The Northern Standard. (Clarksville, Tex.), Vol. 2, No. 10, Ed. 1, Saturday, January 13, 1844 Page: 2 of 4
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.The. Northern Standard.
CLARKS-VILLE
SA.TURDA.Y JANUARY 131844.
FOR PRESIDENT.
JOHN HEMPHILL
OF WASHINGTON.
FOR VICE PRESIDENT
WILLTAM E. JONES
OF GONZALES.
dr Exchequer bills received at par for subscrip-
tions in this District.
TEXAS PROMISSORY NOTES.
A few hundred dollars Texas Promissory Notes
will be received at this Office for subscriptions at
the rate of six per cent.
rtf3 To Correspondents. The com
pliraentary testimonial to the Corporation of
the City of Huncumpunc by a Country Gen-
tleman shall appear next week.
THE COLLECTION OF THE
TARIFF.
We consider the present a fitting time to
urge upon the attention of the Congress of
the Republic the inequality in the collection
of the Tariff by the operation of which the
worst citizens of the country are paid for dis-
obeying the laws and those who are disposed
to do their duty to the country are made in
addition to their own proper burthen to bear
that of the derelict class who are too mean to
pay but from whom in consequence of the pre-
sent inefficient system of collection it is never
demanded.
In this District where all the merchants
and all good citizens pay the duties on the
articles brought in by them there are others
who manage to conceal their importations
and who escape the duties because those who
may be cognizant of the introduction of the
articles are unwilling to create personal en
tity alid- pefLs tcyacquire the o:ousnHlie-
of informers or rrieddlers and choose rather
to bear the increased imposition inon them-
selves which results from the mean avoid
ance of a neighbor.
This is a state of things which should be
amended. It would be too expensive for the
end to be accomplished by it to establish such
a cordon of deputy collectors or customhouse
agents as would prevent or delect these in-
fractions of the law along zo extensive a line
and one so easily crossed ; the crossing being
merely the removal of articles from a boat
upon the river to the bank upon our side and
it can be much easier done by lequiringeach
citizen when he swears to his amount of pro-
perty subject to direct taxation to also swear
whether he has not imported dutiable articles
within twelve months previous into the Re-
public; at the same time having the collectors
keep vigilant watch to collect at other times
vrhen goods are introduced.
Let this be done and a list of those who
present their bills or invoices to the collector
be published quarterly by him in some news-
paper in his collectoral district of the Re-
public and a list also be published by the
Sheriff of those who hang back until the
sanctity of an oath forces them to perform
their duty and who thus show themselves
dead to all sense of honest patriotism and
we will answer for it. that the duties will be
more punctually and generally paid and that
there will be few willing to be held up to the
gaze of their fellow citizens and classed with
the laggards whose honesty is the result of
compulsion and not the free movement of
impulse or choice.
As it is the Tariff operates hardly upon all
honest men and good citizens and more par-
ticularly upon the merchant or the large
planter. Their importations are of conside-
rable amount too considerable to escape at-
tention. If they did not voluntarily come
forward with their invoices they would cer-
"VZS
tainjjfcbe waited upon by the collector and 1
thusnhe resident' merchant and indirectly all
who.. buy of-him pay their duties and pay
them with spme degree of piomptness while
the sneak whose mean impulses should be
controlled and restrained by the severe curb
of authority 'in escaping the duty which is
expected and obtained from the others actual-
ly receives a compensation for his meanness
if it may be called by so mild a name.
This is the state of things in this District
where a large proportion of the duties pro-
perly due are collected; but in others where
the law is set at open defiance and thecollec-
tors menaced with open violence if they at-
tempt to perform their duty it is much worse.
In the collectoral district next below this
and in the county ot Harrison of which we
have most knowledge we believe the execu-
tion of the law was resisted at the outset and
the attempt to collect has we believe been en-
tirely abandoned. If this is to remain so
and these men whose imported articles on
account of the difference of freight would
come to them much cheaper than to us even
if they would pay the duties are to be thus
favored by the government of the country it
would be well for us -so soon as it shall be
determined upon to equalize our condition
ourselves without looking to the action of an
inefficient government for relief. The acts
of this Congress will show whether the sub-
ject is defied worthy of consideration by
them. We understand that there are at Port
Caddo in Harrison county two heavy import
ing houses&that the proprietor of one ofthem
perhaps also the other has declared his rea-
diness to pay the duties at any lime when
called on. If this be so why is he not called
on at once? If it is not sot and he refuses to
pay surely a seizure cf his effects can be made
by the csHeeior. If the attempt is resisted
1eThim call upon the proper officers for mili-
tary support and if there are not in all that
county honest men enough to come forth to
the aid of the government there certainly are
in some others. Nothing but a want of ener-
getic action has prevented the collection of
these duties to this time. The agency of the
law was invoked in that county at the last
session of the District Court and it was found
that its strong arm had been paralyzed by
avarice and that the sanctity of the Juror's
oath was not sufficient to ensure the perform-
ance of a Juror's duty with such men; and
then the ultima ratio regzirn was the power
which should have been brought to bear if
circumstances rendered it necessary; that is.
if there was a continued refusal to pay. and a
show of resistance to the proper authority.
This is what we have to say about this
matter. It may be considered by those who
never suffer their reasoning powers to find a
terminus too strong doctrine but our reason
fails to show us why honest men and good
citizens should be made hewers of wood and
drawers of water to the drones who would
suck the sweets of the hive and gather none;
or in plainer terms those who receive the
protection of the government and pay noth-
ing towards its support ; and we believe we
speak the sentiments of nearly very body
about us.
A suggestion has been made to us by a
friend relative to this matter which we think
would have a most excellent effect if put in
execution. He suggests that a statute be
passed requiring every one who applies to
the General Land Office for a rjatent for land
to swear before it is granted that he or she
is not indebted to the government for impost
duties; which we would amend so as to rend
"impost or any other dues."
PRESIDENT HOUSTON'S SPEECH.
In our two last numbers our readers have
probably noticed extracts from a spacch late
ly delivered by the President at the city of
Houston. The extracts were obtained from
New Orleans papers. The speech entire
we have never seen not having had any pa
pers from the interior published since its de
livery In reading over a day or two since
the extracts vhich appeared in our last we
were struck with the want or ordinary infor-
mation which they denoted and the gross
inconsistency shown by relative portions of
the same paragraph. The whole production
must be a choice morceau if the portions we
have had indicate its general character. In
that which we published last week" it will be
seen that the Executive of the Republic lets
himself down to a petty controversy with the
Editor of the Telegraph and indulges in lit-
tle personalities when adverting to his edito-
rials. We are sorry for the President if he
has had to take this portion of his business
out of the hands of the Vindicator though
true enough that organ was as awkward and
unskilful as well might be in the perform-
ance of its part rather disgusting by its coarse-
ness than convincing by its force of argu
ment. We suppose however the Knight of
the Rod had so long used hard raps in the
government of his little dominion of the school
room and the boys had stood about in such
terror of his blows that he had lost the recol-
lection of any other way to convince the mind.
At any rate certain it is that whatever might
be the cause his system of logic did not an-
swer the end intended and so we suppose the
head of the Government of the Republic felt
himself constrained to enter into a controver-
sy of personal badinage which we should
think rather undignified.
The parts we n.fer to as evincing want
of information are contained in the second
paragraph of our extract of last week and
begin with the first sentence which says:
" I question very much my friends whether
England would have us if she could get us;"
and which ia repeated in a more positive
manner in the last sentence but one of the
next paragraph as follows viz : "England
don't want you in my opinion gentlemen !"
&c. In the same paragraph with the first
quoted sentence he goes on to say :
" The superior quality of our productions
and the advantages that England in tght derive
from us in various ways are strong induce-
ments to her to lend us her aid at this junc-
ture; notwithstanding the opposition of the
fanatics who clamor for the universal abolition
of slavery."
This is true but it disagrees with the first
opinion; for if the superior quality of our pro-
ductions and the advantages thatmicht bede-
rived from us in various way are strong in-
ducements lo her to lend us her aid at this
juncture without hope of other profit th.in
might be derived from the character of those
productions or favorable treaty stipulations
subject to revocation at any time how much
more desirable to her is it to obtain posses-
sion if she can of such a country and have
the permanent control and profit ot her re-
sources. The compliment conveyed to the
people whom he represents br the remark
that England "has a great many mischievous
and unruly subject's to govern already; and
if she had Texas in addition she would be
glad to get rid of us" is one which at least
would have como more appropriately from
another source.
The President next says:
" To my mind it is clear that England does
not care about the abolition of slaver'. She
has destroyed her West India possessions by
its abolition there ; and she knows very well
that a slave population will develope the re-
sources of a new country in one-eighth of the
time it would take by free labor."
Here again is a contradiction and a weak
deduction for he himself states the fact that
she hns destroyed the prosperity of her West
India possessions to carry out this abstract
principle so detrimental to her interest and
he produces no evidence that' she haafe-
pented of it and cannot .produce any; and
how any man can see the evidences of
the strong sustained and continued move-
ments made in Great Britain upon this sub-
ject efforts enlisting the support of all from
the peer to the peasant can see the continued
conventions the means expended the inte-
rest at all times avowed by the high officers
of the crown and nearly every influential
man in the government the minister for
foreign affairs not long since having gone so
far as to press enquiries of the practicability
of abolition in Turkey through the diploma-
tic representative of the United Kingdom at
that court even O'Connell stepping aside
from the furtherance of his one great object
of repeal and denouncing the pecuniary
contributions which came from the slave-
holders as accursed and "blood bought;"
and yet think that "England does not cart
about the abolition of slavery; we were
about to say; is strange. But it is not.
it is common for men to sav things which
will not bear examination and test; but such
men are not in our opinion great men.
As to the last link of the sentence which
says "that she knows well that a slave
population will develope the resources of a
new country in one-eighth of the lime it
would take by free labor" we assume the
responsibwity of saying that it is preposte-
rous and to sustain our position we will
merely point to the North and South of
the United States. Which portion has been
most rapidly developed ? Which is richest
in tangible property ? Where is land worth
the most; and in which is there the great-
est perfection of natural resources; the great-
est improvement of domestic comforts; the
greatest active ciiculation of money? We
will take the richest and the oldest of the
Southern States and compare them with
the improvements of the last 20 yf ars in Penn-
sylvania Ohio New York or Massachusetts
and where are they? Far far behind. Let
us not be misunderstood .ve believe the pre-
sent employment of slave labor profitable in
extensive portions of this country; but wo
deny the principle as a whole that slave la-
bor will develope the resources of a new
country in one-eighth the time that it would
take by free labor and we can maintain
our denial at any time.
When the President speaks of the Abo-
litionists as "men who have accumulated
one-half their fortune m the African slave
trade who sinned against high heaven un-
til they feared to call down its just ven-
geance uoon their heads ana then bethought
themselves that some atonement must be
made to appease the Great Author of reli-
gion and virtue. Hence it was that they
became fanatics and 'all the world must
be freeU" he descends from the high posi-
tion of the Executive of a nation speaking
calmly and truly to the people of a sect
jf fanatics of whom the exposition of the
tru'h is a sufficient condemnation ; to the
utterance of a mere clap-trap tirade in
which every reader of intelligence knows
the truth is not stated; for miserably fool-
ish meddlesome and short-sighted as these
people- are; much as they are deceived ex-
cited and misled and harshly injurious as
their policy is to the integrity and perpe-
tuity of the American Union and to the
prosperity and value cf the British West
India colonies: still it is not truo speaking
of them as a class that they accumulated
one-half their fortunes in the African slave -slave
trade nor is it probable that there
are fifty individuals of the many thousands
who clamor for the abolition of slavery
who were ever engaged in the slave trade.
The number of years which have elapsed
since that trade was allowed by America
or England and the fact that since its dis-
allowance none but desperadoes have been
engaged in it rendeis it improbable. The
folly of making' false charges against a
sect who labor with a sort of religious
enthusiasm for the attainment of a pnnci-
dIc should be obvious to everv man of
any pretension to intellect. It strengthens'
instead of weaicening the assailed.
The President in the course of his ha-
rangue which seems to be about things in ge
neral makes over again his oft repeated state-
ment about the volunteers from the United
States who came over at our earnest appeal
in fne spring of 1842; and whom he disgrace
fully mistreated and then officially abused
and slandered and tvhe went home creating
in others and spreading far and wide the sen
timent of disgust which his grossly unhand-
i
. j
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De Morse, Charles. The Northern Standard. (Clarksville, Tex.), Vol. 2, No. 10, Ed. 1, Saturday, January 13, 1844, newspaper, January 13, 1844; Clarksville, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth80510/m1/2/: accessed May 6, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting The Dolph Briscoe Center for American History.