Page images
PDF
EPUB

idea of injustice and oppression; for, in the same connexion, the member talks of the laboring poor, and those who live by the sweat of the brow, as likely to be ground down with taxes for the exclusive benefit of other classes! He means I take it, when he talks of taxation, to be understood as employing the word much in that sense in which it is used to characterize the financial policy of other countries and other governments; where the people are drained of their substance to support the government for the benefit of the government, and not, or only in a secondary degree, for the benefit of the people. It is in this odious sense, as a thing unjust and oppressive, that taxation is spoken of as the necessary consequence of any system of internal improvements prosecuted by the state-and this is done thus promptly as an earnest, that the cry of taxation, in other words, of injustice and oppression, is to be raised, as if the state were inhabited by an ignorant instead of an intelligent population, to frighten the community from the support of a policy in which their very highest and best interests are involved.

Sir, for myself, for this legislative body, and I believe I may say for this whole people, I repudiate the extraordinary notions referred to. They are unworthy of this place, and of this people. In our country let it be remembered, that governments are instituted for the benefit of the people, and not at all for the benefit of the governments; and when the people sustain these governments by their means and substance, as they always do directly or indirectly, this is not taxation in any odious sense whatever—it is simply paying for a benefit of their own choosing, and in their own way. If government

is answering the end of its institution-if its policy and measures have that end in view, and if they result, as they must if they are wise, in the common good, then is the community paying for a common benefit, which could not very well be dispensed with, and which is always worth more than it costs. Sir, I am in favor of this sort of taxation; and if government could not be supported without direct taxation, why then I should be in favor of direct taxation, and I hope and believe the people of this country are intelligent enough to understand, in that case, what would be their duty and their interest. Shame on any republican community that would not.

And then to carry the principle from the ordinary business of government, to that important policy which makes so vast a part of the business of enlightened governments at the present day, and especially in this country:-The doctrine is as we have just heard it, that the state must not project and carry on extended works of internal improvements, because as government has no means of its own, and can expend nothing for such works but the means of the people, it is of course the people who pay for these works; and this is taxation— odious and oppressive taxation. Sir, what sort of doctrine is this, for this age and country? For whose benefit and advantage are these works undertaken? Not certainly for the government. If the ground had been taken, that the benefits to be derived to the community, from any contemplated system of internal improvement, would not be worth their cost to the people, that would have been fair ground at least, whatever might be thought of the soundness of the position. But that is

not the ground. It is, that, such system cannot be carried forward without means; that the means belong to the people; and that this is taxation, and taxation is oppressive to the people.

Sir, if this is good doctrine at all, it is good for more cases than the one to which it is applied. Taxation under such a government as ours is precisely what payment for benefits and advantages, voluntarily purchased by individuals, always is. And hence, if this doctrine be sound, a man must not employ a physican, because he would be taxed for it; nor a schoolmaster, because he would be taxed for it; nor a tailor to cut and fit him a coat, because he would be taxed for it. He must not travel on a turnpike, because he will be taxed for it: nor trust himself, or his property, on a rail-road, or a canal, or in a steamboat, because he would be taxed for it. The doctrine could not be satisfied, short of a mighty backward revolution in human affairs. The least that could be done in this state would be to fill up the canals, break up the rail-roads, and above all things to abandon the thousand uses to which the mighty power of steam is applied. We must forego the best blessings of civilization, and all the advantages arising from the present advanced state of the arts and of knowledge, because these are not to be enjoyed without taxation !

Sir, I hope not; I believe not. For myself, and in the name of the people of this state, I reject the monstrous doctrine and argument. The people of this state, I answer for it, are ready and willing, not only to take the untold benefits of a judicious system of internal improvements, but to pay for them-in other words, they

are ready to make a reasonable outlay of their means and their credit, for the purchase of profit and advantage in return vastly beyond a mere equivalent, which is the whole effect of this odious and oppressive system of taxation, whenever and wherever it is wisely applied. The people are not paupers, seeking to have their essential wants supplied gratuitously, nor will they give up for ever the great and glorious advantages of their position, for an unmeaning cry of taxation that may be raised to alarm and deter them.

But I shall not pursue the subject. I am for the printing of the largest number which has been named of this remarkable document. Sir, let us give it wings-send it forth on every wind we cannot spend the little money it will cost to better profit. It ought to, and will find its way to every quarter of the state, and of the country: Nay, it will be read with eagerness and admiration in other and distant lands.

SPEECH

ON BANKING, CURRENCY, AND CREDIT, DELIVERED IN THE ASSEMBLY OF NEW-YORK, MARCH 29, 1838, up

ON THE PASSAGE OF THE GENERAL BANKING LAW.

[The General Banking Law so called, authorized any person, or Association, to issue notes for circulation as money, on a pledge of State Stocks with the Comptroller, or a pledge of land and Stocks, one half of the amount at least being Stocks.]

Mr. BARNARD proposed to amend the bill in two par

ticulars:

1st. Requiring the bankers under this law to keep their notes at par in the city of New-York.

2d. Requiring them to limit their issues to five times the average monthly amount of specie on hand.

The proportion of specie to circulation was first proposed by Mr. BARNARD to be fixed at twenty per cent; afterwards at fifteen. The bill finally passed both Houses with the proportion fixed at twelve and a half per cent.

The bill and amendments being under consideration, Mr. BARNARD spoke as follows:

Mr. CHAIRMAN: I have now a most responsible and a most embarrassing duty to perform. I occupy a position in regard to this bill, both before this house and before the country, which is neither pleasant nor com

« PreviousContinue »