CASTING VOTE 
 
 VICE-PRESIDENT DALLAS 
 
 THE TARIFF OF 1846. 
 
 ' The Vice-President of the United Slates shall be President of the Senate, but 
 shall have no vote unless they be equally divided.”— Constitution, art. 1. 
 Sect. 3, par. 4. 
 
 ‘ When the Senate are equally divided, the Secretary shall take the decision of 
 the President.”—fJafo of the Senate, No. 21. , 
 
 PHILADELPHIA.- 
 
 PUBLISHED AT THE OFFICE OF THE “DAILY KEYSTONE.” 
 
VOTE IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. 
 
 And the main question “ Shall this bill pass 1” was taken and de¬ 
 cided in the affirmative as follows; 
 
 YEAS—Messrs. Stephen Adams, Anderson, Atkinson, Bayly,Bed- 
 inger, Benton, Biggs, James A. Black, Bowlin, Boyd, Brinkerhoff, 
 Brockenbrough, William G. Brown, Burt, Cathcart, Augustus A, 
 Chapman, Reuben Chapman, Chase, Chipman, Clarke, Cobb, Collin, 
 Cullom, Cunningham, Daniel, Dargan, .Tefferson Davis, De Mott, 
 Dobbin, Douglass, Dromgoole, Dunlap, Ellsworth, Faran, Ficklin, 
 Fries, Giles, Goodyear, Gordon, Grover, Hamlin, Haralson, Harman- 
 son, Henley, Hilliard, Hoge, Isaac E. Holmes, Hopkins, Hough, 
 George S. Houston, Edmund W. Hubard, James B. Hunt, Hunter; 
 James H. Johnson, Joseph Johnson, Andrew Johnson, George W. 
 Jones, Seaborn Jones, Kaufman, Kennedy, Preston King, Lawrence, 
 Leake, La Sere, Lumpkin, Maelay, McClelland, McClernand, Mc¬ 
 Connell, McCrale, Joseph J. McDowell, James McDowell, McKay, 
 John P. Martin, Barclay Martin, Morris, Morse, Moulton, Niven, 
 Norris, Parish, Payne, Perrill, Phelps, Pillsbury, Eatbbun, Reid, 
 Eelfe, Rhett, Roberts, Sawtelle, Sawyer, Scammon, Seddon, Alexan¬ 
 der D. Sims, Leonard H. Sims, Simpson, Thomas Smith, Robert 
 Smith, Stanton, Starkweather, St. John, Strong, Jacob Thompson, 
 Thurman, Tibbatts, Towns, Tredway, Wick, Williams, Wilmot, 
 Wood, Woodward and Yancey—114. 
 
 NAYS—Messrs. Abbott, John Quincy Adams, Arnold, Ashman, 
 Barringer, Bell, James Black, Blanchard, Brqdhead, Milton Brown, 
 Buffington, William W. Campbell, John H. Campbell, Carroll, 
 Cocke, Collamer, Cranston, Crosier, Culver, Dnrragh, Garrett Davis, 
 Delano, Dixon, Dockery, Edsall, Erdman, John 11. Ewing, Edwin 
 H. Ewing, Foot, Foster, Garvin, Gentry, Giddings, Graham, Grider, 
 Grinnell, Hampton, Harper, Elias B. Holmes, John W. Houston, 
 Samuel B. Hubbard, Hudson, Hungerford, Washington Hunt, Charles 
 J. Ingersoll, Joseph R. Ingersoll, Jenkins, Daniel P. King, Leib, Lew¬ 
 is, Levin, Long, McClean, McGaughey, McHenry, Mcllvaine, Marsh, 
 Miller, Moseley, Pendleton, Perry, Pollock, Ramsey, Ritter, Julius 
 Rockwell, John A. Rockwell, Root, Runk, Russell, Schenck, Sea¬ 
 man, Severance, Truman Smith, Albert Smith, Caleb B; Smith, Ste¬ 
 phens, Stewart, Strohm, Sykes, Thibodeaux, Thomasson, Benjamin 
 Thompson, James Thompson, Tilden, Tombs, Trumbo, Vance, Vin¬ 
 ton, Wheaton, White, Winthrop, Woodruff, Wright, Youna: and 
 Yost-9.5. 
 
 VOTE IN THE SENATE. 
 
 Calls of “ Question on the Engrossment.’’ 
 
 The yeas and nays were then called upon ordering the amendment 
 to be engrossed and the bill to a third reading, and resulted yeas 27, 
 nays 27, as follows, viz.: 
 
 YEAS—Messrs. Allen, Ashley, Atchison, Atherton, Bagby, Ben¬ 
 ton, Breese, Bright, Calhoun, Cass, Chalmers, Colquitt, Dickinson, 
 Dix, Fairfield, Hannegan, Houston, Lewis, McDuffie, Pennybacker, 
 Rusk, Semple, Sevier, Speight, Turney, Westcottand Yulee—27. 
 
 NAYS—Messrs. Archer, Barrow, Bejrien, Cameron, Cilley, Thos. 
 Clayton, J. M. Clayton, Corwin, Crittenden, Davis, Dayton, Evans, 
 Greene, Huntington, Johnson of Louisiana, Johnson of Maryland, 
 Mangum, Miller, Morehead, Niles, Pearce, Phelps, Simmons, Stur¬ 
 geon, Upham, Webster and Woodbridge—27. 
 
 So there was a tic vote. ~ 
 
No. I. 
 
 REMARKS OF GEORGE M. DALLAS. 
 
 The following are the remarks of Mr. Dallas, made in the United 
 States Senate, July 28, in stating his reasons for giving the c.iisting 
 vote of the Vice President, in favor of ordering the Taiiff Bill to a 
 third reading. 
 
 The Senate being equally divided on this important question, I may 
 be indulged in briefly stating the principal reasons for the vote I am 
 required by the Constitution to give. 
 
 Excluded from any participation in forming or modifying the bill, 
 I am bound to sanction or condemn it in exactly the shape in which 
 it stands. The responsibility is deeply felt. It belongs, however, to 
 the office assigned to me by my fellow citizens, and will be assumed 
 with frankness, and 1 hope not unbecoming firmness. 'The conse¬ 
 quences of ray decision either way’may seriously affect the country. 
 No one can entertain, as to that, a profounder solicitude. But after 
 summoning to my aid the best purposes and best lights that I can 
 command, the consequences, be what they may, must be hazarded. 
 
 The system for obtaining tlie revenue necessary to support their 
 government is established, directly or indirectly, by the people of the 
 IJnited States, within the limits, and agreeably to the prescribed 
 ibrms of the Constitution. Whatever is ascertained to be their will 
 on the subject, all should undoubtedly acquiesce in.—That there are 
 known and approved modes by which their will is expressed, cannot 
 be questioned; and the public officer who reads that will with can¬ 
 dor and integrity may feel assured that he conforms to the institu¬ 
 tions of his country rvhen he makes it the guide of his conduct. 
 
 To my mind ample proof has been furnished that a majority of the 
 States desire to change, to a great extent, in principle, if not funda¬ 
 mentally, the system heretofore pursued in assessing the duties on 
 foreign imports. That majority has manifested itself in various 
 ways, and is attested by its representatives in the other House of 
 Congress, by whom this bill has been approved, and whose votes un¬ 
 deniably indicate the popular sense in the large proportion of eigh¬ 
 teen out of the twenty-eight States. In this Senate an analysis of the 
 vote before me discloses that, while six States (Ohio, Virginia, New 
 Hampshire, Georgia, Michigan and Maine,) are equally divided, 
 eleven, (Louisiana, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Kentucky, Massachu¬ 
 setts, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Maryland, North 
 Carolina, and Vermont,) are against, and eleven, (Arkansas, Missouri, 
 Alabama, Illinois, Indiana, South Carolina, Mississippi, New York, 
 Texas, Tennessee, and Florida,) are for the change. Peculiarly situa¬ 
 ted as I am in my relation to the national legislature, these impres¬ 
 sive facts cannot be overlooked. In a case free from Constitutional 
 objection, I could not justifiably counteract, by a sort of official veto, 
 the general will. 
 
The struggle to exert, without abatement, the Constitutional power 
 of taxation, in such a manner as to protect by high duties on imports 
 many of the productions of our own soil and labor from the compe¬ 
 tition of other countries, has endured for more than thirty years. 
 During that period a system of high taxation has prevailed, with fluc¬ 
 tuations of success and failure. It is as vigorously and as earnestly 
 insisted upon now as ever; and indeed it would seem, in some in¬ 
 stances, as if the longer the advantage of a particular tax was en¬ 
 joyed, the stronger became the desire for its continuance, and even 
 its augmentation. And yet it ought to be remembered that this ex¬ 
 ercise of the taxing power, by which the great mass of consumers 
 are made to stveli the profits of a few branches of industry, was 
 originally intended to be temporary, to be continued only so long as 
 its continuance was necessary to the industrial independence and 
 safety of the whole people. Such was the language, the inculcation, 
 the spirit, in which it was proposed and justified by its earliest and 
 wisest friends. The design was to fos'er feeble ‘infant’ manufactures, 
 especially such as were essential to the defence of the country in 
 time of war. In this design the people have persevered until, with 
 some, but not weighty exceptions, these saplings have taken deep 
 root, have become vigorous, expanded and powerful, and are prepared 
 to share the common lot of human pursuits, and to enter with confi¬ 
 dence the field of free, fair, and universal competition. 
 
 The arrival of this period of time, long promised, has been anxious¬ 
 ly looked for by a large and justly respected" portion of our fellow 
 citizens, who deemed themselves peculiar and almost exclusive suf¬ 
 ferers by a policy of protection. They have sometimes—perhaps 
 imprudently—endeavored to anticipate it. Their numbers, at first 
 entitled to influence only from their patriotism and intelligence, have 
 gone on gradually increasing as the system ripened to its fruit, and 
 they now constitute what I am bound by registered facts to regard 
 as a decided majority of the people of the Union. 
 
 It is undoubtedly true that this change of financial arrangement, 
 brought about by public opinion, ‘which everywhere ought to guide 
 and influence statesmen,’should, iieveitheless, be characterized by 
 moderation, nay by scrupulous tenderness fir those interests of our 
 fellow citizens that are to be affected by it. The legislation which 
 encouraged their investments, should cease, finally and firmly, if re¬ 
 quired, but soothingly and gently ; and hence I may be pardoned for 
 expressing a regret that certain provisions which, in their bearing, 
 seem to me trenchant and sudden beyond the call of the occasion, 
 have been allowed to remain as parts of this bill. 
 
 Were it in m 3 - power to cxcefit these provisions from the operation 
 of my vote, I would do so : but viewed as a whole, as a measure to 
 accommodate a vast and intricate subject to the previiiling sentiments 
 of the American people, to reduce the burdens necessarily imposed 
 upon the laboring and productive masses, and to reconcile diminished 
 restriction of trade with increased contributions from it, I cannot re¬ 
 sist the impression that the bill is more equal, moi'e tempered, and 
 more just than the act of 1842, which it supercedes. That it deals 
 with some pursuits and resources of my native commonwealth less 
 kindly than she might well expect, does not relieve mo from my 
 
duty, but only makes its perfortnance personally reluctant and 
 painArl. 
 
 In aid of these considerations, adequate, perhaps, in themselves, to 
 control my vote, there is another which, I am free to confess, nothing 
 but an unforseen, sheer, and pressing public necessity could ever in¬ 
 duce me to forego or forget. In strict concord with the letter and 
 spirit of the Constitution, the Vice President of the United States, now 
 called upon to act, is the direct agent and representative of the whole 
 people. 
 
 In advance, and dependent upon contingent results, it is perfectly 
 competent to this, his national constituency, to give instructions, and 
 to receive pledges for their execution. On- this identical sub ject of a 
 tariff of duties on imports, whatever may have been the course of lo¬ 
 cal and casual inconsistency, my own honor can admit of no dis¬ 
 claimer of instructions that were formally announced, and my own 
 good faith stands inviolable to a pledge voluntarily given. If by thus 
 acting, it be my misfortune to offend any portion of those who hon¬ 
 ored me with their suffi'ages, I have only to say to them, and to my 
 whole country, that I prefer the doe])est obscurity of private life, 
 with an unwounded conscience, to the glare of official eminence, 
 spotted by a sense of moral delinquency. 
 
 No. ir. 
 
 WAsntxGTON, August 1, 184.(). 
 
 Gentlemen—Yom letter dated the 20th of July, numerously sign¬ 
 ed by my neighbours and friends, is entitled to the c.xpression of my 
 grateful acknowledgments. 
 
 The casting vote given by the Vice-President, in the Senate of the 
 United States, on the 2Sth of July, in favor of the Act of Congress 
 to reduce the duties on imports, and of wdiich you speak in terms of 
 warm approbation, was a simple and unavoidable act of official duty. 
 Every principle of public conduct upon which, from early youth, I 
 have ever acted, every moral dictate of a calmly consulted conscience, 
 and every view my mind could lake of the best and broadest intere.sts 
 of my whole country, as they were to be affected by the question 
 submitted for decision, demanded that vote. Not to have been called 
 upon to give it would have gratified me; but when exacted by the 
 Constitution, in the office whose functions were assigned to me by the 
 American people, to have cowered and hesitated before the states¬ 
 men and patriots in whose presence I stood, or any where, would 
 have been a sort of self-debasement and degradation to which no 
 earthly consideration can allure me. I gave that vote because not 
 to have given it, would wound my conscience, wound my self-re- 
 spet, wound my principles, and incurably wound my country. I 
 claim no praise for it; the fact that it had an appearance of unkind¬ 
 ness towards many of the community among whom I was born and 
 have long toiled, made it painful; but it belonged to the place, was 
 evoked by circumstances, and became inevitable* 
 
 It was inevitable, if for no other reason, because I had openly, in 
 the face and to the knowledge of the whole country, at the moment 
 1 consented to be a candidate for tlie Vice-Presidency, promised it to 
 
8 
 
 the majority of the people who should elect mo. I had assented to 
 tlie cond.tions or instructions of the canvass of 1844—assented in 
 writing—and that assent had been disseminated wherever the demo¬ 
 cratic press could penetrate. I did so more than once and having done 
 so,scrupulouslyand rigorously abstained from participating in the elec¬ 
 tion. On no public occasion did it become necessary or proper for 
 me even to allude to the topic of a Tariff. The Presidential candi¬ 
 date, Ml" Polk, in his letter to our townsman, Mr. Kane, very proper¬ 
 ly took his own particular course. I had no course to take about it, 
 having given a comprehensive pledge to abide by the sense of a ma¬ 
 jority, aud the matter of a Tariff being expressly and emphatically 
 involved in the binding resolutions of those who, without the slightest 
 knowledge, or expectation, or desire on my part, proffered the nomina¬ 
 tion for my acceptance. As good faith with public men cannot be 
 dispensed with, and is not to be evaded by sophistries, the people, as 
 well south as north, ivest as east, having taken me at my word and 
 elected me, I have fulfilled the pledge. I should have felt covered 
 with dishonor as with a garment, had 1 done otherwise. 
 
 The two interests of Pennsylvania, about which much anxiety was 
 manifested, the iron, and coal interests, will not, I sincerely hope and 
 believ^, experience the injuries foretold. But, is it possible that our 
 upright Commonwealth can for one moment demand that an officer, 
 elected by the suffrages of all the twenty-eight States, and bound by 
 his oath and every Constitutional obligation faithfully and fairly to 
 represent, in the execution of his high trust, all the citizens of all the 
 Union, should narrow his great sphere and act with reference only 
 to her peculiar wishes ? To inculcate such a doctrine to Pennsyl¬ 
 vania, is something more than useless ; it is derogatory to her. The 
 pages of her history are crowded with proofs that she perfectly un¬ 
 derstands the Federal Constitution, from which and through which 
 she claims to derive no benefit which she is not willing to share 
 equally with any member of the confederacy. To bind or bend a 
 President or Vice President to disregard the general will, and the ob¬ 
 jects of national policy, in order to subserve exclusively her special 
 and her local policy, would manifest, in my humble judgment, a de¬ 
 generacy of sentiment to which Pennsylvania never has descended, 
 and never can descend. 
 
 It is bare justice to the feelings of some of you, and of many much 
 esteemed neighbors and political opponents, to say, without claiming 
 for it the slightest merit, that in the powerless position prescribed by 
 the Constitution to the Vice President, as regards matters of legisla¬ 
 tion, I omitted no effort which personal intercourse and conversation 
 enabled me to make, with a view to bring about such changes and 
 modifications in the bill as would, compatibly with the paramount 
 purpose of the people, soften its apparent rigors. These efforts failed, 
 failed from causes over which I had no control, and of which I have 
 no right to complain; and having failed, it would be useless, if not 
 wrong, to detail them. They are adverted to only as an assinance 
 that, personally I would do any thing honorable and fair to shield a 
 friend or associate from unnecessary harm, while officially, I must and 
 will do my duty with an undiscriminating inflexibility. 
 
 It is not my desire, in this letter of acknowdedgement, to vindicate 
 
9 
 
 the new and enlarged system of commercial inlercourse which the 
 American people have determined to enter upon. Towards that system, 
 however, no observing man can avoid seeing that all Christendom, as if 
 by simultaneous impulse, is rapidly tending. It is the offspring of 
 e-xpanding liberty and prolonged peace; and I leel such unwavering 
 confidence in the enterprise, skill, spirit, hardihood, and perseverance 
 of my countrymen, that I cannot doubt, howercr severe the sacrifice 
 involved in a beginning may be, that the end of a generous and uni¬ 
 versal competition must be their triumph over all the rest of the 
 world. I am, truly and respectfully, your fellow citizen and friend, 
 GEORGE M. DALLAS. 
 
 To Athanasius Ford, George Guier, Richard Peltz, John Hentz, 
 Wm. W. Weeks, and others, Philadelphia. 
 
 No. III. 
 
 Waurekton Spria'gs, Ya., 17th .4ugust, 184.6, 
 
 Gentlejiex :—1 have received with unalloyed pleasure the letter 
 of the 8th instant which you wore good enough to address to me, 
 and at the close of which you invito mo, in the name of the un¬ 
 bending Republicans of Washington county, !V1d., to partake of a public 
 dinner at Hagerstown some time in the course of September nest. 
 Permit me to return my cordial thaidrs for this compliment, and to 
 express my sincere regret that an official ongagement, of much in¬ 
 terest and of uncertain duration, prevents my accepting this mark of 
 your approbation and hospitality. 
 
 No act of general policy, as it appears to me, was ever more dis¬ 
 tinctly condemned by the suffrages of the great body of the American 
 people, than the Tariff of duties on imports passed by the Whig 
 Congress of 18-12. It started under the reprobation of many who 
 were obliged by circumstances to vote for it; its deceptive, if not 
 fraudulent principles of assessment, audits exorbitant e.xactions, could 
 be defended, even plausibly,by no one ; and its repeal or modifica¬ 
 tion, openly proclaimed as a leading object of Democratic reform, 
 became an essential part of the issue involved by the animated elec¬ 
 tion of 1844. That a change of the Tariff was solved, directly and 
 une([uivocally, in the popular verdict rendered in favor of James K. 
 Polk, was obvious to all who did not strangely and wholly miscon- 
 ceive the pervading character of the great political trial. That trial 
 might seem superficially a struggle for men; but in reality and in 
 substance, it was a struggle for fundamental doctrines and leading 
 measures. While yet in progress, both parties so thought and so re¬ 
 presented it; the VVhigs, earnestly and universally : when it closed 
 the country had but to consult the ballot-box, in order to find, with 
 other equally important conclusions, a sentence passed against the Ta¬ 
 riff of 1842, which, without violently departing from the fixed law 
 of our institutions, could not be reversed or evaded. 
 
 To the part, which, as it happened, I was officially obliged to take 
 in carrying out this decision, I am indebted for your flattering letter. 
 The Vice President, as you are aware, does not participate in origi¬ 
 nating or shaping legislative measures, and is only empowered to in- 
 
10 
 
 tervene in one emergency—that is, when an eqnal division among 
 the representatives of the respective States, on the floor of the Senate, 
 warrants the umpirage of him who alone is present as the accredited 
 agent of the whole people of the Union. He can affect no merit be¬ 
 yond fidelity to the Constitution and obedience to the known will of 
 his wide-spread constituency. He neither counsels, nor advises, nor 
 persuades; he acts by a casting vote on a proposition prepared by 
 others, often complicated and multifarious, which he can treat only 
 by a simple affirmaiive or negative. It is by indulgence, not by 
 right, that he is enabled, on remarkable occasions, even to intimate 
 the reasons which influence him. When, therefore, the ^'ice Presi¬ 
 dent discovered that, on the bill establishing an ameliorated system 
 of taxation which had, after protracted discussion, passed the House 
 of Representatives by an unusually large majority, the Senate was 
 balanced and incapable of decision, what was his duty? Plain enough. 
 Plis aye, or his no, could not repose on private theories or sectional 
 benefits, could not be argumentative, qualified or partial; but it must 
 be characterized by the singleness, comprehensiveness, and efficacy 
 of the vote from the ballot-box. That —that principally—was the 
 object of his mission : that was his trust for the particular emergency: 
 it was the conclusive testimony of the people which he was charged 
 to bear and to utter in the Senate of the United Slates. Is this not 
 so? If it be not, our political institutions are mere pretences, ‘keep¬ 
 ing the word of promise to the ear, and breaking it to the hope crea¬ 
 ting, with great elaboration of forms and checks, public functionaries 
 to effectuate the public will, and yet releasing them, at the very 
 crisis, from all obligation, or responsibility. It must be so, or the 
 American Republic is unsubstantial mockery. 
 
 In these remarks, my design, gentlemen, is, without affectation of 
 modesty, to refer your complimentary e.xpressions rather to the con¬ 
 summation worked out by the people, than to any merit of him who 
 merely fulfilled the instructions he received. The reform is theirs; 
 theirs the honor of a steady and progressive pursuit of a free commer¬ 
 cial intercourse with their fellow-men abroad, and of an equal, mild, 
 and just system of taxation for their fellow citizens at home : theirs 
 was the choice of the present Executive and the present House of 
 Representatives; and theirs was, in fact, the casting vote of the Vice 
 President. If the consequences are to be, as I firmly believe they 
 will be, relief to the massess, comfort to the poor, elasticity to enter¬ 
 prise, independence in political sentiment and action, and augmented 
 national prosperity, they are achievements which belong to the sa¬ 
 gacity and perseverance of the people at large. 
 
 I cannot conclude without thanking you for the reference you have 
 made to ‘the ancient policy and principles of our beloved Pennsylva¬ 
 nia,’ and for the distinction you properly draw between that honored 
 commonwealth, and those few of her inhabitants who, blinded by 
 sudden excitement, artfully fomented, rushed into courses wholly for¬ 
 eign to her habits and morals. Ebullitions such as those to which 
 you allude, rather betray the tendencies of a defeated system, than 
 taint the character of a community: they are transient spots on a disc 
 otherwise uniformly bright. Pennsylvania, in contributing by her 
 electors to station me in the office of Vice President, voluntarily 
 
11 
 
 transferred a son, whom she rightly recognized as always faithful and 
 affectionate, into a sphere where his functions and obligations widen¬ 
 ed far beyond her power, or her wish to control them. She never 
 dreamed of covertly retaining for t!ie State wdiat she ostensibly gave 
 to the Union. She never dreamed of deluding the nation with the 
 semblance of a funcdonary whose head, heart, conscience and vote 
 she secretly kept to her own exclusive interests and purposes. She 
 never dreamed of acting herself,or exacting from me,a part so disinge¬ 
 nuous, disloyal, and dishonorable. No. No :—that’s not Pennsylvania, 
 and never can be ! You have called her “bdovul,” and she has well 
 earned the epithet by unsurpassed devotion to the broadest pa¬ 
 triotism and purest practices of Democracy. Rest assured that 
 she will retain her title to it unimpaired by clamor, cupidity or 
 faction. 
 
 Renewing my warm acknowledgements for the honor you have 
 done me, I am gentlemen, most respectfully, 
 
 Your friend and fellow citizen, GEORGE M. DALLAS. 
 
 To John Thomso.n ALison, and others. 
 
 No. IV. 
 
 Philadelphia, Sept. 26, 1846. 
 
 Gentlemen; —The animated and energetic letter I have just re¬ 
 ceived from you calls for an immediate reply. I cannot allow you, 
 for a moment, to suppose me insensible to the approbation you so 
 eloquently ex|)ress of my recent conduct in the Senate of the United 
 States. The comprehensive view which you have taken of the sub¬ 
 ject gives greater value to your judgment, and entitles you as well to 
 my thanks, as to a frank reciprocation of sentiment. 
 
 An equal system of taxation, and as mild a one as a pure and eco¬ 
 nomical administration of their public concerns will justify, is the 
 demand of the American people. It is their right, resting on a fun¬ 
 damental principle of their social structure, and guarantied by the ’ 
 .whole tenor of their Constitution. Why should they not have it? 
 Why should their representative agents obstruct its enjoyment ? 
 Why should we persevere in enforcing a mode of obtaining treasure 
 to meet the national e.vpenses which -works unfairly—kindly on the 
 east and cruelly on the west and south—which gathers wasteful and 
 pernicious surplus, and gradually gives unwieldy and dangerous power 
 to a single class of capitalists ? Answers to these questions might 
 be easy as long as the majority of the people, sensible' of an unripe 
 organization, volunteered to sacrifice largely in order to drive deep 
 into their soil the roots of social independence and safety; but an¬ 
 swers become difficult, if not impossible, when that majority, con¬ 
 scious of matured strength and prepared to cope with every sort of 
 antagonism, avow a change of purpose, or rather a recurrence to the 
 justice and freedom from which they diverged under the belief that it 
 was at least prudent if not necessary to do so. They have now 
 called for a reduction of the duties on imports to the measure of revenue 
 want: for an abandonment of all legislative favoritism: for an equaliza¬ 
 tion of the burthens which they know should be borne by all alike:— 
 
12 
 
 and they have insisted, with emphasis, tliat indirect but copious tribute 
 shall no longer be exacted from the agricultural, commercial, and me¬ 
 chanical masses under pretence of protecting where protection is ob¬ 
 viously and notoriously mere pampering. Calls such as those', from 
 such a source, it is as wise, as it is in wholesome conformity with 
 the spirit of our institutions, to obey with as little delay or oppugna- 
 tion as possible. 
 
 My faith in the intelligence and patriotism of the people is habitual. 
 The democracy never fail, sooner or later, to understand and pursue 
 their true policy and interest. On the subject of a Tariff, however, 
 diSiculties existed, at once complex and covert, by which they were 
 liable to be embarrassed and deceived. It is indirect and unseen 
 taxation on all but the importing merchants ; and impoverishes with¬ 
 out its agency being perceived. Incomes or wages become inade¬ 
 quate, and it is not immediately discovered that this inadequacy is 
 caused by the swollen prices which men are obliged to pay for their 
 iron implements, their clothing, their household utensils, their groce¬ 
 ries and their comforts. The demand of the tiix-collector who visits 
 them for the ordinary rates and levies is distinct enough, and if that 
 be exorbitant they redress themselves by electing more economical 
 County Commissioners:—the grievance is direct and undisguised— 
 and they know their remedy. Not so with the laxalion which takes 
 the shape of duties on imports. The ploughman is unconscious of 
 having paid any rate or levy upon the machine with which he is 
 furrowing the soil—so is the blacksmith as to his anvil—and the 
 family matron as to her blankets, her sugar, and her salt: they bonght 
 the articles at a nrdghboring store for the same money that otbrrs 
 paid, and nothing intimated that a part of the money whicli they 
 gave was the reimbursement or final payment of a public tax. We 
 of Pennsylvania, who can scarcely continue quiet under the imposi¬ 
 tion of three mills per dollar to meet the interest on our debt, have 
 actually become accustomed to contribute frorn our means, without 
 ■the slightest murmur, fifty, nay, a hundred time.s as much, in as many 
 deceptive modes, under the operation of the Tariff of 1842. We 
 not only pay our share toward supporting the general government,' 
 but we also pay that portion of the price of every article we buy 
 over and above what it would have cost if the Tariff had not been 
 enacted. IVhy, then, wonder that the laboring classes of our popu¬ 
 lation wore late in attending to, and slow in thoroughly appi-eciating, 
 the oppressive draining consequent upon an exorbitant Tarifl’l Like 
 Banking, there is a mystery in it -whose solution lags at the close of 
 protracted discussion, enquiry, vigilance and thought. Yet, the same 
 people that gradually mastered the operations and tendencies of the 
 one, and resolutely arrested them, have now, with the progre.ssive 
 spirit which characterises them and their epoch, pushed forward to 
 check the other. 
 
 The veil by which the evils of indirect taxation are concealed from 
 the eye of the people should be determinately lifted by those who 
 have at heart the happiness of the masses and seek to ameliorate their 
 condition. This is a high obligation of democratic representation, 
 legislative or executive:—it is the higher, because easily evaded or 
 plausibly left undone. Let the wrongs of a confiding and toiling 
 
13 
 
 constituency be studied by the agents whom they honor with their 
 suffr^es, and let the real sources of tliose wrongs be laid bare. If 
 liarsh, unfair or unnecessarj'- demands upon their substance have been 
 made, they ought not to be considered sanctified and unassailable be¬ 
 cause long and patiently endured. On the contrary, the faithful sen¬ 
 tinel should “ cry aloud and spare not,” the more zealously when the 
 opportunities of his elevated position enable him to see what is hid¬ 
 den from others. A strong and gratifying illustration presents itself 
 in a recently distributed document addressed by the Secretary of the 
 Treasury to Congress and received at the close of the late session. 
 Our countrymen should have their attention invoked towards this 
 remarkable paper—remarkable in every aspect—its broad bearing, 
 its precision, its cogency, its authentic facts and its striking results. 
 No developement of which I am aware has been made equally lucid 
 and impressive. It purports to be a Report “ in compliance with a 
 resolution of the Senate, exhibiting a list of manufactured articles 
 upon which §o4',000,000 (fifty-four miulions !) are annually paid 
 to theprotected classes, (xot to the katioxal treasury 1) by enhan¬ 
 cing the price of the rfoiiiestfc ojf/c/es, and the amount so paid on 
 each article,” under the Tariff of 184'2,—and by accurately formed 
 tabular statements it establishes the annual aggregate of indirect taxa¬ 
 tion imposed by that law—seen and unseen—for government and for 
 favorite classes—to exceed eigiity-two million's of dollars ! Were 
 the American people sensible that thisTarilf, which ostensibly lanced 
 but a single vein, practically made them bleed at every poi'e ?—which 
 professed to collect hv public uses twent3'-eight millions, yet silently 
 and imperceptibly drew also ior private monopoly almost twice that 
 great sum ? Did we of this Commonwealth realize the extraordinary 
 juggle by which the federal legislature, seeming to seek from a duty 
 on iron alone a gross revenue of but S’2,2o7,4'2", actually extorted a 
 total tax of 820, Sli>,847 ? seeming to seek from a duty on coal alone 
 the sum of §130,221, extorted a tax of SG,SG9,0!)2 ? and seeming to 
 seek from a duty on manufactures of ivool alone the sum of 83,731,- 
 005, extorted a tax of §10,487,145 1 Some few financial students 
 may have early detected these latent vices of the system; but our 
 farmers and yeomanry, our working producers and toiling poor, our 
 men of the axe and the anvil, the scythe and the saw, they have not 
 the means nor the time for such investigations:—they could “ take 
 no note of it but by its loss—they suffered long under the weight 
 of the burden, and dreamed not that it was the invisible and insatiate 
 vampyreof indirect taxation which exhausted their strength. 
 
 I wish not to be understood to prefer the substitution of excise for 
 impost. Tiiere are asperities in the former which render it almost 
 intolerable among a people peculiarly sensitive as to domiciliary 
 visits;—and it is abuse only that makes the latter mischievous. Cer¬ 
 tainly our liberties would be safer under a system of open and direct 
 taxation with all its roughness, than under a prolonged administra¬ 
 tion of such furtive oppression, gross inequality and immoral decep¬ 
 tion as characterise the Tariff'of 1842. But reduce the duties one 
 half, take from them their tendency to nurse and rear monopolies, 
 adopt valtte instead of name or form as the controlling standard, 
 drop the false hypocricy of minimims, and the thing, essentially 
 
democratized, becomes at least harmless. Such, in plain truth, is the 
 law which “ The Great Congress’’ has passed, to commence opera¬ 
 ting on the first of December, next. That law may contain errors 
 of detail, amendable as developed by experience: but comparatively, 
 its traits are equality, justice, moderation and candor. While the ne¬ 
 cessary revenue is sought at Custom Houses, we shall experience less 
 wrong and incur less risk, from a Tarilf founded on its principles than 
 from any other mode of taxing. If I am not mistaken in the per¬ 
 vading spirit of that law, political economists will hereafter say that 
 its reforms gave Security to the earnings of Labor and Limits to the 
 power of Capital. 
 
 The home operation of the Tariff of 184G promises to be genial 
 and salutary; I mean in regard to the great industrial masses. Its 
 reduction of taxes one half is immediate relief; its indirect abate¬ 
 ment of prices and the general expenses of comfortable living awakens 
 hope in the breasts of all whose wages or means are low and preca¬ 
 rious ; and its tendency to oblige capitalists to seek the success of their 
 investments rather in a fair and generous, than in an arrogant and 
 .avaricious treatment of their workmen, yields a protection to the 
 moral independence and dignity of labor far worthier of attainment 
 than that which the manufacturer demands tor his wares. There is 
 much more protect in the citizen of a republic than his opportuni¬ 
 ties to work. He is not merely to devote his days unceasingly to ac¬ 
 quire bread and raiment. The “rights of man,’’ rights too readily 
 ridiculed or forgotten, are his;—the yearnings of mind and of heart 
 are his;—the pride of character, the sense of natural equality, the 
 spirit of independence, are his;—the ennobling relations and duties 
 of domestic life are his;—and the law which would sacrifice all these 
 upon the wretched pretext of securing to him a market where he 
 .can sell the strength of his sinews or the dexterity of his fingers, is a 
 law for the gradual establishment of slavery on the basis of animal 
 necessities. 
 
 The Tariff of l84ti recommends itself no less by certain considera¬ 
 tions connected with its external bearing or aspect. It is in greater 
 harmony than its predecessors with the liberal ideas of international 
 commerce prevailing throughout the world. Retaliatory restrictions 
 on trade are uncalled for. The vista of general peace .stretches far 
 into futurity, and invites us to’ mingle on terms of reciprocity and 
 fearless friendship with our fellow men every where Even now 
 Agriculture exults in the liberty of sending her surplus food, over 
 thousands of miles of land and thousands of miles of water, to the 
 famishing sons of Ireland. Our crops of wheat and Indian corn are 
 suddenly augmented in value upwards of forty millions of dollars ; 
 an effect of opening the gates in a single channel, which will carry 
 gladness to the lamily fireside of every farmer. Assuredly this Tariff 
 is far from Free Trade ; that of course cannot be pretended while the 
 revenues necessary to maintain the government, say twenty-eight 
 millions of dollars, are exacted from our imports alone :—but it meets 
 modern enlightenment half way: and, though discriminating in favor 
 of our own industry, it gives a much broader welcome than was here¬ 
 tofore given to the industry and enterprize of other countries. 
 
 In referring with such extremely kind and complimentary Ian- 
 
15 
 
 giiage to the decision given by the Vice President, when Senators 
 were equally divided, in favor of the new Tariff, you seem, gentle¬ 
 men, warmed up by the shameless excesses of slander and outrage, 
 with which cupidity and faction attempted, as it were at once and by 
 storm, to overwhelm the Casting-vote. I fear you do me more than 
 justice, and that I am bound to thank my defamers for a large share 
 of your animated applause. It was the duty of office and the perem- 
 tory law of position. The citizen—I care not whether whig or demo¬ 
 crat—who can deliberately inculcate that under the circumstances, 
 political or personal, which surrounded me, I should have voted 
 against the bill,—“/ttcniger est ; —hunc tu, Romane, cavelo !”—he is 
 radically and incurably insensible to the obligations of public trust, 
 and his instincts utterly rickety and unsound. I pretend, then, only 
 not to have been recreant, not to have proved false to my morals or 
 my mission, not to have sunk to the hopes and standard of my assail¬ 
 ants. In one aspect, indeed, the chance, or the design, which de¬ 
 volved upon me the necessity of intervening, assumes an importance 
 and a charm to which I confess myself far from insensible. If, as 
 you forcibly argue, and as certain advocates of money’ed interests seem, 
 almost- to admit, the Casting-vote has disenthralled the producing 
 classes, has dissolved the fetters which bound the poor to the cars of 
 the rich, has palsied the movements of covetous rapacity, has sum¬ 
 moned labor to the resumption of its natural independence and dignityj, 
 and has taken even a few feathers from the backs of the overburdened; 
 if, 1 say, the Casting Vote, by closing the career of the Tariff of 1842, 
 has led to these results, then I solemnly and sincerely thank my God 
 that it fell to the lot of so humble an instrument as myself, even re¬ 
 luctantly on some accounts, to strike the final blew in an achievement 
 so philantropic and substantially glorious! 
 
 Our commonwealth of Pennsylvania, it is thought, has “mtemts’’ 
 which may be injuriously affected by a diminution of the duties on 
 imports of coal and iron. These “interests” are, I presume, nothing 
 more than the profits of such of her capitalists as have, made invest¬ 
 ments connected with procuring those two articles of merchandize. 
 Such profits may, for a season, be impaired: and no one can be ac¬ 
 cessary, even when impelled by the best motives and aiming at the 
 widest purposes, in defeating incidentally the pecuniary calculations- 
 of his friends and neighbors, without feeling pain and repugnance- 
 Such was my avowed sentiment when determining the Senatorial tie. 
 Still, I cannot refrain from saying that these “interests” so loudly 
 trumpeted, are very far from being the only or the great public “in¬ 
 terests” of Pennsylvania. They are not those which constitute her 
 happiness, her intelligence, her character. They are not the “inter¬ 
 ests” of her Jurisprudence, Justice, Education, Virtue, or Liberty.. 
 Assuredly, they are not the “interests” which create or strengthen 
 the roots of patriotism or bind the hearts of her sons, as mine has been 
 bound, inseparably to her purity and honor. May we not be per¬ 
 mitted to think something more of the “ interests” of her poor, as the 
 many, than of the rich, as the few? More of her moral than of 
 her material “interests”! More of the free, upright and manly souls 
 of her population, than of the chesfs ofher corporations ? All who 
 have weathered the storms of the last twelve years can remember how 
 
16 
 
 the "interests'’ of the State were represented as centering at a green 
 board, whereon paper-credits were manufactured with magical liicili- 
 ty,, within the white walls of a Chesnut street temple—when our in¬ 
 ternal improvements and their avails, our public schools, our com¬ 
 merce, and our: currency were said to radiate from an institution 
 which \yielded'the force ol hundreds of millions of dollars, and lifted 
 or lowered.the value of every thing around us at its pleasure. The 
 same debasing and .stale picture is now drawing by the same class of 
 men—only the idol with which they at present identify our "inter¬ 
 ests” is the Tariff 0^ ’i2, placed on the pedestal whence the National 
 Bank was ctnmbled in ruins 1 They summon us to pray for our "in¬ 
 terests” at the old shrine, with all the superstitious observances and 
 rites formerly established, and really make no change but in the 
 figure of their Jos. May we not doubt whether these mini4er.s of the 
 Protean Mammon have juster conceptions of the enlarged, lasting and 
 solid "interests” of our people than they entertained in 1836 ? Is it 
 not excusable to tell them that this noble community has much more 
 to be proud of and to rely upon, as means of prosperity, order, and 
 renown, than what they are pleased to label ns her vital “interests V’ 
 It would be well and wise were tlic.-^e "interests’’ to take warning 
 from the past, and resolutely decline being placed by party 
 fanaticism in a position antagonistic to the social and political rofornis 
 of progressive Democracy. Within their proper sphere, no one can 
 desire that they should cease to thrive. But if they quit that sphere, 
 and blindly rush forward to domineer over the mass,—to as.suine to 
 be the "all in all,” highest, greatest, best—to mar.sbal, exhort, and 
 subsidize or coerce partizans—to corrupt or overawe legi.slatlon—and 
 to dictate what shall be, instead of obeying what is, the law ; then it 
 is but the deduction of uniform and yesterday’s experience to say 
 that they must become odious and intolerable to a free and proud peo¬ 
 ple, by whom, at any seeming sacrifice, they will be disowned, pros¬ 
 trated, and proscribed. Let us, gentlemen, endeavor, while we yet 
 have time and temper loft, by inculcations of truth, forbearance and 
 moderation, to avert the necessity cfsuch courses : hut ifthc nece.ssity 
 be forced upon us, as a similar necessity was forced u]>on us in 
 your letter distinctly tells whore, in that conjuncture, the honest re¬ 
 publicans of Washington county will be found, and I hope this an¬ 
 swer was not necessary to let yon know where to look for me. 
 
 Accept the renewed thanks and warm salutations of your obliged 
 fellow citizen and friend, 
 
 GEORGE M. DALLAS. 
 
 To Thomas Blnrgan, Alfred Gall, James Linn, John Cooper, .Tames 
 McClaskey, F. Brady, James McKinley, jr., Thomas Bliller, John 
 E. Griffith, H. W. Bryson, Andrew Blills, and Matthew Griffin. 
 
 Washington county, Ta,