1870 Ulysses S. Grant - Revenue Reform (Not this time)

There is no question that civil war was costly, and much revenue was needed. While most of the wartime government revenue came from bonds and loans, there were still many high tariffs and other taxes imposed on the people. Many of these tariffs were retained after the war during the Reconstruction period. But as the country recovered financially from the civil war, Republicans favored maintaining high tariffs to encourage economic growth and domestic stability. Democrats on the other hand believed the tariff should be only high enough to pay the government's bills.

In 1870, the Democratic party was calling for reform of the Revenue system. Such a reform was becoming a key part of their party platform. President Grant attacked these calls for reform in his address to congress that year. Grant started out by announcing that federal taxes collected were already reduced by $80 million a year, and that there was reason to believe that the "national tax gatherer [may] disappear from the door of the citizen almost entirely". Grant continued, "if it means this, [reform] has my hearty support. Perhaps, Grant was being a little sarcastic. What Grant would not support though, is any tax reform that failed to meet all the needs and expenses of the federal government, and he accused the Democrats of having no plan:  "Revenue reform has not been defined by any of its advocates to my knowledge, but seems to be accepted as something which is to supply every man's wants without any cost or effort on his part."

"The tax collected from the people has been reduced more than $80,000,000 per annum. By steadiness in our present course there is no reason why in a few short years the national tax gatherer may not disappear from the door of the citizen almost entirely. With the revenue stamp dispensed by postmasters in every community, a tax upon liquors of all sorts and tobacco in all its forms, and by a wise adjustment of the tariff, which will put a duty only upon those articles which we could dispense with, known as luxuries, and on those which we use more of than we produce, revenue enough may be raised after a few years of peace and consequent reduction of indebtedness to fulfill all our obligations. A further reduction of expenses, in addition to a reduction of interest account, may be relied on to make this practicable. Revenue reform, if it means this, has my hearty support. If it implies a collection of all the revenue for the support of the Government, for the payment of principal and interest of the public debt, pensions, etc., by directly taxing the people, then I am against revenue reform, and confidently believe the people are with me. If it means failure to provide the necessary means to defray all the expenses of Government, and thereby repudiation of the public debt and pensions, then I am still more opposed to such kind of revenue reform. Revenue reform has not been defined by any of its advocates to my knowledge, but seems to be accepted as something which is to supply every man's wants without any cost or effort on his part."

http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=29511
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tariffs_in_United_States_history
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Party Platforms 1876

The war over taxation wages on. 6 years later, the democrats were still pounding the pavement with revenue reform. Here is an excerpt from their 1876 platform.

"Reform is necessary in the sum and mould of Federal taxation, to the end that capital may be set free from distrust, and labor lightly burdened. We denounce the present tariff levied upon nearly four thousand articles as a masterpiece of injustice, inequality and false pretense, which yields a dwindling and not a yearly rising revenue, has impoverished many industries to subsidize a few. It prohibits imports that might purchase the products of American labor; it has degraded American commerce from the first to an inferior rank upon the high seas; it has cut down the values of American manufactures at home and abroad; it has depleted the returns of American agriculture, an industry followed by half our people; it costs the people five times more than it produces to the treasury, obstructs the process of production and wastes the fruits of labor; it promotes fraud, fosters smuggling, enriches dishonest officials, and bankrupts honest merchants. We demand that all custom-house taxation shall be only for revenue. Reform is necessary in the scale of public expense, Federal, State and municipal. Our Federal taxation has swollen from sixty millions gold in 1860 to four hundred and fifty millions currency in 1870; our aggregate taxation from one hundred and fifty-four millions gold in 1860 to seven hundred and thirty millions currency, in 1870, all in one decade; from less than five dollars per head to more than eighteen dollars per head. Since the peace the people have paid to their tax-gatherers more than thrice the sum of the national debt, and more than twice the sum for the Federal Government alone. We demand a rigorous frugality in every department and from every officer of the Government."

Yet the Republicans stood firm. Their platform changed very little between 1870 and 1876:

"The revenue necessary for current expenditures and the obligations of the public debt must be largely derived from duties upon importations, which, so far as possible, should be so adjusted as to promote the interests of American labor and advance the prosperity of the whole country. "

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