tive proportions of the public debt, Virginia will provide for her share. Now I would like the Senators from West Virginia in this cry against readjusters as repudiators to tell the country what answer they have made to their obligation for one-third of the debt contracted by the old Commonwealth of Virginia. Will they tell the country where they have ever made a proposition to pay one stiver of their share of the public debt of that State to maintain the honor and the dignity of their own Commonwealth? Let them an swer. here. Mr. President, my colleague comes from what we call in Virginia the great Southwest, a noble and prosperous section of Virginia. Fifteen white Conservative counties compose his congressional district, and though the ablest of the orators of my colleague's party canvassed it thoroughly against me and the views set forth in this measure, but two delegates and no senator of the gentleman's party came to the Legislature. To a man they supported the Riddleberger bill. Every senator and every delegate from my colleague's own congressional district, save and except two delegates, supported me for the Senate and the Riddleberger bill as a measure for debt-paying. He would do well to spend a little more time with his constituents! It was the party of my colleague, that repudiated the settlement of 1871 by the passage of the brokers' bill in 1879, and in turn attempted to repudiate the latter by unanimously indorsing what is known as the "Ross Hamilton bill." I suppose it Whatever our differences on this queswould not suit my colleague to tell this tion, it seems to me those people should audience who Ross Hamilton is. Yet, I have had a defender in him against such beg Senators to take notice that the party foul and slanderous accusations as have of my colleague, after a winter spent in the been made that they are dishonorable vain effort to find a leader capable of de- men. O Shame! where is thy blush? vising means to overthrow the popular will, Dishonorable in Virginia to beg the privi discovered such, as they supposed, in the lege of paying every dollar she borrowed person of Ross Hamilton, a colored repub--that is, her rightful share, instead of not lican member of the Legislature from the county of Mecklenburg, and blindly followed him to defeat. Hamilton's bill, which was thus unanimously supported by my colleague's party, not only in effect repealed their pet scheme, the brokers' bill, but all other acts in respect to the public debt of Virginia. I come now to perform a duty-the most unpleasant in one sense and the most agreeable in another. It is to repel the charge flippantly, I hope inconsiderately, made on this floor that we are repudiators and our proposed measure dishonorable. To the first I reply that my colleague's party in eight years of administration of our State affairs paid 2 per cent. installments of interest on ten millions of our public debt just six times, or 12 per cent. in all; 6 times 8 would be 48 per cent. Instead of that they paid 12 per cent., and that is debt-paying! only paying that but also the share of West Virginia-dishonorable to pay every dollar she borrowed, only abating the war interest! Dishonorable, too, in the opinion of the gentlemen who represent States on this floor and municipalities which have by arbitrary legislation reduced their indebtedness from $243,000,000 down to $84,000,000! Dishonorable in Virginia not only to assume her full share of her public obligations, as measured by her territory in this division of it, but offering to tax her people to an extent threatening the destruction of her industrial interests! Is that dishonorable in that people? If so, what have you to say of this tier of Southern States whose public indebtedness, whose plighted faith, whose sacred obligations-as sacred as are those of my State of Virginia-have been reduced from $243,000,000 by one or another method of repudiation, upon one or another excuse, Let this suffice. But when Senators ap-down to $84,000,000, with a reduced inply the word dishonorable, they do not terest rate upon the curtailed principal, know either whom or what they character- and only proposing to pay interest in some ize. Two things they have endeavored to cases at 2 per cent. and in others 3 and in demonstrate, and one is that I received a others 4 on the reduced principal? Is it majority of the white conservative vote of dishonorable in Virginia to assume $20,both branches of the Virginia General As-000,000 of the debt of the old State and sembly. Proudly do I proclaim the truth then to tax her industries within the verge of this. Every one of those who voted for of endurance to pay on that sum the highme to come to this Chamber gave an un-est rate of interest? Let Senators who asqualified vote for the Riddleberger bill. sail unjustly the conduct of Virginia in Are they dishonorable men? Scornfully this respect put their own houses in order. do I repel the charge that any one of them is capable of dishonorable action. Were it true, what a sad commentary it would be upon those honorable gentlemen whom it is said I am not representing I want, Mr. President, the Secretary to read from the International Review the measures of readjustment in the Southern States that Senators may know how fashionable readjustment has been in that section of this great country on which northern | called democracy of this Chamber, another democrats rely in a presidential election. representing distinctly the republican The Chief Clerk read as follows: $47,390,839 No debt. 3,629,511 peri'd wh. highest & June, 1880 26,270,534 20,338,830 $18,045,613 the war 1842. 1852. 1860. 1870. when debt reached Amount of debt repudiat'd bet. 1880. Fluctuation of the Debts of twelve Southern States since the year 1842. Date after States. highest. ................. 606 999 2 6,544,500 174,486,452 273,205,185 113,967,243 159,237,942 20,197,500 10,334,000 4,000,000 2,800 4.120,000 1,288,697 5,512.268 1,391,357 15,400,060 8,500,000 6,700,000 8,478,018 31,952,000 11,613,670 7,000,000 7,271,707 None. 1,796,230 3,226,847 379,485 29,900,045 $47,390,839 West Virginia. Virginia North Carolina.. Alabama........ Texas....... Totals. party of Virginia-these were the candidates before the Legislature which elected me to this body. I received not only a majority of the so-called democratic readjusters but of the so-called republican readjusters. And now what were the efforts, known there if not here to gentlemen, to defeat me? Were not combinations sought to be made? It is known of all men there at the capital of my State, if not here, that every influence from whatsoever quarter it could be adduced, whether democratic or republican, was brought together at Richmond for the purpose by combination of defeating my election, of defeating the sovereign will of the people of that Comwealth as expressed on the 4th of November, 1879. There was a democracy which sought to secure the election of an orthodox, simonpure, unadulterated republican, but of that kind called Bourbons in Virginia-a democracy which was not only willing but ready and anxious to send here in the place I have the honor to hold a republican whom they would otherwise profess to despise. What for? For the consideration well known there, that they might elect certain county judges and control the State offices, and by that means prevent the disclosures which have subsequently followed since the readjusters have gotten possession of the capitol. That democracy which like Cæsar's wife would stand "above suspicion," were ready to trade a seat in the United States Senate so that a few county judges might be preserved, that the offices in the capitol at Richmond might be retained in their control; I say in order, perhaps, that the disclosures which have followed the advent of the party I represent might have been longer Mr. MAHONE. There is no mere read-concealed; moreover that control of the justment there; I will not say it is repudiation. "Repudiation" is honorable, perhaps; "readjustment" dishonorable. Oh, Virginia! It was for this you bared your bosom to soldier's tread and horse's hoof. It was for this you laid waste your fields. It was for this you displayed your noble virtues of fortitude and courage, your heroic suffering and sacrifice. It was for this you suffered the dismemberment of your territory and sent your sons to the field to return to the ruins where were once their homes. It was for this you so reluctantly abandoned your allegiance to a common country to be the last to make war and the last to surrender. O Ingratitude, thou basest and meanest of crimes! ballot-box in the State might continue where it had been; so certainly I believe; and all this by those who professed to represent the party which had declared in national convention for a full vote, a free ballot, and an honest count. Such were the considerations, such I say were the inducements which prompted that democracy to its efforts to send to this Chamber a republican beyond question since these many long and weary years. If that is the democracy that the gentlemen on that side love, I proclaim my inability to co-operate with them. I supported neither of the candidates for Congress in my district, and emphatically declared that purpose on more than one public occasion, because one was a candidate of that party, the Bourbon reactionists, and the other a Bourbon republican with accommodating views on the debt And now, Mr. President, at the time of my election who constituted my opponents? Already, as you have been advised, another representing distinctly the Bourbon democracy of Virginia and the so-question. To obey the behests of the democratic question of the tariff and internal revenue caucus of this body, whose leadership on lawsthis floor, whose representative national authority-the one here and the other elsewhere have championed the cause of the Bourbon-funder party in Virginia, would be an obsequious surrender of our State policy and self-condemnation of our independent action. The desire of our people for cordial relations with all sections of a common country and the people of all the States of the Union, their devotion to popular education, their efforts for the free enjoyment of a priceless suffrage and an honest count of ballots, their determination to make Virginia, in the public belief, a desirable home for all men, wherever their birthplace, whatever their opinions, and to open her fields and her mines to enterprise and capital, and to stay the retrograde movement of years, so as to bring her back from the fifteenth in grade to her original position among the first in the sisterhood of States, forbid that my action here should be controlled or influenced by a caucus whose party has waged war upon my constituency and where party success is held paramount to what I conceive to be the interests of Virginia and the welfare of the whole country. The readjusters of Virginia have no feeling of hostility, no words of unkindness for the colored man. His freedom has come, and whether by purpose or by accident, thank God, that among other issues which so long distracted our country and restrained its growth, was concluded, and I trust forever, by the results of the sanguinary struggle between the sections. I have faith, and it is my earnest hope, that the march of an enlightened civilization and the progress of human freedom will proceed until God's great family shall everywhere enjoy the products of their own labor and the blessings of civil, political, and religious liberty. The colored man was loyal to Virginia in all the days of conflict and devastation which came of the heroic struggle in the war of sections that made her fields historic. By no act of his was either the clash of arms provoked or freedom secured. He did not solve his duty by considerationr of self-interest. Speech of Hon. Justin S. Morrill, of Vermont, (Author of the Tariff Bill of 1861), delivered in the Senate of the United States, December 8, 1881, on the Bill to Appoint a Tariff Commission. The Senate, being as in Committee of the Whole, and having under consideration the bill (S. No. 22) to provide for the appointment of a commission to investigate the Mr. MORRILL said: I have brought this subject to the early attention of the Senate because, if early legislative action on the tariff is to be had, obviously the measure proposed by Senator Eaton and passed at the last session of the Senate is a wise and indispensable preliminary, which cannot be started too soon. The essential information needed concerns important interests, vast in number and overspreading every nook and corner of our country; and when made available by the ingathering and collocation of all the related facts, will secure the earliest attention of Congress, as well as the trust and confidence of the country, and save the appropriate committees of both Houses weeks and months of irksome labor-possibly save them also from some blunders and from final defeat. An enlargement of the free list, essential reductions and readjustments of rates, are to be fully considered, and some errors of conflicting codifications corrected. If a general revision of the Bible seems to have been called for, it is hardly to be wondered at that some revision of our revenue laws should be invited. But changes in the frame-work of a law that has had more of stability than any other of its kind in our history, and from which an unexampled growth of varied industries has risen up, should be made with much circumspection, after deliberate consideration, by just and friendly hands, and not by illinformed and reckless revolutionists. When our recent great army was disbanded, war taxes were also largely dismissed, and we have now, and certainly shall have hereafter, no unlimited margin for slashing experiments. THE TARIFF OF 1861. The tariff act of 1861, which, by a nickname given by baffled opponents as an echo to a name so humble as my own, it was perhaps hoped to render odious, was yet approved by a democratic President and gave to Mr. Buchanan a much-needed opportunity to perform at last one official act approved by the people. If I refer to this measure, it will not be egotistically nor to shirk responsibility, but only in defense of those who aided its passage such as the never-to-be-forgotten Henry Winter Davis, Thad. Stevens, and, William A. Howard, and, let me add, the names of Fessenden and Crittenden-and, without the parliamentary skill of one (Mr. SHERMAN) now a member of this body, its success would not have been made certain. And yet this so-called "Morrill tariff," hooted at as a "Chinese wall" that was to shut out both commerce and revenue, notwithstanding amendments subsequently piled and patched upon it at every fresh was from 235,107 tons to 1,461,837 tons. demand during the war, but retaining its In twenty years the production of salt rose vertebræ and all of its specific characteris- from 12,717,200 bushels to 29,800,298 bushtics, has been as a financial measure an els. No previous crop of cotton equalled unprecedented success in spite of its sup- the 4,861,000 bales of 1860; but the crop posed patronymical incumbrance. Trans- of 1880 was larger, and that of 1881 is reforming ad valorem duties into specific, ported at 6,606,000 bales. The yield of then averaging but 25 per cent. upon the cotton from 1865 to 1881 shows an increase invoice values, imposing much higher rates over the fifteen years from 1845 to 1861 of upon luxuries than upon necessaries, and 14,029,000 bales, or almost an average gain introducing compound duties* upon wool- of a million bales a year. ens, justly compensatory for the duties on wool, it has secured all the revenue anticipated, or $198,159,676 in 1881 against $53,187,511 in 1860, and our total trade, exports and imports, in 1860, of $687,192,176, appears to have expanded in 1880 to $1,613,770,633, with a grand excess of exports in our favor of $167,683,912, and an excess in 1881 of $259,726,254, while it was $20,040,062 against us in 1860. A great reduction of the public debt has followed, and the interest charged has fallen from $143,781,591 in 1867 to about $60,500,000 at the present time. If such a result is not a practical demonstration of healthy intrinsic merits, when both revenue and commerce increase in a much greater ratio than population, what is it? Our imports in the past two years have been further brilliantly embellished by $167,060,041 of gold and silver coin and bullion, while retaining in addition all of our own immense domestic productions; and it was this only which enabled us to resume and to maintain specie payments. Let the contrast of 1860 be also borne in mind, when the excess of our exports of gold and silver was $57,996,004. As a protective measure this tariff, with all its increasing amendments, has proven more satisfactory to the people and to various industries of the country than any other on record. The jury of the country has so recorded its verdict. Agriculture has made immense strides forward. The recent exports of food products, though never larger, is not equal by twenty-fold to home consumption, and prices are every where more remunerative, agricultural products being higher and manufactures lower. Of wheat, corn, and oats there was produced 1,184,540,849 bushels in 1860, but in 1880 the crop had swelled to 2,622,200,039 bushels, or had much more than doubled. Since 1860 lands in many of the Western States have risen from 100 to 175 per cent. The production of rice, during the same time, rose from 11,000,000 pounds to 117,000,000. The fires of the tall chimneys have every where been lighted up; and while we made only 987,559 tons of pig iron in 1860, in 1880 we made 4,295,414 tons; and of railroad iron the increase *The dominion of Canada has since imposed compound duties upon a large number of articles. The giant water-wheels have revolved more briskly, showing the manufacture of 1,797,000 bales of cotton in 1880 against only 979,000 bales in 1860, and this brought up the price of raw cotton to higher figures than in 1860. Thirteen States and one Territory produced cotton, but its manufacture spreads over thirty States and one Territory. The census of cotton manufacture shows: 1860. 1880. Capital invested..... In New England and some other States Among the branches of manufactures sheep husbandry has fallen off, and in absolutely waked into life by the tariff of some places it has been replaced by the 1861, and which then had no place above dairy business; but in other States the zero, may be named crockery and china wool-clip has largely increased, especially ware. The number of white-ware factories has the weight of the fleece increased. is now fifty-three, with forty decorating The number of sheep has increased about establishments; and the products, amount80 per cent. and the weight of wool over ing to several millions, are sold at prices 400 per cent. The discovery that the fine 25 to 50 per cent. below the prevailing long merino wools, known as the Ameri- prices of twenty years ago. Clay and can merino, are in fact the best of combing kaolin equal to the best in China have wools and now used in many styles of dress been found east, west, and south in such goods has added greatly to their demand abundance as to promise a large extension and value. Many kinds of woolen goods of American enterprise, not only in the can be had at a less price than twenty ordinary but in the highest branches of years ago. Cashmerets that then brought ceramic art. Steel may also here claim its forty-six cents per yard brought only thirty- birth. No more of all sorts than 11,838 eight and one-fourth cents in 1880, and tons were made in 1860, but 1,397,015 tons muslin de laines dropped from twenty cents were made in 1880. Those who objected to fifteen, showing that the tariff did not to a duty on steel have found they were make them dearer, but that American com- biting something more than a file. Silks petition caused a reduction of prices. in 1860, hardly unwound from the cocoon, The length of our railroads has been were creeping along with only a small trebled, rising from 31,185 miles in 1860 to showing of sewing-silk and a few trim94,000 miles in 1881, and possibly to one- mings, but now this industry rises to nahalf of all in the world. For commercial tional importance, furnishing apt employpurposes the wide area of our country has ment to many thousand women as well as been compressed within narrow limits, and to men; and the annual products, sharply transportation in time and expense, from competing with even the Bonnét silks of New York to Kansas, or from Chicago to Lyons, amount to the round sum of $34,Baltimore, is now less formidable than it 500,000. Notwithstanding the exceptionwas from Albany or Pittsburgh to Phila- ally heavy duties, I am assured that silk delphia prior to the era of railroads. The goods in general are sold for 25 per cent. most distant States reach the same mar-less than they were twenty years ago. kets, and are no longer neighbors-in-law, Plate-glass is another notable manufacbut sister States. The cost of eastern or ture, requiring great scientific and mechawestern bound freight is less than one-nical skill and large capital, whose origin third of former rates. Working-men, including every ship-load of emigrants, have found acceptable employment. Our aggregate wealth in 1860 was $19,089,156,289, but is estimated to have advanced in 1880 to over forty billions. Further ex-ment which, after surmounting many amination will show that the United States are steadily increasing in wealth, and increasing, too, much more rapidly than free-trade England, notwithstanding all her early advantages of practical experience and her supremacy in accumulated capital. The increase of wealth in France is twice as rapid as in England, but in the United States it is more rapid than even in France. These are monumental facts, and they can no more be blinked out of sight than the Alleghanies or the Rocky Mountains. They belong to our country, and sufficiently illustrate its progress and vindicate the tariff of 1861. If the facts cannot be denied, the argument remains irrefutable. If royal cowboys" who attempted to whistle down American independence one hundred years ago ingloriously failed, so it may be hoped will fail royal trumpeters of free-trade who seem to take sides against the United States in all commercial contests for industrial independence. bears date since the tariff of 1861. It is made in Missouri and in Indiana, and to a small extent in Kentucky and Massachusetts; but in Indiana it is made of the purest and best quality by an establish perils, has now few equals in the magnitude or perfection of its productions, whether on this or the other side of the Atlantic, and richly merits not only the favor but the patronage of the Government itself. Copper is another industry upon which a specific duty was imposed in 1861, which has had a rapid growth, and now makes a large contribution to our mineral wealth. The amount produced in 1860' was less than one-fifth of the present production, and valued at $2,288,182; while in 1880 the production rose to the value of $8,849,961. The capital invested increased from $8,525,500 to $31,675,096. In 1860 the United States Mint paid from twentythree and one-half to twenty-five cents per pound for copper; but has obtained it the present year under a protective tariff as low as seventeen cents. Like our mines of inexhaustible coal and iron, copper is found in many States, some of it superior to any in the world, and for special uses is constantly sought after by foreign governments. |