230 



CONGRESS. (TnE DIRECT-TAX BILL.) 



spectively, within six years next after the passage of 

 this act, and all claims not so filed shall be forever 

 barred, and the money attributable thereto shall be- 

 long to such State, Territory, or the District of Co- 

 lumbia, respectively, as the case may be. 



Only ten Senators voted against the meas- 

 ure, and there were men of both parties in 

 favor of it and opposed to it. The most im- 

 portant amendment offered was the following, 

 proposed by Mr. Vance, of North Carolina: 



SEC . That the Secretary of the Treasury be, and 

 he is hereby, authorized and directed to credit and 

 pay to each State a sum equal to the amounts collect- 

 ed'therein respectively as a tax or duty on raw cotton, 

 under the provisions of the act approved July 1, 1862, 

 and the supplemental and amendatory acts thereto, 

 which sums, when so credited and paid, shall be ac- 

 cepted and held by the States in trust, first, for such 

 of the producers who paid said tax or duty, or their 

 legal representatives, as may make claim to and prove 

 tneir identity, and the amount of taxes paid, in two 

 years after the passage of this act. and, second, the 

 remainder, if any, to be held and used only as a per- 

 manent free-school fund : Provided, That where cot- 

 ton was produced in one State, and, under permit from 

 the Government of the United States, shipped to an- 

 other State, and the taxes thereon collected in the 

 latter State, then the amount of all such taxes shall be 

 paid to the State in which the cotton was produced. 



SEC. . That there is hereby appropriated, out of 

 any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropri- 

 ated, such sums as may be necessary to carry out the 

 provisions of this act; Provided, That any State ac- 

 cepting the trust hereby created is prohibited from 

 paying any part of the funds received to any person, 

 syndicate, or corporation except the producers who 

 paid the taxes on cotton grown by them or their legal 

 representatives ; and in no case shall the payment DQ 

 made to an assignee of such claim. 



This amendment was rejected by the follow- 

 ing vote : 



YEAS Bate, Berry, Butler, Call, Coke, Daniel, 

 George, Harris, Jones, of Arkansas, Pugh, Quay, 

 Ransom, Ecagan, Vance, Walthall, Wilson of Mary- 

 land 16. 



NAYS Aldrich, Allison, Beck, Blair, Blodgett, 

 Brown, Cameron, Chase, Chandler, Cockrell, Cullom, 

 Davis, Dawes, Dolph, Evarts, Fanvell, Faulkner, 

 Frye, Gorman, Hale, Hawley, Hiscock, Hoar, Ingalls, 

 McPherson, Manderson, Mitchell, Morgan, Paddock, 

 Palmer, Payne, Platt, Plumb. Sabin, Saulsbury, Saw- 

 yer, Sherman, Spooner, Stanford, Stewart, Stock- 

 bridge, Teller, lurpie, Vest, Voorhees, Wilson of 

 Iowa 46. 



ABSENT Blackburn, Bowen, Colquitt, Edmunds, 

 Eustis, Gibson, Gray, Hampton, Hearst, Jones of 

 Nevada, Kenna, Morrill, Pasco, Eiddleberger 14. 



Some of the Senators who opposed the 

 amendment were in favor of refunding the 

 cotton-tax, and their position was explained 

 by Mr. Voorhees, of Indiana, who said: "I 

 appeal to the Senators who think as I do on 

 the subject of the cotton-tax not to encumber 

 the original bill with the amendment which is 

 proposed. That defeats the whole concern. 

 At the proper time and under proper circum- 

 stances nobody will go further or consider 

 more favorably the proposition embraced in 

 the amendment than I will. 



"The question is not always, Mr. President, 

 what is just, but what is practicable and at- 

 tainable. Let us take the good we can, which 

 is within our reach, and then grasp after more 



hereafter, if a hereafter on that subject should 

 come. 



' I look upon the bill as presented here as a 

 practical measure, settling and closing up a dif- 

 ficult subject, one that has embarrassed the 

 Treasury in its accounts, and one which has 

 worked inequality, irregularity, and injustice 

 to many States. 



" I desire to say this much because I rank 

 myself one of those who think that the cotton- 

 tax was a measure perhaps of oppression and 

 injustice. I do not intend that my vote against 

 this amendment shall be misunderstood as un- 

 friendly to relief on that point, but I should 

 look upon my vote for that amendment now as 

 a vote against this bill, which I heartily con- 

 cur in." 



The measure was reported to the House of 

 Representatives by the Finance Committee, 

 April 3, with two amendments, one inserting 

 " by set-off or otherwise," in the first section 

 after the word " collections," and the other 

 cutting off the final proviso. The case against 

 the bill was presented by Mr. Oates, of Ala- 

 bama: "The bill before the committee pro- 

 vides for the refunding or repaying in part to 

 the States and Territories and to the District 

 of Columbia, and in part to the individuals 

 from whom it was collected, the direct tax 

 levied under the act of Aug. 1, 1861. A pro- 

 vision in a general revenue bill passed at that 

 time levied for the exigencies of the war which 

 was then impending twenty million dollars 

 annually and apportioned it among the States, 

 Territories, and the District of Columbia ac- 

 cording to their respective populations. There 

 were supplementary acts subsequently passed, 

 but these related only to the States then in in- 

 surrection or rebellion. 



" This law could not, owing to the existence 

 of actual war, be enforced in the Southern 

 States. These supplemental acts contained 

 much harsher provisions for their enforcement 

 than the original act contained. It is a most 

 singular fact, I will remark in passing, that al- 

 though this law laid this tax annually, there 

 never was any attempt made to collect it ex- 

 cept for the first year, and yet, so far as I have 

 been able to find, that law is yet unrepealed. 

 So uneven was it in its operation and contrary 

 to what the people had been accustomed to, I 

 suppose, was the consideration which caused 

 its non enforcement, notwithstanding it was a 

 constitutional enactment. 



"The collections of this tax in the loyal or 

 Northern States and Territories, with, I be- 

 lieve, a single exception, were made through 

 the States and Territories and the District of 

 Columbia. They availed themselves of the 

 provision in the act allowing 15 per cent, to 

 be retained out of the collections by all States 

 and Territories which assumed its payment. 

 I believe Delaware was the only exception. 

 All the others assumed and paid, with the ex- 

 ception named, and the Territories of Utah 

 and New Mexico, the amount of the assess- 



