CONGRESS. (PBESIDEXT'S MESSAGE.) 



157 



Our imports during the last fiscal year, as compared 

 with the previous year, were as follow : 



In my last annual message to the Congress attention 

 was directed to the fact that the revenues of the Gov- 

 ernment exceeded its actual needs ; and it was sug- 

 gested that legislative action should betaken to relieve 

 the people from the unnecessary burden of taxation 

 thus made apparent. 



In view of the pressing importance of the subject I 

 deem it my duty to again urge its consideration. 



The income of the Government, by its increased 

 volume and through economies in its collection, is now 

 more than ever in excess of public necessities. The 

 application of the surplus to tne payment of such por- 

 tion of the public debt as is now at our option subject 

 to extinguishment, it continued at the rate which has 

 lately prevailed, would retire that class of indebted- 

 ness'within less than one year from this date. Thus 

 a continuation of our present revenue system would 

 soon result in the receipt of an annual income much 

 greater than necessary to meet Government expenses, 

 with no indebtedness upon which it could be applied. 

 "We should then be confronted with a vaat quantity 

 of money, the circulating medium of the people, 

 hoarded in the Treasury when it should be in their 

 hands, or we should be drawn into wasteful public 

 extravagance with all the corrupting national demor- 

 alization which follows in its tram. 



But it is not the simple existence of this surplus and 

 its threatened attendant evils, which furnish the 

 strongest argument against our present scale of Fed- 

 eral taxation. Its worst phase is the exaction of such 

 a surplus through a perversion of the relations between 

 the people and their Government,, and a dangerous 

 departure from the rules which limit the right of Fed- 

 eral taxation. 



Good government, and especially the government 

 of which every American citizen boasts, has for its ob- 

 jects the protection of every person within its care in 

 the greatest liberty consistent with the good order of 

 society, and his perfect security in the enjoyment of 

 his earnings, with the least possible diminution for 

 public needs. When more of the people's substance 

 is exacted through the form of taxation than is neces- 

 sary to meet the just obligations of the Government 

 ana the expense of its economical administration^ such 

 exaction becomes ruthless extortion and a violation of 

 the fundamental principles of a free government. 



The indirect manner in which these exactions are 

 made has a tendency to conceal their true character 

 and their extent. But we have arrived at a stage of 

 superfluous revenue which has aroused the people to 

 a realization of the fact that the amount raised, pro- 

 fessedly for the support of the Government, is paid 

 by them as absolutely, if added to the price ot the 

 things which supply their daily wants, as if it was 

 paid at fixed periods into the hand of the tax-gath- 

 erer. 



Those who toil for daily wages are beginning to un- 

 derstand that capital, though sometimes vaunting its 

 importance and clamoring tor the protection and favor 

 of the Government, is dull and sluggish, till, touched 

 by the magical hand of labor, it springs into activity, 

 furnishing an occasion for Federal taxation and gain- 



ing the value which enables it to bear its burden. And 

 the laboring-man is thoughtfully inquiring whether 

 in these circumstances, and considering the tribute he 

 constantly pays into the public Treasury as he sup- 

 plies his daily wants, he receives his fair share of 

 advantages. 



There is also a suspicion abroad that the surplus of 

 our revenues indicates abnormal and exceptional busi- 

 ness profits, which, under the system which produces 

 such surplus, increase without corresponding benefit to 

 the people at large, the vast accumulations of a few 

 among our citizens whose fortunes, rivaling the wealth 

 of the most favored in anti-democratic nations, are not 

 the natural growth of a steady, plain, and industrious 

 republic. 



their households recur, they are forced to pay exces- 

 sive and needless taxation, while their products 

 struggle in foreign markets with the competition of 

 nations, which, VJy allowing a freer exchange of pro- 

 ductions than we permit, enable their people to sell 

 for prices which distress the American farmer. 



As every patriotic citizen rejoices in the constantly 

 increasing pride of our people m American citizenship 

 and in the glory of our national achievements and 

 progress, a sentiment prevails that the leading-strings 

 useful to a nation in its infancy may well be to a great 

 extent discarded in the present stage of American in- 

 genuity, courage, and fearless self-reliance. And for 

 the privilege of indulging this sentiment with true 

 American enthusiasm, our citizens are quite willing to 

 forego an idle surplus in the public Treasury. 



And all the people know that the average rate of 

 Federal taxation upon imports is to-day, in time of 

 peace, but little less, while upon some articles of 

 necessary consumption it is actually more, than was 

 imposed by the grievous burden willingly borne, at a 

 time when the Government needed millions to main- 

 tain by war the safety and integrity of the Union. 



It has been the policy of the Government to collect 

 the principal part of its revenues by a tax upon imports ; 

 and no change in this policy is desirable. But the 

 present condition of affairs constrains our people to 

 demand that, by a revision of our revenue laws, the 

 receipts of the Government shall be reduced to the 

 necessary expense of its economical administration ; 

 and this demand should be recognized and obeyed by 

 the people's representatives in the legislative branch 

 of the Government. 



In readjusting the burdens of Federal taxation, a 

 sound public policy requires that such of our citizens 

 as have built up large and important industries under 

 present conditions, should not be suddenly and to 

 their injury deprived of advantages to wliich they 

 have adapted their business ; but if the public good 

 requires it, they should be content with such consid- 

 eration as shall deal fairly and cautiously with their 

 interests, while the just demand of the people for 

 relief from needless taxation is honestly answered. 



A reasonable and timely submission to such a de- 

 mand should certainly be possible without disastrous 

 shock to any interest ; and a cheerful concession some- 

 times averts abrupt and heedless action, often the out- 

 growth of impatience and delayed justice. 



Due regard should be also accorded in any proposed 

 readjustment to the interests of American labor so far 

 as they are involved. We congratulate ourselves that 

 there is among us no laboring-class fixed within un- 

 yielding bounds, and doomed under all conditions to 

 the inexorable fate of daily toil. We recognize in labor 

 a chief factor in the wealth of the republic, an<l we 

 treat those who have it in their keeping as citizens 

 entitled to the most careful regard and thoughtful at- 

 tention. This regard and attention should be award- 

 ed them, not only because labor is the capital of our 

 workingmen, justly entitled to its share of Govern- 

 ment favor, but for the further and not less important 

 reason that the laboring-man, surrounded by his turn- 



