Part 18

Then, again, we are told that we must not abandon the system of our fathers. I have already answered this objection precisely, in saying, that, whatever may have been the system of the Fathers, it is inadequate to the present hour. But I am not satisfied that the proposition moved by me is inconsistent with the system of the Fathers. The officers of the Internal Revenue did not exist then, and the inferior officers of the customs were few in number and with small emoluments. But all district attorneys and marshals, even if their salary was no more than two hundred dollars, were subject to the confirmation of the Senate.

MR. EDMUNDS. And so they are yet.

MR. SUMNER. And so they are yet. But can the Senator doubt, that, if, at the time when those officers were made subject to the confirmation of the Senate, weighers and gaugers and inspectors had been as well paid as they are now, they, too, would have been brought under the control of this body? I cannot.

MR. EDMUNDS. I do not think they would.

MR. SUMNER. But even if the Senator does not accept the view which I present on the probable course of our fathers, he cannot resist the argument, that, whatever may have been the old system, we must act now in the light of present duties. I repeat, a system good for our fathers may not be good for this hour, which is so full of danger.

Then, again, we are told, with something of indifference, if not of levity, that it is not the duty of the Senate to look after the “bread and butter” of officeholders. This is a familiar way of saying that these small cases are not worthy of the Senate. Not so do I understand our duties. There is no case so small as not to be worthy of the Senate, especially if in this way you can save a citizen from oppression and weaken the power of an oppressor.

Something has been said about the curtailment of the Executive power, and the Senator from Maine [Mr. FESSENDEN] has even argued against the amendment as conferring upon the President additional powers. This is strange. The effect of the amendment is, by clear intendment, to take from the President a large class of nominations and bring them within the control of the Senate. Thus it is obviously a curtailment of Executive power, which I insist has become our bounden duty. The old resolution of the House of Commons, moved by Mr. Dunning, is applicable here: “The influence of the Crown has increased, is increasing, and ought to be diminished.” In this spirit we must put a curb on the President, now maintaining illegitimate power by removals from office.

* * * * *

Mr. President, I have used moderate language, strictly applicable to the question. But it is my duty to remind you how much the public welfare depends upon courageous counsels. Courage is now the highest wisdom. Do not forget that we stand face to face with an enormous and malignant usurper, through whom the Republic is imperilled,--that Republic which, according to our oaths of office, we are bound to save from all harm. The lines are drawn. On one side is the President, and on the other side is the people of the United States. It is the old pretension of prerogative, to be encountered, I trust, by that same inexorable determination which once lifted England to heroic heights. The present pretension is more outrageous, and its consequences are more deadly; surely the resistance cannot be less complete. An American President must not claim an immunity denied to an English king. In the conflict he has so madly precipitated, I am with the people. In the President I put no trust, but in the people I put infinite trust. Who will not stand with the people?

Here, Sir, I close what I have to say at this time. But before I take my seat, you will pardon me, if I read a brief lesson, which seems written for the hour. The words are as beautiful as emphatic.

“The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country.”

These are the words of Abraham Lincoln.[80] They are as full of vital force now as when he uttered them. I entreat you not to neglect the lesson. Learn from its teaching how to save our country.

Mr. Edmunds and Mr. Reverdy Johnson replied. Mr. Howe, of Wisconsin, and Mr. Lane, of Indiana, favored the amendment. Mr. Johnson suggested that the expression of opinion adverse to the President would disqualify a Senator to sit on his impeachment. Mr. Sumner interrupted him to say:--

What right have I to know that the President is to be impeached? How can I know it? And let me add, even if I could know it, there can be no reason in that why I should not argue the measure directly before the Senate, and present such considerations as seem to me proper, founded on the misconduct of that officer.

Mr. Sumner here changed his amendment by striking out the limitation of $1,000 and inserting $1,500. He then said:--

I make the change in deference to Senators about me, and especially yielding to the earnest argument of the Senator from Vermont [Mr. EDMUNDS], who was so much disturbed by the idea that the Senate would be called to act upon inspectors. My experience teaches me not to be disturbed at anything. I am willing to act on an inspector or a night watchman; and if I could, I would save him from Executive tyranny. The Senator would leave him a prey, so far as I can understand, for no other reason than because he is an inspector, an officer of inferior dignity, and because, if we embrace all inspectors, we shall have too much to do.

Sir, we are sent to the Senate for work, and especially to surround the citizen with all possible safeguards. The duty of the hour is as I have declared. It ought not to be postponed. Every day of postponement is to my mind a sacrifice. Let us not, then, be deterred even by the humble rank of these officers, or by their number, but, whether humble or numerous, embrace them within the protecting arms of the Senate.

The amendment was rejected,--Yeas 16, Nays 21. After further debate, the bill passed the Senate,--Yeas 29, Nays 9. It then passed the House with amendments. To settle the difference between the two Houses, there was a Committee of Conference, when the bill agreed upon passed the Senate,--Yeas 22, Nays 10,--and passed the House,--Yeas 112, Nays 41. March 2d, the bill was vetoed, when, notwithstanding the objections of the President, it passed the Senate,--Yeas 35, Nays 11,--and passed the House,--Yeas 138, Nays 40,--and thus became a law.[81]

DENUNCIATION OF THE COOLIE TRADE.

RESOLUTION IN THE SENATE, FROM THE COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS, JANUARY 16, 1867.

The following resolution was reported by Mr. Sumner, who asked the immediate action of the Senate upon it.

Whereas the traffic in laborers transported from China and other Eastern countries, known as the Coolie trade, is odious to the people of the United States as inhuman and immoral;

And whereas it is abhorrent to the spirit of modern international law and policy, which have substantially extirpated the African slave-trade, to permit the establishment in its place of a mode of enslaving men different from the former in little else than the employment of fraud instead of force to make its victims captive: Therefore

_Be it resolved_, That it is the duty of this Government to give effect to the moral sentiment of the Nation through all its agencies, for the purpose of preventing the further introduction of coolies into this hemisphere or the adjacent islands.

The resolution was adopted.

CHEAP BOOKS AND PUBLIC LIBRARIES.

REMARKS IN THE SENATE, ON AMENDMENTS TO THE TARIFF BILL REDUCING THE TARIFF ON BOOKS, JANUARY 24, 1867.

The Senate having under consideration the bill to provide increased revenue from imports, Mr. Edmunds, of Vermont, moved to retain the following articles on the free list:--

“Books, maps, charts, and other printed matter, specially imported in good faith for any public library or society, incorporated or established for philosophical, literary, or religious purposes, or for the encouragement of the fine arts.”

Mr. Sumner said:--

MR. PRESIDENT,--By the existing law, public libraries and literary societies receive books, maps, charts, and engravings free of duty. It is now proposed to change the law, so that public libraries and literary societies shall no longer receive books, maps, charts, and engravings free of duty. It is a little curious that the present moment is seized for this important change, which I must call retrogressive in character. It seems like going back to the Dark Ages. We made no such change during the war. We went through all its terrible trials and the consequent taxation without any such attempt. Now that peace has come, and we are considering how to mitigate taxation, it is proposed to add this new tax.

MR. HENDRICKS. Will the Senator allow me to ask whether he regards this bill as a mitigation of the taxes upon goods brought from foreign countries?

MR. SUMNER. I am not discussing the bill as a general measure.

MR. HENDRICKS. I thought the Senator spoke of the present effort to mitigate taxation.

MR. SUMNER. I believe I am not wrong, when I say there is everywhere a disposition to reduce taxation, whether on foreign or domestic articles. Such is the desire of the country and the irresistible tendency of things. But what must be the astonishment, when it appears, that, instead of reducing a tax on knowledge, you augment it!

I insist, that, in imposing this duty, you not only change the existing law, but you depart from the standing policy of republican institutions. Everywhere we have education at the public expense. The first form is in the public school, open to all. But the public library is the complement or supplement of the public school. As well impose a tax on the public school as on the public library.

I doubt if the Senate is fully aware of the number of public libraries springing into existence. This is a characteristic of our times. Nor is it peculiar to our country. Down to a recent day, public libraries were chiefly collegiate. In Europe they were collegiate or conventual. There were no libraries of the people. But such libraries are now appearing in England and in France. Every considerable place or centre has its library for the benefit of the neighborhood. But this movement, like every liberal tendency, is more marked in the United States. Here public libraries are coming into being without number. The Public Library of Boston and the Astor Library of New York are magnificent examples, which smaller towns are emulating. In my own State there are public libraries in Lowell, Newburyport, New Bedford, Worcester, Springfield,--indeed, I might almost say in every considerable town. But Massachusetts is not alone. Public libraries are springing up in all the Northern States. They are now extending like a belt of light across the country. They are a new Zodiac, in which knowledge travels with the sun from east to west. Of course these are all for the public good. They are public schools, where every book is a schoolmaster. To tax such institutions now, for the first time, is a new form of that old enemy, a “tax on knowledge.” Such is my sense of their supreme value that I would offer them bounties rather than taxes.

In continuation of this same hospitality to knowledge, I wish to go still further, and relieve imported books of all taxes, so far as not inconsistent with interests already embarked in the book business. For instance, let all books, maps, charts, and engravings printed before 1840 take their place on the free list. Publications before that time cannot come in competition with any interests here. The revenue they afford will be unimportant. The tax you impose adds to the burdens of scholars and professional men who need them. And yet every one of these books, when once imported, is a positive advantage to the country, by which knowledge is extended and the public taste improved. I would not claim too much for these instructive strangers belonging to another generation. I think I do not err in asking for them a generous welcome. But, above all, do not tax them.

It is sometimes said that we tax food and clothes, therefore we must tax books. I regret that food or clothes are taxed, because the tax presses upon the poor. But this is no reason for any additional tax. Reduce all such taxes, rather than add to them. But you will not fail to remember the essential difference between these taxes. In New England education from the beginning was at the public expense; and this has been for some time substantially the policy of the whole country, except so far as it was darkened by Slavery. Therefore I insist, that, because we tax food and clothes for the body, this is no reason why we should tax food and clothes for the mind.

The question, being taken by yeas and nays, resulted,--Yeas 22, Nays 13; so the amendment was adopted.

Mr. Sumner then moved to exempt “maps, charts, and engravings executed prior to 1840.” He said that this amendment was naturally associated with that on which the Senate had just acted; that there could be no competition with anything at home.

In reply to Mr. Williams, of Oregon, Mr. Sumner again spoke.

MR. PRESIDENT,--There is no question of the exemption of those who are best able to pay these duties; it is simply a question of a tax on knowledge. The Senator by his system would shut these out from the country, and would say, “Hail to darkness!” I do not wish to repeat what I have so often said; but the argument of the Senator has been made here again and again, and heretofore, as often as made, I have undertaken to answer it. He says we put a tax on necessaries now,--on the food that fills the body, on the garments that clothe the body. I regret that we do. I wish we were in a condition to relieve the country of such taxation. But does not the Senator bear in mind that he proposes to go further, and to depart from the great principle governing our institutions from the beginning of our history? We have had education free: in other words, we have undertaken to fill the mind and to clothe the mind at the public expense. We never did undertake to fill the body or to clothe the body at the public expense. Sir, as a lover of my race, I should be glad, could the country have clothed the body and filled the body at the public expense. I should be glad, had society been in such a condition that this vision could be accomplished; but we all know that it is not, and I content myself with something much simpler and more practical. I would aim to establish the principle which seems to have governed our fathers, and which is so congenial with republican institutions, that education and knowledge, so far as practicable, shall be free.

To make education and knowledge free, you must, so far as possible, relieve all books from taxation. I have already said that I did not propose to interfere with any of the practical interests of the book trade; but, where those interests are out of the way, I insist that the great principle of republican institutions should be applied. This is my answer to the Senator from Oregon. I fear he has not adequately considered the question. He has not brought to it that knowledge, that judgment, which always command my respect, as often as he addresses the Senate. He seems to have spoken hastily. I hope that he will withdraw, or at least relax, his opposition, and, revolving the subject hereafter, range himself, as he must, with his large intelligence, on the side of human knowledge.

Then, again, in reply to Mr. Conness, of California, Mr. Sumner remarked:--

It is because I hearken to the needs of my country that I make this proposition. I am not to be led aside by the picture of other necessities. I respect all the necessities of the people; but among the foremost are those of public instruction, and it is of those I am a humble representative on this floor. The Senator from California may, if he chooses, treat that representation with levity; he may announce himself an opponent of the policy which I would establish for my country; he may set himself against what I insist is a fundamental principle of republican institutions, that knowledge should not be taxed; he may go forth and ask for taxation on books and on public libraries, and, if he chooses, carry the principle still further, and tax the public school. He will then be consistent with himself. I hope that he will allow me to speak for what I believe the true need of the country.

The motion to exempt maps, charts, and engravings was rejected.

Mr. Sumner then moved to place on the free list “books printed prior to 1840.” It being objected, that “the duty as already laid was very low, only 15 per cent.,”--that “we have to look to revenue,”--and that it was desirable “to have all the interests of the country taxed,”--Mr. Sumner replied:--

Every argument for making the duty low is equally strong against having any duty on the subject. There is no reason that could have influenced the Committee in favor of reducing the duty which is not equally strong in favor of removing the duty. The Senator declares that the object is revenue. But the revenue that will come from this source is very small; it is not large enough to compensate for the mischief it will cause. Sir, I believe all the conclusions of the best experienced in taxation are, that we should seek as much as possible to diminish the objects of taxation. Just in proportion as nations become experienced in imposing taxes do they limit the objects to which the taxes are applied. It seems to me we are strangely insensible to that lesson of history. We seem to be groping about and seizing hold of every little object, every filament, if I may so express myself, which we can grasp, in order to drag it into the sphere of taxation.

I think we should be better employed, if we declined to tax a large number of articles which it is proposed to tax, and brought our taxation to bear on a few important articles, which we should make contribute substantially to the resources of the country. The tax that is now proposed will contribute nothing of any real substance to the resources of the country, while to my view it is not creditable. I say it frankly, it is not creditable to the civilization of our age, and least of all is it creditable to the civilization of a republic.

Such is my conviction. As often as I have thought of this question, I cannot see it in any other light; and I do think that money derived from a tax on books can be vindicated only on the principle of the Roman emperor, “Money from any quarter, no matter what, for money does not smell.”[82] Now it were better, if, instead of hunting up these several articles for taxation, running them down like game, to bag them in the public treasury, we should confine ourselves to the great subjects, and make them productive. There are enough of them, and in this way we can have revenue enough. I would have all the revenue we want; but, having it, be hospitable to literature, to knowledge, to art; and now let me say, be hospitable to books, because through books you will obtain what you desire in literature, in knowledge, and in art.

Mr. Kirkwood, of Iowa, thought Mr. Sumner ought to be content with what was done. “If he gets the rate reduced from 25 to 15 per cent., when the taxes on everything we eat and wear are being raised 20, 30, 40, or 50 per cent., I think that he ought to be content.”

MR. SUMNER. Personally I am content with anything. I am trying to do what I think best for the people. I may be mistaken in my judgment; and when I see so many distinguished Senators so earnestly differing from me, I am led to call in question my conclusions; and yet considerable reflection and some experience in dealing with this question have always brought me more strongly than before to the same unalterable conclusion. I feel, that, in imposing this tax, you make a great mistake; because it is a bad example, and just to the extent of its influence keeps knowledge out of the country.

The motion of Mr. Sumner was rejected,--Yeas 5, Nays 32. Another motion by him, to exempt mathematical instruments and philosophical apparatus imported for societies, shared the same fate.

CHEAP COAL.

SPEECH IN THE SENATE, ON AN AMENDMENT TO THE TARIFF BILL, JANUARY 29, 1867.

January 29th, the Senate having under consideration the bill to provide increased revenue from imports, known as the Tariff Bill, Mr. Sumner moved the following:--

“On all bituminous coal mined and imported from any place not more than thirty degrees of longitude east of Washington, fifty cents per ton of twenty-eight bushels, eighty pounds to the bushel.”

The effect of this amendment would be to reduce the duty from $1.50 to 50 cents a ton.

MR. PRESIDENT,--The object of the amendment is to bring the bill back where it was at first. The Senate will remember that in committee a motion prevailed by which the duty of 50 cents per ton on the coal mentioned was raised to $1.50. I am at a loss to understand the precise object of this increased tax on coal. There are strong reasons against any tax on coal; and the reasons are stronger still against this increased tax. Its movers must have an object. What is it?

It seems that there are imported into the United States about 500,000 tons, being 350,000 from the British Provinces and 150,000 from Great Britain; and this coal is to be taxed at the rate of $1.50 a ton in gold. If the same amount of importation continued, this tax would yield $750,000 in gold,--a handsome addition to the revenue. But I am sure the tax is not imposed on this account. It is imposed with some vague hope of benefit to the coal interest. But here, as we look at it, we are mystified. Is it supposed that the price of coal throughout the country will be raised to this extent? The idea is monstrous. There are some 22,000,000 tons now produced, which, if raised in price according to this tax, will cost the country 33,000,000 gold dollars in addition to the present price. This might be advantageous to certain proprietors, but it must be damaging to the country. Nobody can expect this. The object, then, is something else. I will not say that it is merely to take advantage of the States that do not produce coal, for this would be sheer oppression. I suppose that it must be to exclude foreign coal, and to that extent open the market for domestic coal.