MR. PRESIDENT,--By the existing law, public libraries and literary
societies receive books, maps, charts, and engravings free of duty.
It is now proposed to change the law, so that public libraries and
literary societies shall no longer receive books, maps, charts, and
engravings free of duty. It is a little curious that the present moment
is seized for this important change, which I must call retrogressive in
character. It seems like going back to the Dark Ages. We made no such
change during the war. We went through all its terrible trials and the
consequent taxation without any such attempt. Now that peace has come,
and we are considering how to mitigate taxation, it is proposed to add
this new tax.
MR. HENDRICKS. Will the Senator allow me to ask whether he
regards this bill as a mitigation of the taxes upon goods
brought from foreign countries?
MR. SUMNER. I am not discussing the bill as a general measure.
MR. HENDRICKS. I thought the Senator spoke of the present
effort to mitigate taxation.
MR. SUMNER. I believe I am not wrong, when I say there is everywhere
a disposition to reduce taxation, whether on foreign or domestic
articles. Such is the desire of the country and the irresistible
tendency of things. But what must be the astonishment, when it appears,
that, instead of reducing a tax on knowledge, you augment it!
I insist, that, in imposing this duty, you not only change the
existing law, but you depart from the standing policy of republican
institutions. Everywhere we have education at the public expense. The
first form is in the public school, open to all. But the public library
is the complement or supplement of the public school. As well impose a
tax on the public school as on the public library.
I doubt if the Senate is fully aware of the number of public libraries
springing into existence. This is a characteristic of our times. Nor
is it peculiar to our country. Down to a recent day, public libraries
were chiefly collegiate. In Europe they were collegiate or conventual.
There were no libraries of the people. But such libraries are now
appearing in England and in France. Every considerable place or centre
has its library for the benefit of the neighborhood. But this movement,
like every liberal tendency, is more marked in the United States. Here
public libraries are coming into being without number. The Public
Library of Boston and the Astor Library of New York are magnificent
examples, which smaller towns are emulating. In my own State there
are public libraries in Lowell, Newburyport, New Bedford, Worcester,
Springfield,--indeed, I might almost say in every considerable town.
But Massachusetts is not alone. Public libraries are springing up in
all the Northern States. They are now extending like a belt of light
across the country. They are a new Zodiac, in which knowledge travels
with the sun from east to west. Of course these are all for the public
good. They are public schools, where every book is a schoolmaster. To
tax such institutions now, for the first time, is a new form of that
old enemy, a “tax on knowledge.” Such is my sense of their supreme
value that I would offer them bounties rather than taxes.
In continuation of this same hospitality to knowledge, I wish to go
still further, and relieve imported books of all taxes, so far as not
inconsistent with interests already embarked in the book business. For
instance, let all books, maps, charts, and engravings printed before
1840 take their place on the free list. Publications before that time
cannot come in competition with any interests here. The revenue they
afford will be unimportant. The tax you impose adds to the burdens of
scholars and professional men who need them. And yet every one of these
books, when once imported, is a positive advantage to the country, by
which knowledge is extended and the public taste improved. I would not
claim too much for these instructive strangers belonging to another
generation. I think I do not err in asking for them a generous welcome.
But, above all, do not tax them.
It is sometimes said that we tax food and clothes, therefore we must
tax books. I regret that food or clothes are taxed, because the tax
presses upon the poor. But this is no reason for any additional tax.
Reduce all such taxes, rather than add to them. But you will not fail
to remember the essential difference between these taxes. In New
England education from the beginning was at the public expense; and
this has been for some time substantially the policy of the whole
country, except so far as it was darkened by Slavery. Therefore I
insist, that, because we tax food and clothes for the body, this is no
reason why we should tax food and clothes for the mind.
The question, being taken by yeas and nays, resulted,--Yeas 22,
Nays 13; so the amendment was adopted.
Mr. Sumner then moved to exempt “maps, charts, and engravings
executed prior to 1840.” He said that this amendment was
naturally associated with that on which the Senate had just
acted; that there could be no competition with anything at home.
In reply to Mr. Williams, of Oregon, Mr. Sumner again spoke.
MR. PRESIDENT,--There is no question of the exemption of those who
are best able to pay these duties; it is simply a question of a tax
on knowledge. The Senator by his system would shut these out from the
country, and would say, “Hail to darkness!” I do not wish to repeat
what I have so often said; but the argument of the Senator has been
made here again and again, and heretofore, as often as made, I have
undertaken to answer it. He says we put a tax on necessaries now,--on
the food that fills the body, on the garments that clothe the body.
I regret that we do. I wish we were in a condition to relieve the
country of such taxation. But does not the Senator bear in mind that
he proposes to go further, and to depart from the great principle
governing our institutions from the beginning of our history? We have
had education free: in other words, we have undertaken to fill the mind
and to clothe the mind at the public expense. We never did undertake
to fill the body or to clothe the body at the public expense. Sir, as
a lover of my race, I should be glad, could the country have clothed
the body and filled the body at the public expense. I should be
glad, had society been in such a condition that this vision could be
accomplished; but we all know that it is not, and I content myself with
something much simpler and more practical. I would aim to establish the
principle which seems to have governed our fathers, and which is so
congenial with republican institutions, that education and knowledge,
so far as practicable, shall be free.
To make education and knowledge free, you must, so far as possible,
relieve all books from taxation. I have already said that I did not
propose to interfere with any of the practical interests of the book
trade; but, where those interests are out of the way, I insist that
the great principle of republican institutions should be applied. This
is my answer to the Senator from Oregon. I fear he has not adequately
considered the question. He has not brought to it that knowledge, that
judgment, which always command my respect, as often as he addresses
the Senate. He seems to have spoken hastily. I hope that he will
withdraw, or at least relax, his opposition, and, revolving the subject
hereafter, range himself, as he must, with his large intelligence, on
the side of human knowledge.
Then, again, in reply to Mr. Conness, of California, Mr. Sumner
remarked:--
It is because I hearken to the needs of my country that I make
this proposition. I am not to be led aside by the picture of other
necessities. I respect all the necessities of the people; but among
the foremost are those of public instruction, and it is of those I am
a humble representative on this floor. The Senator from California
may, if he chooses, treat that representation with levity; he may
announce himself an opponent of the policy which I would establish for
my country; he may set himself against what I insist is a fundamental
principle of republican institutions, that knowledge should not be
taxed; he may go forth and ask for taxation on books and on public
libraries, and, if he chooses, carry the principle still further, and
tax the public school. He will then be consistent with himself. I hope
that he will allow me to speak for what I believe the true need of the
country.
The motion to exempt maps, charts, and engravings was rejected.
Mr. Sumner then moved to place on the free list “books printed
prior to 1840.” It being objected, that “the duty as already
laid was very low, only 15 per cent.,”--that “we have to look
to revenue,”--and that it was desirable “to have all the
interests of the country taxed,”--Mr. Sumner replied:--
Every argument for making the duty low is equally strong against
having any duty on the subject. There is no reason that could have
influenced the Committee in favor of reducing the duty which is not
equally strong in favor of removing the duty. The Senator declares
that the object is revenue. But the revenue that will come from this
source is very small; it is not large enough to compensate for the
mischief it will cause. Sir, I believe all the conclusions of the best
experienced in taxation are, that we should seek as much as possible to
diminish the objects of taxation. Just in proportion as nations become
experienced in imposing taxes do they limit the objects to which the
taxes are applied. It seems to me we are strangely insensible to that
lesson of history. We seem to be groping about and seizing hold of
every little object, every filament, if I may so express myself, which
we can grasp, in order to drag it into the sphere of taxation.
I think we should be better employed, if we declined to tax a large
number of articles which it is proposed to tax, and brought our
taxation to bear on a few important articles, which we should make
contribute substantially to the resources of the country. The tax that
is now proposed will contribute nothing of any real substance to the
resources of the country, while to my view it is not creditable. I say
it frankly, it is not creditable to the civilization of our age, and
least of all is it creditable to the civilization of a republic.
Such is my conviction. As often as I have thought of this question,
I cannot see it in any other light; and I do think that money derived
from a tax on books can be vindicated only on the principle of the
Roman emperor, “Money from any quarter, no matter what, for money does
not smell.”[82] Now it were better, if, instead of hunting up these
several articles for taxation, running them down like game, to bag
them in the public treasury, we should confine ourselves to the great
subjects, and make them productive. There are enough of them, and in
this way we can have revenue enough. I would have all the revenue we
want; but, having it, be hospitable to literature, to knowledge, to
art; and now let me say, be hospitable to books, because through books
you will obtain what you desire in literature, in knowledge, and in art.
Mr. Kirkwood, of Iowa, thought Mr. Sumner ought to be content
with what was done. “If he gets the rate reduced from 25 to 15
per cent., when the taxes on everything we eat and wear are
being raised 20, 30, 40, or 50 per cent., I think that he ought
to be content.”
MR. SUMNER. Personally I am content with anything. I am trying to do
what I think best for the people. I may be mistaken in my judgment; and
when I see so many distinguished Senators so earnestly differing from
me, I am led to call in question my conclusions; and yet considerable
reflection and some experience in dealing with this question have
always brought me more strongly than before to the same unalterable
conclusion. I feel, that, in imposing this tax, you make a great
mistake; because it is a bad example, and just to the extent of its
influence keeps knowledge out of the country.
The motion of Mr. Sumner was rejected,--Yeas 5, Nays 32.
Another motion by him, to exempt mathematical instruments and
philosophical apparatus imported for societies, shared the same
fate.