" Should a further reduction
prove advisable, I would then recommend that it be made upon those
articles which can best bear it without disturbing home production or
reducing the wages of American labor.
I have not entered into figures, because to do so would be to repeat
what will be laid before you in the report of the Secretary of the
Treasury. The present laws for collecting revenue pay collectors
of customs small salaries, but provide for moieties (shares in all
seizures), which, at principal ports of entry particularly, raise the
compensation of those officials to a large sum. It has always seemed
to me as if this system must at times work perniciously. It holds out
an inducement to dishonest men, should such get possession of those
offices, to be lax in their scrutiny of goods entered, to enable them
finally to make large seizures. Your attention is respectfully invited
to this subject.
Continued fluctuations in the value of gold, as compared with the
national currency, has a most damaging effect upon the increase and
development of the country, in keeping up prices of all articles
necessary in everyday life. It fosters a spirit of gambling, prejudicial
alike to national morals and the national finances.
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