Indiana Palladium, Volume 6, Number 34, Lawrenceburg, Dearborn County, 28 August 1830 — Page 1

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DEVOTED TO jXEIVS, POLITICS, INDUSTRY, MOIULITY, LITEIUTUUE, .ISO .1MUSEME.VT. Volume VI. LA WREN CEBUKGIJ, (INDIANA;) SATURDAY, AUGUST 28, 1830. Number 31.

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DUTY ON SALT.

Substance of Mr. BENTON'S Speech in the Senate of the united states a mo tion for the reduction of the duty on Salt, being under consideration. Mr. Benton commenced his speech by baying tiial he was no advocate for unprofitable debate, and had no ambition to add his name to the catalogue of barren orators; but that there? were cases in which speaking did good ; cases in which moderate abilities produced great results; and he believed the ques tion of repealing the salt tax to be one of those case?. It had certainly been 80 in England. There the salt tax had been overthrown, by the labors of plain men, under circumstance! much more unfavorable to their undertaking than exist here. Tne English salt lax had continued 150 years. It was cherished by the ministry, to whom it yielded a million and a half sterling of revenue; it was defended by the domestic saltmaker, to whom it gave a monopoly ol the home mirk t ; it was conseciated by time, having subsisted for five generations; it was fortified by the habits of the people, who were born, and had grown gay, under if; and it was sanctioned by the necessities of the State, which required every resource of rigorous tax i tion. Yet it was overthrown; and the overthrow was effected by two debates, conducted, not by the orators, whose renown Ins filled the world not by Sheridan; B jrkc, Pitt, and F x but by plain business men Mr. Caleruft, Mr. Curwen and Mr. Egerton. T-aese patriotic members of the British Ptrliaw jnt commence-d the. war upon the British Halt tax in 1817, and finished it in 1822. T ic) commenced with the omens and auspices all against them, and ended with complete success. They abolished th ealtjtax in loto. Tney swept it all off, bravely rejecting all compromises when thpy had got their adversaries half vanquished, and carr)ii'g their appeals home to the people, u i i I they had roti 8ed a spirit before which the ministry quailed, the mnnopoh'z rs trembled, the Parliament gave way, and the tax fell. This example is encouraging; it is full consolation and of hope; it shows whai Seal and perseverance an do in a go.d cause; it shews that the cause of fru'h and justice is triumphant whq,n its advocates are bold and faithful. It leadto the conviction that the American salt tax will fall as the British tax did, as Boon as the people shall see that its continuance is a burden to them, without adequate advantage to theG vernmem, and that its repeal is in their own bands. The enormous armiril of the tax wa the first point to which . B. would direct hi attention. H said it was near 300 per cent, up in Liverpool blown, and 400 per cent upon alum salt, but as the L verpool was a very inferior Bait, and not nvich used in the West, he would confine his observations to the salt of Prtugaland the West Indies, called by the general name of alum. The import price of this salt wa from eight to nine cents a bushel of fifty-six pounds each, and the duly upon that bushel was twenty cents. Here was a tax of upwards of two hundred per cent. Then the merchant had his profit upon the duty as well as upon the cost of the article, and when it went through the hands of several merchants bpfore it got to the consumer, each had his profit up on it, and whenever this profit am-un-ted to fifty per cent, upon the duty, it was upwards of one hundred per cent upon the salt. Then the tariff laws have deprived the consumer of thirtyfour pounds in the bushel, by substituting weight for measure, and that weight a false one. The true weight of a measured bushel of alum salt is eighty-four pound; but the British tariff laws, for the sake of multiplying the bushels and increasing the product of the tax, substituted weight for measure; and our tari f laws copied after them, and adopted their standard of fifty-six pounds to the bushel. Here Gen. Smith, of Maryland, rose and said that he had. led the Senator from Missouri into an error, in telling him, some time back, that the weight of alum salt was eighty-four pounds. Subsequent reflection had shown him that it was below eighty. Mr. B. resumed his speech. He said the Senator from Maryland was not so ar wrong in his first information as he supposed; that he (Mi. B.) was informed from other sources that Turk's 1-1-and salt weighed above eighty pounds; and he had a report before him of a comaaiUee of the British House of

Commons, wade in 1817, by Mr. Calcraft, the chairman ol the committee on the salt duties, in which the weight of the besl Bry ol Biscay salt is stated at eighty-four pounds. But let Us as sumethe weight at eight) pounds, and at this weight it is inconlestible, that the taiifflaws have been the means of defrauding the consumer of thirty pounds in the buahel. Far these laws reduce the bushel to fif'y-six pound; and the retail merchant and salt man ufacturer, impr ving upon this hin, have made a further reduction of six pound, and reduce the bushel t fifty. This is a lo-s of three parts in eight very nearly one half and making th' salt cost nearly one hundred p r cent more. Putting all this together the duty, the merchant's profit upon that duy, and the loss in the bushel and

the duty on alum salt is shewn to be near four hundred per cent ; in other words, the tax ie four times the value of the article, and makes it cost the consu mr four times as much as it would cost without the tax. Tiiis is a cruel op preesion upon the people; one which they ought not to bear without necessity, and which there is no necessity, ashall be fully shewn, for bearing any longer. Mr. B. entered into statistical details, to shew the aggregate amount of this tnx, which he stated to be enormous, and contrary to every principle of taxation, even if taxes were so necessary as t3 justify the taxing of salt. Ho sta ted the importation of foreign salt, in 1 829, at six millions of ho-iel-, round Jiumoers; the value of ,$715,000, and the tax at 20 cents a bustiel, 1,200, 000; the merchants' pr fit upon that duty at 50 per cent, is 600,000, and the secret or hidden tax, in i tie shape of fal?e weight for tru-- measure, at th rae of 30 lbs. in the bu-dul, was 45Q,000. H ie, then, is taxation to the ninuiiiit of about two millions and a quarter of dollars, upon an article cos iing 715.000; and that article one of prime ne e-sity and universal uso, r. king rn X' after bread, in the catalogue ol articht for human subsistence. T e disiribunou of this enormous -ax up an the cliff rent sections "f the U .i n , was ihe n x obj i t of M-. B.'i qoir ; and f i this pu po.-e, he viewed the U -non under three gieai divisions t tie Noitheast, the South, and the West. To the Northeast, and especially to some parts ol i1, lie considered the s.it tnx to be no burden, but rather a benefit and a money making business Tne nshing allowances and bounties produced tnis effect. In consideration of the sail du'y, the owners and exporters of fih, nrr allowed money out ol the Treasury ,to the amount, as it was intended, of the slt duty paid by them; hut it has b en proved to be twice as much. The annual allowance is about 250,000, aid the aggr gete drawn tro.nthe Treasury since the first imposition of the Silt duty in 1789, is shewn by the Treasury returns to be five millions of dollars. Much of this is drawn by undue means, as is shewn by the repart of the Secretary of Ihe Treasury, at the commencement of the present session, page 8 of the annual report on the Finances. The Northeast makes much salt at horn?, ami chiefly by solar evaporation, which firs it for curing fish and provisions. Much of it is proved, by the returns of the salt makers, to be used in the fisheries, while the fisheries are drawing money from the Treasury under the laws which inten. ded to indemnify them for the duty paid on foreign salt. To this section of the Union then, the salt tax is not heavily felt as a burden. Let us proceed to the South. In this section there are but few salt works, and no bounties or allowances, as there are no fisheries. The consumers are thrown almost entirely upon the foreign supply, and chiefly use the Liverpool blown. The import price of this is about 15 cents a bushel; the weight and strength is less than that of alum salt; and the tax falls heavily and directly upon ihe people, to the whole amount of their consumption. It is a heavy burden upon the South. The West is the last section to be viewed, and it will be found to be the true seat of the most oppressive operation of the salt tax. The domestic supply is high in price, deficient in Miiaotityt and altogether w fit for one of the greatest purposes for whirh salt is there wanted, curing provisions for exportation. For this purpose, a foreign supply i indispensable; and alum salt i the kind used. The import price of this kind, from the Wet !"dies, is nine cpnts a bushel j from Portugal eight cents a

bushel. A these prices the West could he supplied with this salt, at New Orleans, if the duty was abolished ; hut in consequence of the duty it costs 37 1-2 cents per bushel there, being four limes the import price of the article, and seventy five cents per bushel at L uis ille, and other central parts of I he valley of the Mississippi. Tiiis enormouprice resolved into its component parts, is thus made up: 1. Eight or nine cents a bushel for Ihe Sr,t. 2. Twenty cents for dut. 3. Eight or ten cents for m-rchants' p relit at New 0 leans. 4. Sixteen or seventeen cent for freight lo Luisville. 5. Fifteen to twenty cents for the second merchant's pr fit, who

counts his per centum on his w hole outlay. In all about seventy five cents, lor a bushel of filly pounds ; w hit h, it there was no duty, and the tariff regulations of weight for measure abolished, would be bought in N. Oi leans by tinmeasured bushel ol 80 Ins. weight, for 8 or 9 cents, and would be brought up the river at the rate of 33 1 3 cents per hundred weight. It thus appears that the salt tax falls heaviest upon the WeM. It is an error to suppose that the South is the greatest stiff-rer. The West wants it for every purpose the S nth does, and two great purposes beside ; curing provisions for export, and salting stork. Tne West uses alum salt, and on this Ihe duty is heaviest, because the price is lower, and the weight greater. Twenty cents on salt which costs 8 oi 9 cents a bushel, is a much heavier duty than on that which costs 15 cents; and then, Ihe deception in the substitution of weight for measure, is much greatei in alum salt, which weighs so much more than the Liverpool blown. Lik ihe South, the West receives no bo unties or allowances, on account of the salt duties. This may he fair in the South, where the importt d salt is not re-export-d upon fish or provisions; but it is unfair in the West, where the exportation of beef, poik, bacon cheese, and buttei, is prodigious, and the foreign salt re-exported upon the whole of it. Mr. B. then argued with great warmth, that tin provi-ion cuiers and xporiers weie entitled to the same bounties and allowances with the ex porters of fiso. The claims of each rested upon the same piinciple, and upon the principle of all drawbacks, that of a reimbursement of the duty which was paid on tha imported sail when re exported, on fish, and provisions. The same principle covers the beef and pork of the farmer, w hich covers the fish of the fisherman; and such was the law in the beginning The iirst act of Congress in the yaw 1789, which imposed a duty upon salt, allowed a bounty in lieu of drawback, on beef and poik exported as well as fish. The bounty was the same in each case; it was five cents a quintal on dried fish; live cents a barrel on pickled fish, and five on beef and poik. A- the duty on salt was increased, the bounties and allowances were increased al so. Fish, and salted beef and poik, fared alike for the first twenty years, They fared alike till the revival of the salt tax at the commencement of the late war. Then they parted company; bounties and allowances were continued to the fisheries, and dropped on beef and pork; and this has been the case ever since. The exporters of fish are now drawirg at the rate of 150,000 per annum, as a reimbursement for their salt tax; while exporters of provisions draw nothing. The aggregate of the fi-hing bounties and allowances, actually drawn from the Treasury, exceed five millions of dollars; while the exporters of provisions, who get nothing, would have been entitled to draw a greater sum; for the export in salted provisions, exceeds the value of expfrted fish, Mr. B. could not quit ibis part of his subject, without endeavoring to fit the attention of the Senate upon the provision trade of the West. H took this trade in its largest seme, as including the export trade of beef, pork, bacon, cheese and butter, to foreign countries, especially the West Indies; the domestic trade to the lower Mississippi and the bouthern States, the neighborhood trade, as supplying the towns in the upper States, the miners in Missouri and the upper Mississippi; the army and navy; and the various professions, which being otherwise employed, did not raisf? their own provisions. The amount of this trade, in this comprehensive view, was prodigious and annually increasing, and involving in its current almost the entire population of the West, either as the growers and ma ers of the provisions, the curers, erporter?j

or consumers. The amount could scarcely be ascertained. What was exported from New Orleans was shown to be great ; bui it was only a fraction of the whole trade. He declared it to he entitled to tin? favorable consideration o; Congress, and that the repeal of the salt duty was the greatest favor, it an act of justice ought lo come under the name of favor, whic h could be ren

dered it. A r duciion in the price oil salt, next to a reduction in the price of land, was the greatest blessing which the Federal G vernment ct uld now confer upon the West. Mr. B. referred to the example of E glamf , w ho favored her piovision rums, and pe rmitted them to import alum 6a)t, tree ol duly j for the encouragement of the provision trade, even when hr own sah manufactures were produc'ng an obun dant and Mipeifluous supply of common salt. He shewed that she did more; that she ex' ended the eime relief and encouragement to the Iri-h; and he rend fr- m the Biilish statute hoc k, an ait o the Biitish Parliament, passed in 1807, entithd. "an act tj encourage tht export of stilled beef and pork from Ireland" which allowed a bounty ol ten pence stei In g on v cry hundred weight of beef and poik so exported, in consideration of the duly paid on the call which was used in Ihe curing of it. He staled, that fit a late peiiod, tinduty had been entirely repealed, and the Irish, in common with othei Brrish 'Ubj c ts, allowed a free Hade with all the world, in salt ; and then demanded, in the mst emphatic manner, if th people c f the West could not obtain from the American Congu-ss the justice which the oppies-ed I'ish h-d proi ured from a Biilish parliament, composed ol heiedltary nobles?and tilhd with representatives 'of rotten boroughs, and slavish retain ers of the Kieg's ministers? Having shown theenoimous ami unt ol hetiix,ils unequal operation ir dif ferent sections of the Union, and the superior claims of the West for its ablilion, Mi. B proceeded to examine . i i l . ; . rn me reasons inr Keeping n up. l nese grew out f the mericaji Sysle7" tor ihe duty was no loi ger wanted lor revetie. The plea of revenue was c ut oil oy our own conduct. We had voted, two ye-ars ago, to reduce the duties one half on wines, and were now voting to reduce then to a fraction once ff e, tea, and chocolate. This is proof decisive that the revenue can dispense with a part of the tass. The objection then, to the repeal f ti e salt duly stands upon the "American systnn;'" and thus this FyMem is piej-tnud to the people by its own warm friends and zealous champions, ns reducing themoderate duties on champaigne wines and imperial tea, which the rich and tuxurous alone use, and leaving the "iimmous and tine qoal duties upon salt, without which the farmer cannot raise' his stock or c ure his provisions! without which the laboring man cannot eat his dinne r, nor the b ggar boil his green! Thus this system is presented as favouring the rich and luxurious, oppressing ihe poor and laborious! But h't us i x miine into it, and see with what justice, and with what conformity to us own declaied principles, the ''American system" has taken the salt t x under iis shelter and protection. Tne piinciples of that system, as I understand them, and practise upon them, are to tax through the custom house the foreign rivals f our ozen essential produc tions when by that taxation, an adequate supp y oj the same article as good and as cheop, can be made at home. These vere the principle s of the system, Mr. B. said, when he was initiated, and if they had changed since, he had not changed with them, and he apprehended a promulgation of the change would produce a schism amongst its followers. Taking these to be the principle s of the system, let the salt tax be brought to its test. In the first plac e, the domestic manufacturer had enjoyed all possihle protection. The duty was near 300 per cent, on Liverpool salt, and 400 upon alum salt ; and to this must be ad ded, so far as relates to all the interior manufactory s, the protection arising from transportation, frequently equal to 2 or 300 per cent. Tore. This grat and ece ssive protection has been enjoyed, without interruption, for the last eighteen years, and partially for twenty years longer. This surely is time enough for the trial of a manufacture which requires but little &kill or experience to carry it on. Now for the results. Have the domestic mai ufac turers produced on adequate supply for the country? They have not! nor half enough. The production of ths

last year (1029) as shewn in the returns to the Secretary of the Treasury, is about fivt millions of bushels; the importation of foreign salt for the samo period, as shown by the custom house returns is 5,945,517 bushels. This shows the consumption to be eleven millions of bushels, of which five are d( .mesne- Here the failure, in the essential particular of an adequate supply, is more than one half. In the next place, how is it in point of price? la the domestic article furnished as cheap as the foreign? Far from it, ss already shown; and st ill further, as can ba sho wn.- The price of the domestic along the coast of the Atlantic States, varies at the woiks from 37 1-2 to 50 cents; in the interior, the usual prices at ihe works are from 33 1 4 cents to one dollar for the bushel ol 50 Ihe. which can nearly be put intoahalf bushel measure. The prices of the foreign salt, at the import cities, s shown in the custom house returns for 1 829, are, for iho Liverpool blown, about 15 cents for the bushel of 5G lbs; for Turk's Island and othe r West India salt, about 9 cents; for S. Uhe?tand othei Portugal salt, about 8 cents; for Spanish salt, Bay of Biscay, at el Gdwahar, about 7 eentt; fr m the Island of Malta, C cents. Lai g rut tin L verpoed salt, whit), is made by h. iln g, and there fore contains slack and bittern, a se pi ic ingicdient which promotes utre faction, and ret deis that salt unfit for curing provisions, and which is not use d in the W si; and the average price of the stiM g, puie , alurri sah, made by solar e vaporation in hot climates, is about 8 cents to the bushel. Here then is another lamentable failure. Instead of being sold as c heap as 'he foreign, the demesne a!t is fia m four to twelve times the price of alum alt. The last inquiry is as to ho quality of the domestic article. I- it aa good as foreign? This is the most essential applic ation of the test, and hero again the failure is decisive. The domestic salt will not cure provisions for exportation, (the little excepted which is made by solar cvapoiauon) nor for

consumption in the South, nor for lot g keeping at the army posts, nor for voyages with the navy . For all these purposes it is worthless and useless; and the piovisions which are put up in it are lost, or have lobe repacked at a great expense, in alum salt. This act is well known throughout the West, whe re too many citizens have paid the penalty of trn-ting to domestic alt,tc be duped or injured by it any longer. In proof of this Mr. B. read a state rrent from a citizen of Indiana, Mi. J. G. Read, whose respectability he win bed for, alh ging that he had sustainc d a lossolncai 350 upon a cargo of 300 barrels of poik, at New Orleans, ii the year 1G27, in consequence of putting it up in domestic fcalt. The poik began to f-poil as soon as it arrived in the a at m chmate of the South. To save it, Mi. Read, had to inc oi the e xpense of repacking in alum salt; a proceca w hich cost him 1 12 1-2 on e ach barrel, besides 12 1-2 cents for replacing each hoop that get bieke in ti e operation, and the expense of the drays, hauling the poik to and rem the place of re-pneking. Mr. B. said that this was the case with one and nil. They n.ust re-pack in alum salt al New Oilcans, at the same expense that Mr. Read did j or procure that kind of salt befoithandj burdened as it was with duty, and diminished in the bushel by the tariff laws. Surely the West cannot present this picture of imposition to the Congress, and ask in vain for the relief w hich the Irish, proverbial for oppressions, receive d from the British parliament. And here he submitted to the Senate that the American sy ste m, without a grosa departure from its original principle s, could not cover this duty any longer. It has had the full benefit of lhat sy stem in high duties, impesed, for a long time, on foreign salt; it had not produced an adeejuate supply for the country, nor half a supply ; nor at as cheap a rate, by 300 or 1000 per cent.; and what it did supply, so far from being e qual in quality, could not even be used as a substitute for the great and important business of the provision trade. The amount of so much of the trade as went to foreign ce unifies, Mr. B. shewed to be 66.000 barrels of bet f; 54,000 barrels olpoik; 2,000.000 lbs. of bacon; 2,000,000 lbs. of butter, and 1,000 000 lbs. o! che ese 5 and he considered the supply frr the army and navy, and for c nsumption in the South, to exceed the quantity exported. Mr. B. examined another ground of claim for the continuance cf the duties,