EEMAKK8 ON THE GOVERNMENT TAX. 
pound, and m favor of his competitors in foreign countries 
to that amount. It will be seen, therefore, that the law 
operates as a protection, to the amount of three cents per 
pound, to the production of other countries, against the 
competition from this country ; and that the law virtually 
imposes an enormous tax on our own citizens to build up 
the fortunes of the rival producers of foreign countries. ^ 
It is wise in any government to so shape its legislation 
as to promote the prosperity and happiness of its people. 
Contentment, and attachment to the government, will be 
the result. Possessing the means, they will have the will 
to defend it against all aggression ; but partial laws, un- 
justly discriminating against one portion of the people, 
and in favor of another portion, will never fail to produce 
disquietude, and tend to alienate the affections of those 
aggrieved from their government. This fact has been most 
painfully illustrated by the terrible civil war through 
which we have just passed. 
When cotton commands thirty cents per pound, a tax 
of three cents per pound amounts to ten per cent, on the 
entire gross proceeds ; at twenty-five cents, the tax is 
twelve per cent. ; at twenty cents, it is fifteen per cent. ; 
and at ten cents, it is thirty per cent., or nearly one-third 
of the whole gross proceeds of the crop. Now, before the 
war, when cotton commanded from ten to twelve cents, he 
was considered a successful planter who realized six per 
cent, profit per annum upon the capital invested in its pro- 
duction. From this fact it will be perceived that cotton 
must bear an enormous price to enable the planter to realize 
any profit on his labor; and should the price decline ma- 
terially, his labor would not only cease to be remunerative, 
but he would certainly be ruined by the business, and to 
avoid this he would abandon the pursuit. 
