property, whereby all will be taxed in proportion to their wealth, the only mode in which taxes can be laid by the conftitution of Maryland, whereby the poor are protected from oppreffive taxes. Sir, we ought to recollect that we are now on the eve of a war, in which we fhall have to pay a tax in blood, and that the poor will pay this tax in the ratio of the privates to the officers, and yet you make the poor pay an equal falt tax, which at all times would be unequal and oppreffive, but at this time impolitic and cruel.

Sir, in the Federalift, the work of Mr. Madison and Mr. Hamilton, we are told, that in the felection of articles of taxation, it ought to be made fo as to bear equally throughout the United States, and that, if after the selection of an article, the practical refult proved it unequal, it ought to be difcontinued; but now we are advited by the Secretary of the Treasury to lay a tax of 20 cents on imported falt, an article, known not to be ufed in Kentucky, Tenneffee, and Ohio, the Western territories, the greater part of New York, the western parts of Virginia, and the western parts of Pennsylvania, and that at the rate of forty per cent. ad valorem, on an indifpenfable to the poor, when even on luxuries no ad valorem duty ever exceeded 20 per cent.

Sir, in the time of General Washington's administration, fpirits diftilled in the United States out of foreign articles were taxed at the rate of from eight to twenty-five cents, according to the proof; and fpirits diftilled out of domeftic materials were taxed at the rate of from feven to eighteen cents per gallon, according to the proof. But now on the eve of a war, and as a war tax, when we have doubled the duty on foreign materials, and raised the duty on imported fpirits from thirty to fixty cents per gallon, we have been advised by the Secretary of the Treasury to lay a tax on Whiskey, of three cents per gallon, and the committee of Ways and Means have had the addrefs to reduce even that to not a cent and a quarter per gallon; but it must and will be recollected, that two of that committee are from Pennsylvania and Kentucky, who are fo favored by this fyftem.

Sir, by the report of the marfhals heretofore made, nearly twenty-four millions of gallons of whiskey were made in this country per year, which by the high price on imported fpirits, under a duty of fixty cents, will be increased to thirty millions, I have no doubt; which, at ten cents, would produce three millions of dollars; but it is propofed to make it produce two hundred and feventy-five thousand dollars only, not one cent per gallon. Thus in time of war, a tax of not one cent per gallon, is to be put on whiskey, which, under general Washington's administration, in time of peace, was taxed from 7 to 18 cents per gallon; but notwithstanding that petty tax on whiskey, and no tax on home made falt, fixty cents per gallon is put on imported fpirits, twenty cents on falt, five cents on brown fugar, and the carriage tax, heretofore fo unequal, is to be raised more than one hundred per cent. on the former tax on carriages; and although

thofe reafons have been urged against this unequal and oppreffive tax with a propofition to lay it on property, yet we are charged with having no ftomach to the war, and because we will not fubmit to oppreflion at home, we will not refift it abroad. This is their modern logic, but I have perfect confidence that from fuch premises the people will draw very different conclufions.

Sir, that my objections may be distinctly understood, and the inequality of the proposed system in its bearing on Maryland precisely stated, I will refer to the report of the Secretary of the Treasury in eighteen hundred. Then Maryland paid more of the tax on carriag es than New York or Pennsylvania, and nearly double the tax paid either by North or South Carolina, and this tax is to be doubled. Then Maryland with eight representatives, paid $86,718. While Virginia, with nineteen representatives, paid $144,168; and North Carolina, with ten representatives, paid $46,479, and yet we must not complain. From the same report it does not appear that Kentucky paid any thing, and I am informed that it cost the United States five thousand dollars in the costs of non-suits, to no purpose. And, sir, so obnoxious were some of these taxes in Pennsylvania, that we need not now be told of the insurrection against them and the army that marched to quell it. And yet, sir, the honorable member from Kentucky (Mr. M'Kee) and the hon. member from Pennsylvania (Mr. Smilie) are among the most strenuous advocates of this system; but when its bearing on their constituents is under. atood, they will forgive them. I am not one of the admirers of such disinterested patriotism, and such devotion to impose equal taxes on all for the "general defence and common welfare." However I trust that this question will not be settled by their standard, but by the standard of the Constitution. And that I, as a representative of Maryland, shall be excused for endeavoring to prevent my constituents from bearing more than their just proportion of taxes, when I pledge myself, they will always be ready and willing to pay their just proportion in blood or treasure to avenge the wrongs of a bleeding country, and 6257 impressed seamen.

On Mr. M'Kim's motion for substituting a tax on distilled spirits in lieu of the other taxes proposed.

MR. FINLEY had no intention to detain the House by a reply to all the observations made by the honorable mover and the supporter of the motion (Messrs. M'Kim and Wright) because he presumed the principal effect these observations would have on the majority of the House, would be to convince them, that the gentlemen themselves did not understand the subject. The resolution appeared highly objectionable on several grounds. It proposed to introduce the principle of excise with its host of officers, and which always has been and always will be a fertile source of perjury and frauds.

was so in this country during the small trial that was made of it, not withstanding all the care of government, and the numerous amendments from time to time made by Congress. In Britain it is well known, that oaths respecting excise acquire no confidence either with the government or with the people. They have sometimes locked the distillers out of the still houses, and sometimes locked them in for times prescribed, and they have appointed officers to watch other officers, and itinerant officers to watch all the others at uncertain times, but all does not do. No law can make officers honest where the temptations are so great and the security depends only on oaths. Mr. F. appealed to the reports of the committee of Parliament on that subject. He added, that as in Britain excises were levied on a vast variety of subjects and under perpetual appropriations to the support of the public debt, they could not be repealed. When the experiment was made in this country the excise was spread over but few objects. On the snuff the frauds were such as made it a certain loss to the revenue; therefore it was first postponed and afterwards repealed, and as soon as the excise on distilled spirits was released from the appropriations by the abundance of other revenues, it was also repealed after a fair experiment had been made, and it was confident that Congress would not now introduce that fertile source of corruption and discontent with respect to only a single item of the proposed taxes.

The opposition made on a former occasion to the excise on distilled spirits in a part of the two of the western counties of Pennsylvania has been brought into view by an honorable gentleman with a view to give an impression as if that in that place only it was disapproved of; but this was not the case. When President WASHINGTON was at Carlisle, where the right wing of the army was on their march to the Westward to suppress this opposition to the excise, Mr. F. said, that though there had been then no disturbance in the country in which he resided, yet another messenger and himself were sent with assurances to the President that the opposition was then in so great a measure suppressed, that the further march of the army would not be necessary. The President, after expressing his regret that these assurances had not been given before the army was rendezvoused, said that he knew that so great an army was not necessary for that object, that there were great symptoms of discontent not only in other parts of that state but in Maryland, which were in danger of spreading still farther, That on this account he had thought it his duty to call forth so great a force as not only to convince those who had given the disturbance, but all parts of the United States, that the citizens would, when called upon, turn out in support of the execution of their laws. Mr. F. said, that the honorable member from Maryland who moved and supported the resolution will recollect, that about that time there were some disturbances in that state on the account of the excise. It was well known at that day that the patriotic army who marched on that occasion generally, when opportunity of

fered, declared their disapprobation of the excise system, but at the same time their abhorrence of an unconstitutional opposition to a constitutional law. It is also well known that the repeal of the excise gave general satisfaction, while at the same time many thought the repeal of several other taxes that did not depend on the excise system improper.

Mr. F. said, that though this was the greatest, it was not the only objection to the resolution. It was, besides this, unjust, impolitic and deceptious. It was, in fact, a tax directly on agriculture. It was a tax on their rye-fields. By a letter on his table just reeived, he was informed that his family had sold as much rye to the distilers, as, with what will be distilled for his own family use, would produce by the proposed excise one hundred dollars tax, whereas the rye of which it will be made would sell for but about half that amount, and estimating from the amount of the former direct tax, is about ten times as much as by the proposed direct tax will be charged on his whole plantation and stock. This he thought both unjust and impolitic. It would be much better policy to charge it directly on the rye received by the distiller at a proper estimate of what the bushels of rye would produce. This would be much more simple and certain, than charging it on the spirits distilled, by hired distillers, and which might easily be much of it disposed of without the knowledge of the owner, even if he was so honest as not to connive at it.

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Much might be said against the policy of oppressing, if not destroying, a domestic manufacture so essentially connected with agriculture, it being the only method by which farmers, at a very inconconvenient distance from market, can reduce their grain to such a portable form as to be the more easily carried to a distance. The attempt to do so is the more extraordinary at a time when every other manufacture is encouraged. But the honorable mover proposes to promote morality by rendering it more difficult to get drunk! Mr. F. said, that if there were no spirits distilled from the produce of the farm, there are other beverages by the use of which people might and often did get drunk. The drunkard would have his drink; but not to detain the House further, he would assure the honorable mover, that his estimated millions for the amount of the revenue thus to be obtained would vanish; if the resolution take effect, he would put in no more rye than would be sufficient to feed his horses. He would not pay one hundred dollars of a tax on the produce of eight or ten acres of rye; and he would not be alone, it would be general. Being confident that the House will not suffer the well digested system proposed by the committee of Ways and Means to be contaminated by the corrnpting systems of excise, nor a tax so unjust and deceptive to make a part of the system, he would enlarge no further.

[Debates to be continued.]

CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER.

No. 28.] TWELFTH CONGRESS.... FIRST SESSION. [1811-12.

DEBATES ON THE WAR TAXES-[Continued.]

On Mr. M'Kim's motion for substituting a tax on distilled spirits in lieu of the other taxes proposed.

MR. GRUNDY. Mr. Speaker-On the present motion to recommit so much of the report of the committee of ways and means, as respects the resolution immediately before us, in order to examine the amendment offered by the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. M'Kim) I doubted the propriety of entering into the merits of that proposition, and therefore took no part in the discussion on yesterday; but from the course the debate has taken, I do not know that a more favorable opportunity will offer, to express my views of this subject, not only in relation to the tax proposed by the gentleman from Maryland, but also in reference to the entire report of the committee of ways and means. The honorable member from Maryland proposes to impose an excise of 25 cents per gallon on all spirits distilled from domestic materials (fruit excepted) within the United States. To this change in the plan of taxation digested by the committee of ways and means, I have objections, not bottomed on the honest prejudices of the people alone, but upon the immutable principles of justice and equality, 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 legislatures 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 subject the domicil, and every apartment provided for the comfort of civilised 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.

Permit me, sir, for a moment to glance at the causes out of which the contest, in which we are about to engage, has arisen. We complain (and justly) of violations of our national rights on the high seas, and to restore these rights to their legitimate standing, we have determined to exert our strength against one of the great belligerents of Europe, unless that power shall within a short period volunNo. 28.