"After looking at these several commodities, then, we find that an article is needed which shall, as nearly as possible, combine the peculiar properties and advantages of all of them; one that can be cheaply and bountifully produced, and that may most readily be converted into clothing, having, at pleasure, the warmth of wool, or the elegance or lightness of silk or linen. Cotton we find to be just that article, combining in a most wonderful degree the advantages of wool, silk, and flax. The earth has one thousand million inhabitants, and each and every one of these need cotton. There is no exception. Not, indeed, that human beings cannot possibly exist without it, but their welfare and happiness are promoted by its use."

II. RESTRICTED CULTURE.

"While cotton is one of the greatest necessities of mankind, we find its successful culture confined to a very limited portion of the earth's surface. I say successful culture; for although it may be raised in India, Egypt, and other countries in similar latitudes, yet 'the quality is so inferior, the quantity to the acre so limited, and the labor so ineffective, that the countries in question do little more than supply their own wants.

"It is reserved to the States of the American Union lying in immediate proximity to the Gulf of Mexico to furnish the world with the article in such quantities, and of such quality, as to meet the general demand. The culture of the article began prior to the Revolution; but it did not become an article of foreign export till 1784, when eight bales were shipped to Liverpool. These were seized by the custom-house officers, on the ground that they could not be of American production."

III. INCREASE OF PRODUCTION AND ADVANCE OF PRICE.

"No very great extension of the cultivation of cotton was realized until 1792, when Eli Whitney invented the cotton-gin; but, from that moment, it increased with wonderful rapidity. The value of the export of cotton was,

"This amount, it will be observed, is over and above the amount consumed in the United States. The whole product in 1850 was 2,096,706 bales; in 1860, 4,669,770 bales. Mark especially the great increase from 1850 to 1860, of one hundred and thirty per

cent!

"But the more striking and noticeable fact is, that, while the production had increased at this enormous rate, the prices also had advanced twenty-five per cent. According to the financial report of 1861, the average price of cotton from 1840 to 1850 was but 8.2 cents per pound; while, from 1850 to 1860, the average price was 10.5 cents per pound, a difference, it will be seen, of a little

over twenty-five per cent.

"The difference between the value of the entire crop of cotton, including all consumed at home and exported, is still more remarkable. In 1850 it amounted to but $117,619,947; while, in 1860, it was $308,865,280, — showing an increase of value of nearly two hundred per cent, owing, of course, to the increase of quantity and the advance of price.

"Here, then, is the singular fact, unparalleled, perhaps, in the commercial history of the world, that, while the production was increasing at a rate so prodigious, the price was constantly advancing. This is contrary to all the ordinary laws of trade. As production increases, prices fall; but in this case, instead of a decline, we find a great advance of price."

Do not these facts and considerations show conclusively, that the United States have such advantages over all others in raising cotton that they may to a certain extent dictate the terms of sale? In just so far as this is true, might an export duty be laid which would fall entirely on the foreign consumer, without any injury to the American cotton-grower.

Suppose an export duty of five cents per pound. The superiority and desirableness of the American article are so great that it cannot be supposed the demand would be lessened in any appreciable degree. From what we have seen during the Rebellion, need we fear that the demand would be perceptibly curtailed? If not, then no damage would come to the grower; while a large revenue

would be secured by the government at the expense of the foreign consumer.

The whole cotton crop of 1860 was 4,669,770 bales, which, at 500 pounds to a bale, give a total of 2,334,500,000 pounds, which at five cents duty, or excise, would yield $116,725,000. To determine what rate of duty or excise should be laid must be a matter of experiment. If the rate were found too high, that is, so high as to reduce consumption, it should be lowered; or, if too low, it could be raised.

The immense extent to which the cultivation of cotton in the United States may and doubtless will be carried is shown by Edward Atkinson, Esq., of Boston, a most reliable statistician, in his map of the cotton kingdom; from which it appears that while the whole area within the United States adapted to profitable cotton culture is 666,196 square miles, only 10,888 are in actual use for that purpose, or but 1.634 per cent; that is, less than two per cent. He remarks, that, “with free labor, the capacity of the South to raise cotton cannot be less than one hundred million bales" against about four and a half millions in 1860; so that less than one-twentieth of the capacity of the country has yet been developed.

The principal point to be considered in regard to cotton, or any other domestic product, is whether an export or excise duty will essentially restrict the consumption of the article, either at home or abroad.

CHAPTER XII.

STATE TAXATION.

A GENERAL valuation of all real and personal property is made by the authority of the State, according to which all State taxes are apportioned to each county, city, or town. The municipal authorities then assess the amount allotted them upon the property and polls of their constituents, together with the amount required for city or town expenditures.

Thus all taxes, whether for State, city, town, or schooldistrict, are direct, and laid wholly on property, except the small amount of poll-taxes. There may be some slight variation in different States from the course we have stated; but it is quite unessential, and does not materially change the grand result.

The law makes it the duty of each person to furnish the assessors annually a true invoice of his estate, and to its correctness he may be required to make oath; and, if any person neglects or refuses to make such inventory, the assessors make one for him, according to their own judg

ment.

The rate of tax varies from year to year, and is widely different in different towns and cities. Before the Rebellion, the rate in Massachusetts was seldom less than sixty cents, or more than one hundred on a hundred dollars; but such have been the expenditures caused by the war, that few now have a rate less than one hundred, and some have been as high as three hundred and fifty, cents on the hundred dollars.

This tax, if the valuation be fairly made, approximates to justice and equality. It is assumed that every man's ability to pay is in proportion to the property he holds; that his revenue corresponds with his wealth. This may, or may

not, be true; and, as we shall have occasion to show, there are circumstances which disturb, to some extent, the equal operation of this tax.

And here we may notice some of the objections to this compound system of poll and property taxation. Poll-tax payers vote directly upon the public appropriations; yet they have no personal interest whatever in the amount of expenditures. No matter whether a proposal to expend money is wise and necessary, or frivolous and wasteful, the poll-tax payer can vote for it with entire impunity. It is nothing to him whether the sum be one thousand or ten thousand dollars. Indeed, the influence of poll-tax payers is often in favor of the most lavish expenditures. A new road, for example, is proposed in town meeting. It may be quite unnecessary, and ought not to be made; but the poll-tax payers, a large share of whom are laborers, will be immediately benefited by the demand that will be made for labor, and will be very likely to go in favor of it. It needs no argument to show the bad effects of such a state of things, regarded only in an economical point of view. If men may vote away money in the payment of which they have no interest, is it likely to be done to the advantage of the public interests? Is it not certain that there will be unwise and reckless expenditures?

This false position of the poll-tax payer has attracted the attention of those who are narrowly watching the effects of equality of suffrage without equality of taxation. The result of popular votes during the civil war, by which immense, and often quite unnecessary, burdens were imposed upon towns, has caused no small anxiety amongst those who have noticed the natural consequences of giving to a class numerous and powerful, at the ballot-box, the power to impose taxes upon the public, from which they are themselves exempt.

On the other hand, the poll-tax payer, while he contributes heavily towards the national expenditures through cus

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