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HALIFAX, JV. C. FRIDAY, JULY 30, 1824.
F0 J.
THE "FREE PRESS,"
Zty George Howard,
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Letters addressed to the Editor
m ust b e i ost p. aid.
POLITICAL.
TO THE FREEMEN
of the
Third Congressional District
of North-Carolina:
Fellow-citizens: After a te
dious session of nearly six
months, Congress adjourned on
the 27th of May. I regret to
say, that some of the measures
adopted in that session do not
meet my approbation. The first
session of the ISth Congress will
be remarkable, in the Parlia
mentary history of this country,
for having settled two principles
vhich were formerly thought
hot to be consistent with the
original principles of our go
vernment; and which, I think,
'jght never to have made a part
if the legislation of the United
Slates: measures, how exten
sively injurious they may be in
t-heir operation, we cannot fore
see, though it is not difficult to
perceive, that more evil than
'i;ood will result from them.
The two measures to which I
allude, are the Tariff and Inter
nal Improvement bills, both of
which have become law. The
Tariff has been so generally dis
cussed, in and out of Congress,
in the newspapers and in com
mon conversation, that it is bet
ter understood, and has there
fore created much more excite
ment and feeling of disapproba-
tion. A system of Internal Im-
provemcnt, by the General Go
vernmentjhas nothing to recom
mend it to the people of this
country. The very term inter
nal is uncongenial with the
principles of the General Gov
ernment, the institution of
which was for external purpos
es, to regulate our affairs with
foreign nations and between the
tates as political bodies confe
derated for general purposes.
This system, the entering wedge
of which has been driven under
the name of an act appropriat
ing 30,000 dollars for making
surveys, it practised on must in
its progress, become more op
pressive even than the system
of prohibition and protection
contained in the Tariff. I ob
ject to it on the two broad
grounds of inexpediency and un
constitutionality. Congress has
not the authority, nor has it the
means, to carry into effect a sys
tem which if persevered in must
:mpose a weight of taxation on
the people they could not bear.
1 think I risk nothing in saying,
ihat the whole revenue of this
country, with that of Great Bri
tain, aided by a million of slaves,
vould not accomplish in half a
century so grand a scheme of
tj
this kind, general and equal in
its distribution, as the glowing
imagination ot some of our po
Utical dreamers has figured out.
Appropriate lor Pcnnsylva
-ua a million of dollars you must
do the same for New-York, Vir-
ginia, and other states, in pro
portion. When you have pro
vided money to be expended in
one part or one county of a state,
it will be. expected and claimed
with equal justice by every
other, which may fancy that
some little creek or river may
be of use if cleared out or con
nected to some other by a canal,
or by clearing roads and level
ing mountains, or what is, per
haps, the strongest of all rea
sons, getting the money spent
among them; for not the least
operating motive to measures of
this kind is the money concern,
by which the friends and con
nexions of the influential may
live at the public expense by
jobs and contracts.
If the government continual
ly goes into new projects of ex
penditure, it is in vain to look
forward to an extinction of the
public debt. The whole subject
of internal improvement, belongs
to the state authorities, and is
with them only a question of
expediency; and without mean
ing to criticise what has been
done in this or any other state,
there is ample room for making
illustrative allusions to show the
impropriety of attempting to
do any thing until we get ready:
such as our system of town-making,
some years back, without
people or houses. The usual
consequence of all such schemes
is, that many are ruined by the
speculation which enriches a few
at their expense. The same
kind of loose construction which
derives from the Constitution a
j right to go into the system of in
ternal improvement, will give
to Congress, whenever it shall -
be desired, the right to set free -
the negroes; and we know that
a strong leeling oi this Kina ex
ists in the eastern and some of
the western states. But the
states have the authority and
they have the means to go into
a limited and prudent system of
mprovcmentsof this sort, regu
lating and measuring their
means according to exigencies.
As a proof of this, I need only
bring to your attention that stu
pendous work recently executed
in New-York, which will re
dound as much to the honor as
profit of the state I allude to
the Great Canal, which is alrea
dy becoming an ample feeder to
that great mart of trade, the ci
tv of New-York. If there is a
determination, at all hazards, to
go into this expensive plan, we
should first clear on existing
burthens, which a few years
might with prudence do, and
then amend the Constitution so
as to oiJiam iiwinaw
mode the authority, and not
make the will of a majority of
Congress the Constitution of the
United States.
Of the Tariff I might say
much more than the length of a
communication of this kind
would justify. Its avowed prin
ciple is a prohibition of foreign
for the purpose of rearing, by a
forced growth, domestic manu
factures. For this purpose that
part of the Sth section of the first
article of the Constitution, which
authorises Congress to lay and
collect taxes, duties, imposts and
excises, &c. has been perverted
to a purpose which I presume
never entered into the heads of
the framers of that instrument.
No doubt their object was to
give authority to Congress tc
raise revenue by the different
methods of taxation here enu-
merated, being only different:
methods of doing ihc same
thing. The only legitimate
purpose of taxing is revenue; it
should, therefore, betlic settled
poKcy of this country to take
no more from the pockets of the
people than sufficient to defray
the necessary expences of go
vernment. No government can
be carried on without expense,
net even that of the best regula
ted family establishment; they
arc the same in principle, and a
proper economy equally benefi
cial in both, a sordid parsimony
equally objectionable. It is not
only wrong to use the given
power to raise revenue by the
various modes of 'taxing beyond
what is prudent or necessary,
but it is still more so to pervert
this authority from its proper
and legal purpose, indirectly to
attain an end not recognized by
the Constitution; in all such ca
ses its spirit is violated, because
the intention of its framers is
misapplied; the only proper me
thod of construing this instru
ment being as nearly as possible
to ascertain and fulfil this inten
tion. To accomplish other pur
poses than such as were intend
ed, bv a loose and tortuous con
struction, would be faithless and
dishonest, lhe most that its
friends can say in favor of the
Tariff, beyond merely partial
views, is,that supposing the con
sumption of iorcign goods to
continue the same, there will be
levied on the community an ad
ditional tax of about three mil
lions of dollars, when we could
have done without. But if it
operates as a prohibition, and
lessens importation, then in pro
portion to that prohibition, after
a year or two, the revenue must
be curtailed and must be made
up on the one hand by direct
and internal taxes, the operation
of which every body under
stands, or by borrowing and
funding, by which the national
debt will be increased. This
would be the worst sort of poli
cy, because if persevered in it
must eventually make us the
slaves of a set of fund holders.
The real operation of this mea
sure is to levy a contribution on
one part of the country for the
benefit of another; a contribu
tion to pay manufacturers for
carrying on their own business,
attempting to force a premature
growth of the manufacturing in
terest, which has already grown
in this country with a strength
and rapidity unexampled in any
other.
This interest is the natural
offspring of the other two great
interests of the country, agri
culture and commerce. These
two great interests, if left as
they should be, unshackled by
legal restrictions, impelled as
they are by physical and moral
causes in the United States, must
as necessarily produce, as their
legitimate offspring, the other,
as any appropriate cause is fol
lowed by its proper effect.
Left to themselves, under the
guidance of self-interest urging
to industrious exertion, the ac
cumulation of capital must "of
consequence be such as to seek
other employment; and so soon
as manufactures point to profit,
this capital will be applied in
that direction. Manufactures,
j resting upon such a foundation
would be able to compete with
any opposition. There is not
one redeeming clause in the act;
every section, every item of de
tail, tries the whole principle:
that which is wrong; in all ita
details, can never be aggregate
ly right. Its operation will be
principally on the south, which
furnishes a verylarge proportion
of all the exportable commodi
ties of the country upon which
imports are founded, and we are
to be sacrificed to the mistaken
policy of Pennsylvania and the
western states.
But leaving subjects which
are calculated to produce noth
ing but sombre and disagreeable
reflections, we will take a short
view of a more cheering one
the state of the finances: which
shews emphatically the total in
utility of the Tariff, even upon
the ground of revenue, the only
one on which it could, under
any circumstances, have been
justified. The amount of re
ceipts and expenditures for
1823, were such as to leave in
the Treasury, on the first day of
January 1824, $6,466,969 30.
The estimates for the year 1824,
come'to the result that after sa
tisfying the current demands for
that year, there will be a ba
lance in the Treasury, on the
first day of January 1825, of
S9,792,716 41. It must be re
marked, however, that this es
timate was founded upon a state
of things existing, independent
ly oi the measures recently a
dopted in Congress, and that
their operation may produce
some variation in the result. It
is satisfactory to me to be able
to state that we are on a friend
ly footing with the world gene
rally, and are likely to remain
so; since it seems to have be
come the policy of the allied
sovereigns to confine their svs-
i tern of regulating other people's
, allairs to the continent ol JLu
rope.
It has become necessary for
me to make some remarks on
the subject of the Presidential
election. For a year or two
past it has been usual for my
friends, whenever we met, to
question me about the candi
dates, which was most likely to
become the President, and who
I thought most proper for the
appointment; and since I have
returned home I seldom meet
one of my acquaintance without
having these questions asked.
There is very little likeli
hood, from present appearances,
that the election will be made
by the people, by whom it
should be; and I very much re
gret that without some unlook
ed for interposition, it must go
to the House of Representatives.
With four or five candidates,
all having some sectional sup
port, by which the votes must
necessarily be divided so as to
prevent an election, there was
no method of obviating the dif
ficulty but by a nomination such
as was proposed to the friends
of all the candidates, going into
meeting upon the principle that
the weekest should be dropped,
until some one, the most popu
lar, might be agreed on. The
avowed object of this meeting
was to bring the election before
the people by lessening the
number of candidates. This
was my principal reason for go
ing into the meeting; my other
one was, that it was a chert and
summary method of answering
such questions as my friend in
the district were in the habit nf
asking; ,and under similar cir-
cumstances, ana ior similar pur
poses, I should certainly do the
same thins: asrain. It was no
secret meeting for secret purpo
ses; every person was at liberty
to see what was done, and had
there been such a number of
candidates as would have insur
ed the election to the people, I
snouia nave conceived such
a meCtinff Whollv nnnropccirv
It is not my intention to go in
to a detailed statement of thn
merits and demerits of the differ
ent candidates; they have al!
been in situations more or less
conspicuous. After mature re
flection, I feel bound to give a
preference to W. H. CRAW
FORD, because I think his ta
lents are such as to qualify him
in a superior degree for dis
charging the duties of the office,
and more consistently with what
I believe to be the interest of
the community generally. It is
unfortunate for our country that
three sectional divisions or in
terests are springing up: a west
ern, an eastern, and southern.
This state of things has its influ
ence on the approaching elec
tion. We must have either a
western, eastern, or southern
President. As the candidates
claim all to be of the same poli
tical denomination, though there
is a difference of opinion upon
some matters of policy among
them, the question resolves it
self into this simple proposition,
whether we shall take a man
who is obliged from the very
nature and force of circumstan
ces to be with us, or one who
from similar causes must neces
sarily be against us -shall we
take a man of our side or of the
other side? The western states,
with Pennsylvania, form one in
terest, the eastern another, and
the southern a third; now the
question is, shall we take the
man who is bound to us by
birth, habits, identity of inte
rest, and political sentiment,
and who is in every way equal
ly as well or better qualified
than any of the candidates, or
shall we take one surrounded
by circumstances the very op
posite of these. Common sense
and common interest point out
what we should do. W. H.
Crawford is what we call a self
made man; has risen from ob
scurity by his own exertions
he has been a member of the
Georgia Legislature, of the Sen
ate of the United States, minis
ter to France, Secretary of War,
and of the Treasury, end has
filled with ability and integrity
every station in which he has
been placed. Had he not done
so, the spirit of persecution .
which has for years been al
work to put him down, mivtf;
necessarily have succeeded.
His recent triumph over one ot'
the most wanton and unjustifia
ble intrigues to ruin his reputa tion
as a man. and destrov his
hopes as a candidate, that ever
disgraced aay era of any coun
try, will convince tins grean
community of the unshaker
soundness cf his integrity and
abilitv. Never was there a man
more completely in the hands of
his enemies; he has literally
been accused, tried, acauittct?
and justified by his opponer'
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