And the laboring man is thoughtfully
inquiring whether in these circumstances, and considering the tribute he
constantly pays into the public Treasury as he supplies his daily wants,
he receives his fair share of advantages.
There is also a suspicion abroad that the surplus of our revenues
indicates abnormal and exceptional business profits, which, under the
system which produces such surplus, increase without corresponding
benefit to the people at large the vast accumulations of a few among our
citizens, whose fortunes, rivaling the wealth of the most favored in
antidemocratic nations, are not the natural growth of a steady, plain,
and industrious republic.
Our farmers, too, and those engaged directly and indirectly in supplying
the products of agriculture, see that day by day, and as often as the
daily wants of their households recur, they are forced to pay excessive
and needless taxation, while their products struggle in foreign markets
with the competition of nations, which, by allowing a freer exchange of
productions than we permit, enable their people to sell for prices which
distress the American farmer.
As every patriotic citizen rejoices in the constantly increasing pride
of our people in American citizenship and in the glory of our national
achievements and progress, a sentiment prevails that the leading strings
useful to a nation in its infancy may well be to a great extent
discarded in the present stage of American ingenuity, courage, and
fearless self-reliance; and for the privilege of indulging this
sentiment with true American enthusiasm our citizens are quite willing
to forego an idle surplus in the public Treasury.
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