Part 177

Mr. QUINCY asked whether a duty which produced $850,000 a year, which was limited to the end of the next session, and which was not pledged to the payment of the national debt, could be considered as equivalent to a permanent duty of half a million, imposed by an act which could not be repealed until the debt was paid? He did not think the new tax was a substitute of equal value, and he considered it one of the objects of this bill to get rid of the pledge to pay the debt.

Mr. J. CLAY felt disposed to give every credit to gentlemen in their professions of regard towards the public debt. The answer to the objection was this: A certain fund, arising from the impost, was pledged to the payment and interest of the debt. An act had passed the last Congress increasing the fund appropriated for this purpose, from $7,200,000 to $8,000,000. If the duty on salt was not a component part of this sum, the objection of gentlemen was futile. Now it was a fact, that, so much as this sum was diminished by taking off the $520,000 arising from the duty on salt, so much was it increased by the other duty proposed to be laid by this act. So long as the taxes pledged exceeded eight millions, the Government sacredly regard their engagements. As an answer to all the sensibility displayed by gentlemen for the public faith, permit me, said Mr. C., to refer them to a resolution proposed in the seventh Congress, on the 25th of January, 1802, instructing the Committee of Ways and Means to inquire into the expediency of taking off, or reducing, the duty on brown sugar, coffee, and bohea tea. Another objection urged by gentlemen is, the effect of this bill on the merchants. There is no doubt that, in consequence of it, the price of salt will fall; but, would not this have been the effect on bohea tea, had their measure been successful? The effect, however, will be gradual, and there will be but little loss sustained by any one individual, as the price will begin to fall immediately on taking off the duty. I believe it is not a material error to say, that the traffic is pretty much in the hands of those men who enjoyed it when the duty was laid; and if so, those who now lose, will only lose as much as they before gained. I hope the blank in the bill will be so filled as to give six months notice of the imposition of the duty.

Mr. DANA said, that if gentlemen were disposed to diminish the revenue, to screw up the Government, and if they were satisfied the Administration could get along without this tax, it would weigh much in his mind in favor of repeal; and, as they were disposed to grapple with difficulties and gain popularity, he believed he would gratify them by voting for the bill.

Mr. QUINCY said he opposed such an excessive reduction of this duty at once, not only on the grounds he had stated, but on other grounds. In Massachusetts, in the neighborhood of Boston, very extensive manufactories of salt had been established, under the idea that the duty would be continued. The immediate effect of this measure might be to destroy and ruin them.

Mr. QUINCY’s motion to amend the section was likewise disagreed to without a division.

On motion of Mr. J. RANDOLPH, the blank, relative to the time when the duty was to take effect, was filled with the first day of October.

The third section was then read, which continued the Mediterranean fund till the next session of Congress.

Mr. ALSTON observed that, from the present appearance of things, he did not think it advisable that this section should remain as it was, as in six or eight months they would have again the same ground to travel over. His object was permanently to substitute the Mediterranean fund for the salt tax. He had no objection to make the exchange; to take off the perpetual tax on salt, and lay it on these articles. He thought there was no danger in trusting to the wisdom of Congress the discontinuance of the act imposing them; and that as long as there was a necessity for taxes, these subjects of taxation were as unexceptionable as any that could be laid. When they were about to strike so deeply at the revenue, they ought to be certain that the substitute offered would justify the measure. For these reasons he submitted a motion to make the Mediterranean fund perpetual. He thought this expedient, as the tax on salt was perpetual, and the substituted tax was not so certain as that on salt. With regard to the one, very little variation could take place; while the other might materially change with the times.

Mr. CROWNINSHIELD then moved to amend the last section, so as to continue the Mediterranean fund for three years.

Mr. J. RANDOLPH hoped the amendment would not be agreed to. It would be remembered that the right of giving the public money was the sole exclusive right of that branch of the Legislature; and that when they made grants for a long term of years, it would not depend on them alone whether they should be revoked. In his opinion, if the Constitution of the United States was practised on its true principles, that House ought not to give the public money out of its control. There was no existing cause for continuing this fund for three years, or for a longer period than that contemplated by the bill.

The question was then taken on Mr. CROWNINSHIELD’s motion, which was disagreed to--ayes 28. When the question was taken on engrossing the bill, which was carried--ayes 83.

THURSDAY, April 17.

Duties on Salt.

The bill repealing the acts laying duties on salt, and continuing in force, for a further time, the first section of the act, entitled “An act further to protect the commerce and seamen of the United States against the Barbary Powers,” was read a third time.

Mr. MASTERS moved to recommit the bill, for the purpose of modifying its details.

Mr. QUINCY supported the motion; which was lost--ayes 37, nays 49.

When the yeas and nays were taken on the passage of the bill--yeas 43, nays 11, as follows:

YEAS.--Evan Alexander, Willis Alston, jun., Isaac Anderson, Burwell Bassett, George M. Bedinger, John Blake, junior, Thomas Blount, Robert Brown, Levi Casey, John Chandler, John Claiborne, Christopher Clark, Joseph Clay, Matthew Clay, John Clopton, Jacob Crowninshield, Richard Cutts, Samuel W. Dana, Ezra Darby, John Davenport, junior, John Dawson, Elias Earle, Peter Early, James Elliot, Caleb Ellis, Ebenezer Elmer, William Ely, John W. Eppes, James Fisk, James M. Garnett, Charles Goldsborough, Peterson Goodwyn, Edwin Gray, Andrew Gregg, Silas Halsey, John Hamilton, David Holmes, David Hough, John G. Jackson, John Lambert, Joseph Lewis, junior, Patrick Magruder, Robert Marion, Thomas Moore, Jeremiah Morrow, John Morrow, Jonathan O. Mosely, Jeremiah Nelson, Roger Nelson, Thomas Newton, junior, Gideon Olin, Timothy Pitkin, junior, John Pugh, Josiah Quincy, John Randolph, Thomas M. Randolph, John Rea of Pennsylvania, Jacob Richards, Thomas Sammons, Thomas Sanford, Martin G. Schuneman, James Sloan, John Smilie, John Smith, Samuel Smith, Henry Southard, Richard Stanford, Joseph Stanton, Samuel Taggart, Benjamin Tallmadge, Samuel Tenney, David Thomas, Philip R. Thompson, Thomas W. Thompson, Abram Trigg, Killian K. Van Rensselaer, Joseph B. Varnum, Peleg Wadsworth, Robert Whitehill, David R. Williams, Marmaduke Williams, Alexander Wilson, Richard Wynn, and Joseph Winston.

NAYS.--Joseph Barker, John Fowler, Isaiah L. Green, Michael Leib, Matthew Lyon, Josiah Masters, William McCreery, Nicholas R. Moore, John Russell, Peter Sailly, and Uri Tracy.

FRIDAY, April 18.

William Eaton.

The House resolved itself into a Committee of the Whole, on the bill authorizing the settlement of accounts between the United States and William Eaton. No amendment having been made to the bill, the House proceeded to consider the said bill at the Clerk’s table, and the same being again read, in the words following, to wit:

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States in Congress assembled, That the proper accounting officers be, and they hereby are, authorized and directed to liquidate and settle the accounts subsisting between the United States and William Eaton, late Consul at Tunis, upon just and equitable principles, under the direction of the Secretary of State.

A motion was made by Mr. JOHN RANDOLPH, and the question being put, to amend the said bill, by striking out, at the end thereof, the words “under the direction of the Secretary of State;” it passed in the negative--yeas 43, nays 48.

Ordered, That the said bill be engrossed, and read the third time on Monday next.

MONDAY, April 21.

Duties on Salt.

The House took up the amendments of the Senate to the bill repealing the acts laying duties on salt, and continuing in force for a further time, the first section of the act, entitled “An act further to protect the commerce and seamen of the United States against the Barbary Powers.”