can not compete with him* 



" The question is all summed up in this single 

 aphorism : To the American laborer belongs 

 the labor which is to be performed for Ameri- 

 cans ; whatever is to be performed for us should 

 be done here among us. I desire for one to 

 see an effort made to frame a revenue tariff 

 upon this principle. See to it that the Govern- 

 ment is supplied ; take that which it is neces- 

 sary to levy upon production and levy it upon 

 manufactured articles, so distributed upon each 

 and every article as well as you may until you 

 bring up' our own producers to a level in cost 

 with the foreign competition, and let the raw 

 material come in free. Sir, to that work, in- 

 volving the growth and prosperity and devel- 

 opment of this country, all men of all parties, 

 the wisest and the most discreet and expert, 

 ought to be invited. N"o one party can accom- 

 plish it. The doctrine thus developed does not 



exist in this or that party exclusively. It has 

 come to be every day more and more the com- 

 mon sentiment and conviction of economists 

 throughout the country." 



Mr. Maxey, of Texas : " I desire, Mr. Presi- 

 dent, without entering into a discussion and 

 comparison of the merits and more especially 

 the demerits of the present protective tariff 

 with such as might be presented by a tariff bill 

 for the raising of revenue only, to present to 

 the Senate briefly the reasons which will in- 

 duce me to vote for the raising of a committee 

 or commission. I shall, if here when a tariff 

 bill is laid before the Senate, present my views 

 fully. At this time my only purpose is to pre- 

 sent my reasons generally in favor of the prin- 

 ciple of a tariff for revenue only. In my judg- 

 ment the question is a simple one. The Con- 

 stitution grants to Congress the power 'to lay 

 and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises.' 

 Had that power stopped there, it might be said 

 that the discretion was in Congress to appro- 

 priate revenues thus raised according to the best 

 judgment of Congress ; but in the same sentence 

 there is a complete expressed limitation upon 

 that power. The objects for which the grant 

 of power ' to lay and collect taxes, duties, im- 

 posts, and excises ' was given is limited in the 

 same sentence, namely, ' to pay the debts and 

 provide for the common defense and general 

 welfare of the United States ' ; and that is in 

 itself a limitation upon the grant of power 'to 

 lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and ex- 

 cises.' The very objects for which this taxa- 

 tion is to be laid and collected being specified 

 in the grant of power are a limitation upon the 

 application of the money thus to be raised ; for 

 the objects being specified, all others, upon well- 

 known principles, are excluded. 



" So far as paying the debts is concerned, 

 that explains itself; so far as providing for the 

 common defense goes, that explains itself; but 

 those who favor the doctrine of a protective 

 tariff fall back upon the clause providing for the 

 ' general welfare of the United States.' The 

 general welfare of the United States, so far as 

 it is intrusted to the Congress, is specifically laid 

 down by appropriate grants in the Constitution, 

 not only in the eighth section, but in various 

 other portions of the Constitution. Congress 

 has power 'to raise and support armies,' 'to 

 provide and maintain a navy,' 'to establish 

 post-offices and post-roads." It is the duty of 

 Congress to see to the proper conduct by judi- 

 cious appropriations of the executive depart- 

 ment in all its ramifications, and in like manner 

 of the legislative department and of the judi- 

 ciary department. These are the objects for 

 which the money raised by taxation is to go. 

 The Supreme Court, all courts and commenta- 

 tors, so far as I have examined, agree that the 

 general- welfare clause of the Constitution refers 

 to the general welfare as to the objects set forth 

 by grants of power on the face of the instrument. 

 Any other construction would practically anni- 

 hilate the very design and purpose of a written 



