d by subsequent
laws, the duties doubled and in some cases trebled. Internal taxes,
yielding twofold the amount collected from customs, were levied,
and cheerfully paid, and duties on imported goods were quickly
increased. The details of this act became the victim of the war,
but the general principles upon which it was founded, the application
of specific duties where possible, and the careful protection
extended to the products of the soil and the mine, as well as of
the workshop, have been maintained to a greater or less extent
until the present time.

I have participated in framing many tariff bills, but have never
succeeded in securing one that I entirely approved. The Morrill
tariff bill came nearer than any other to meeting the double
requirement of providing ample revenue for the support of the
government and of rendering the proper protection to home industries.
No national taxes, except duties on imported goods, were imposed
at the time of its passage. The Civil War changed all this, reducing
importations and adding tenfold to the revenue required. The
government was justified in increasing existing rates of duty, and
in adding to the dutiable list all articles imported, thus including
articles of prime necessity and universal use. In addition to
these duties, it was compelled to add taxes on all articles of home
production, on incomes not required for the supply of actual wants,
and, especially, on articles of doubtful necessity, such as sprits,
tobacco and beer. These taxes were absolutely required to meet
expenditures for the army and navy, for the interest on the war
debts and just pensions to those who were disabled by the war, and
to their widows and orphans.

These conditions have, in a measure, been fulfilled. The war is
over; the public debt has been diminished to one-third of the amount
due at the close of the war. The pension list is the chief and
almost only outstanding obligation growing out of the war, but this
is fully met by internal taxes on spirits, tobacco and beer. What
is needed now is a tariff or tax on imported goods sufficient in
amount to meet the current expenditures of the government, and
which at the same time will tend to encourage the production in
this country of all articles, whether of the farm, the mine or the
workshop, that can be readily and at reasonable cost produced in
this country.

And here we meet the difficulty that the mode, extent, manner and
objects