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Many may think that the means of raising
revenue whether the taxes are levied on the land or labour-have nothing
to do with chattel slavery; but if they will carefully examine the subject,
I think they will find that, putting all the taxes on the land would be
one of the best means of making chattel slavery unprofitable that can possibly
be devised by human ingenuity.
Slave labour
also requires more land to yield the same amount of produce than free labour;
and, therefore, their taxes would be greater in to proportion to their
produce.
Were all the
taxes on the land, the Slave states would have to pay as much tax for
the general government as the Free States, because they have as much or
more land. But as the expenses of the general government are now paid
by duties on imports, of which the Free States consume three-fourths,
consequently the Free States pay three fourths of the taxes for general
government.
It costs vastly
more for local government in the Slave States, for officers and overseers
to keep slaves in bondage; and were all the taxes on the land, it would
diminish the profit of slave produce in proportion to that of the Frl~8
States.
It costs vastly
more for legislators to make laws to sustain slavery than to sustain freedom,
besides the cost of slaves, of officers, spies, and bloodhounds, and slave-catchers,
to sustain the heartrending iniquity.
Were all the
taxes on the land, the Slave States would have to pay their own postage.
Were all the
taxes on the land, it would not pay to keep land idle for speculation,
and the poorer the cultivation the worse it would pay; and as slave cultivation
is always poor and exhausting, thus far it would pay worse than free labour.
Consequently, slave farms surrounded by free farms, and Slave States surrounded
by Free States, could not, commercially compete with either in their surplus
productions, and thus the profit of slaveholding would be diminished or
destroyed; for the extra cost of slaves, and the extra cost of keeping them
in bondage and ignorance-and their masters and overseers in idleness-would
more than consume all that you could whip and starve out of the slave. I
know no tax that would so effectually kill slavery as the per acre land
tax' while no tax is so little cost to the Government, gives so little inducement
to corruption, and so effectually destroys land monopoly-on which chattel
slavery and wages slavery both depend, for did none own more land than they
needed to cultivate or occupy, they would not want to steal their brethren,
or hire others to cultivate it for them.
The slave must
always remain in ignorance to keep him a slave, and consequently he can
only do the cheapest labour; while the free man is daily growing in intelligence,
and inventing machinery which tends to supersede slavery itself. And the
cheaper and freer the land for all, the more will those who own their farms,
who are interested in keeping them in the best Possible condition, and who
cultivate them by their own labour, closely compete with rented farms and
slave labour, and thus tend, happily, to supersede chattel and wages slavery.
Were all the
taxes on the land, it would not pay to keep it idle; the result would
be cultivation to make it pay, which would cause an abundance of produce,
for which manufactures would be made to exchange. And as the land would
be free or cheap, the wages of labour would rise, because, whenever manufacturing
paid less than farming, many more would farm the land, and thus equalize
the wages of labour between farming and manufacturing. And as the wages
of labour rise, the profits of trading fall, and as it would be useless
to glut the market, and produce over-much, it would be less profitable to
buy slaves and keep them for a market easily over-supplied, arid which continually
diminishes the profits of commerce, in proportion to the surplus production,
till it would be harder to buy and Whip slaves to work than to do the little
work, with the aid of machinery, for our own subsistence.
But with cheap
free land, with the aid of machinery, we could easily produce a super-abundance
of all that is best for mankind, and have an abundance of leisure for
the cultivation of our physical, mental and moral faculties, and thus
produce, that Physical, mental and moral elevation which slavery must
inevitably dwarf instead of develop.
It is now said
that one wages slave or landless hireling will do the work of two or three
chattel slaves. But if a hireling will do as much better than a slave
who is owned, how much better will free landowners work for themselves,
thus saving all the cost of overseers, taskmasters, slave catchers, officials,
blood-hounds, and slave legislation, while enjoying all the fruits which
have hitherto kept them in luxury, indolence, extravagance, and vice?
Then give us
free land and the exclusive per acre land tax to keep the land as cheap
as possible, or without price, forever, so that all who desire can have
land to cultivate, and thus create an unbounded home market for our manufactures;
then we may fearlessly remove all restrictions on commerce, and enjoy
a peace-making, free, and fraternal commerce with every nation in the world.
The world is
fast becoming densely peopled, and the same extent of land monopoly as
formerly cannot be borne without a vast increase of misery, which should
certainly be avoided by all just and practicable means. With our taxes
on labour land becomes dearer continually, and is only owned permanently
by the rich, who, owning the land practically, own the largest share of
the labour of the landless, for Denton, of Michigan, long since computed
that American labourers get less than one-fifth of the produce of their labour,
while in England, in 1858, it was estimated at only one-sixteenth.
Then again I
say, put all the taxes on the land, so that only those who profitably
cultivate it and live on it can afford to occupy it; then the land, the
source of all our subsistence, will cease to be owned by drones and speculators,
but be permanently and profitably occupied, not only by the industrious
tillers of the soil, but by the factories and homes of every being of our
race.
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