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PAPEns oF MIRABEAU BuoNAPARTE LAMAR
fected. I answer, by DIRECT TAXATION, and the abolition of every cus- tom house from the St. Johns to the Rio Grande. The mere statement of a change so stupendous, and environed, seem- ingly by such insuperable difficulties, is well calculated to stagger the strongest and appal the weakest mind. But this scheme of finance will grow stronger the more it is considered, until at length it will come recommended to the good sense and adoption of every man in our country, excepting those who may profit by the centralization in New York, and the frauds of our present system of collection. If I did not know that our State, small as she is, is the Lacedaemon of this Confederacy, and .that she probably had the will to do as I know she has the courage to attempt, this great political, financial and social reform,. I should remain silent, under, nevertheless, the deep conviction of the utter ruin of ,the South, under the present system of robbery and exaction, liable to perpetual and more frequent recurrence. Do not suppose, gentlemen, that I have not well considered and duly estimated the labors I recommend for your adoption. You will have to look without faltering, disunion, or, if it better suits the tender fears of other persons, revolution in the face, although I believe the change I recommend is the only mode of preserving it, by impress- ing on our whole financial system, justice, moderation, equal benefits and equal burdens, which ought alone to be the aliment and cement of a confederacy like ours. Let me, then, avow what I believe to be true, that through this un- expected revulsion in our finances (which is a change so fearful that in most countries would produce revolution), it will be attended with the blessing of arousing our people from their lethargy, and convinc- ing them that the crisis has arrived, and NOW IS THE ACCEPTED TIME FOR ACTION. I will now endeavor to exhibit the modus operandi of working out this great enterprise. As some one State must make a beginning, I know no State, from the intelligence and courage of her people, better qualified to be the pioneer of this great movement, than our own. If I were one of her Representatives in the Congress of .the United States, I should certainly feel great pride in carrying out her public sentiment in this particular, with an industry nothing should relax, and a zeal nothing should damp. I should commence by offering to the Senate or House, to which ever body I might belong, a series of resolutions which should open up and eviscerate the history of the financial system of the United States, from the adoption of the Federal Constitution to the present time. I would be able to show that our system of collection by customs is the most stupendous system of deception and injustice ever invented by man; in short, it is nothing more or less than a system of clan- destine and insidious robbery - that it is calculated to build up such a state of thi~gs ~s now exist in the city of New York, with its por- tentous catastrophe, and to impoverish such a country as the South. I would show that it has added five hundred millions, at an esti- mate far below the truth, to the wealth of the commercial and manu- facturing cities of the Korth, and subtracted and abstracted about as much more from the resources of the agricultural States of the South.
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