New York Daily Tribune

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.

The House went into Committee of the Whole on the state of the Union.

THE REVENUE BILL.

The consideration of the section taxing banks, etc., was resumed.

The following is the remainder of the amended bill, the first seven sections of which were published Friday morning:

Sec. 8. And be it further enacted, That all banks, associations, corporations, or individuals, issuing notes or bills for circulation as currency, shall be subject to and pay a duty of one per centum each half year from and after April 1, 1863, upon the average amount of the aggregate of deposits and circulation of notes or bills as currency issued beyond the amount hereinafter named; that is to say:

Banks, associations, corporations, or individuals having a capital of not over $100,000, 90 per centum thereof; over $100,000 and not over $200,000, 80 per centum thereof; over $200,000 and not over $300,000, 70 per centum thereof; over $300,000 and not over $500,000, 60 per centum; over $500,000 and not over $1,000,000, 50 per centum thereof; over $1,000,000 and not over $1,500,000, 40 per centum thereof; over $1,500,000 and not over $2,000,000, 50 per centum thereof; over $2,000,000, 25 per centum thereof. In the case of banks with branches, the duties herein provided for shall be imposed upon the circulation of the notes or bills of such branches severally, and not upon the aggregate circulation of all; and the amount of capital of each bank shall be the amount allotted to or used by such branch, provided that all the banks, associations, or corporations issuing or reissuing such notes or bills for circulation as currency after April 1, 1863, in sums representing any fractional part of a dollar, shall be subject to and pay a duty of 5 per centum each half year thereafter upon the amount of such fractional notes or bills so issued. And a list or return shall be made and rendered within thirty days after Oct. 1, 1863, and each six months thereafter, to the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, which shall contain a true and faithful account of the duties accrued upon the full amount of the fractional-note circulation and upon the average amount of all the other circulation for the next six months preceding, or which should accrue from time to time, and a list or return shall be made and rendered, within thirty days of the time fixed as aforesaid, to the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, which shall contain a true and faithful account of the amount of the duties accrued, or which should accrue from time to time as aforesaid, during the time when said duties remain unaccounted for. And there shall be appended to every list or return a declaration, under oath or affirmation, to be made in form and manner as shall be prescribed by the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, of the President, or some other proper officer of said bank association, corporation or individual, respectively, that the same contains a true and faithful account of the duties which have accrued, or which should accrue, and not accounted for; and for any default in the delivery of such list or return, with such declaration annexed, the bank, association, corporation, or individual, making such default, shall forfeit, as a penalty, the sum of five hundred dollars. And such bank, association, corporation, or individual shall, upon rendering the list or return as aforesaid, pay to the Commissioner of Internal Revenue the amount of duties due on such list or return, and in default thereof shall forfeit, as a penalty, the sum of $500; and in case of neglect or refusal to make said list or return as aforesaid, or to pay the duties, as aforesaid, for the space of 30 days after the time when said list shall have been made or rendered, or when said duties shall have become due and payable, the assessment and collection shall be made according to the general provisions prescribed in an act entitled "An Act to provide internal revenue to support the Government and to pay the interest on the public debt," approved July 1, 1862.

Sec. 9. And be it further enacted, That the provisions of the act entitled "An act to provide for the better organization of the Treasury, and for the collection, safe-keeping, transfer, and disbursement of the public revenues," approved August 6, 1846, be, and the same is hereby, so modified as to authorize the Secretary of the Treasury, at his discretion, to allow any money obtained from loans or internal revenue to be deposited in solvent banks to the credit of the Treasurer of the United States, upon depositing, by said banks, with the Treasurer an amount of United States bonds or Treasury notes not less than such deposits, respectively, as security for the payment thereof; and from time to time the Secretary of the Treasury may use such deposits, by draft or check, to pay any of the creditors of the Government, or for transfer to the Treasury or authorized depositories.

Sec. 10. And be it further enacted, That, in order to prevent and punish counterfeiting and fraudulent alterations of the bonds, notes, and fractional currency, authorized to be issued by this act, all the provisions of the sixth and seventh sections of the act entitled "An act to authorize the issue of United States notes, and for the redemption or funding thereof, and for funding the floating debt of the United States," approved February 25, 1862, shall, so far as applicable, apply to the bonds, notes, and fractional currency hereby authorized to be issued, in like manner as if the said sixth and seventh sections were hereby adopted as additional sections of this act. And the sum of $500,000 is hereby appropriated out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated to enable the Secretary of the Treasury to carry this act into effect.

Sec. 11. And be it further enacted, That the penalties of this act shall extend to officers in the Treasury Department, and to those engaged in printing and preparing the notes.

Mr. LOW, of California, moved to strike out the 9th section, amendatory of the independent treasury law, so as to allow any money obtained from loans or internal revenue to be deposited in solvent banks, etc.

Disagreed to by one majority.

Mr. WHITE (Dem., O.) offered a new section- "that none of the money raised under this act shall be drawn from the Treasury, except in pursuance of specific appropriations made by law, nor expended in the purchase of negro slaves, or as compensation for slaves emancipated by any State, nor for arming, equipping and supporting fugitive slaves."

Mr. WHITE (Dem., Ohio) called upon the gentlemen to put their fingers upon any statute authorizing the revenue to be devoted to any such purpose. Was the United States to be converted into an eleemosynary asylum for fugitive negroes, and were white men to be taxed for their support?

Mr. OLIN (Rep., N. Y.) said it ought to be known here, and rebuked, that the statement of the gentleman had not the slightest foundation in fact. The rant and fustian about the revenue of the Government being devoted to maintaining negroes freed by the proclamation was totally untenable. The revenue had not been expended for any such purpose. When the official report was received, it would be seen that these outcasts and outlaws, instead of being a charge to the Treasury, have been a source of profit. He would avoid at all occasions any remarks, which, while it was the duty of all to do everything to maintain the Constitution in its death struggle, would be seized upon to embitter the South still more, and discourage the hopes of the North, and encourage such mortifying scenes as are now transpiring-fuel to the flame, and would yield almost everything for conciliation and harmony.

Mr. STEVENS (Rep., Pa.) read for Mr. White's benefit the provision in the Constitution which provides, "No money shall be drawn from the Treasury but in consequence of appropriations made by law."

Mr. WICKLIFFE (Un., Ky.), said it would be remembered that he heretofore offered a resolution calling upon the War Department to state the expenses incurred for taking care of the negroes, and his friends objected to and defeated that resolution. If he had the power to send for persons and papers, he could show that money, appropriated to carry on the war, had been applied to clothing and maintaining negroes captured or seduced from their owners.

Mr. DUNN (Rep., Ind.) said the facts in the case were represented ten times as bad as they really were. He himself had introduced a resolution calling for information. He understood from an officer of the Government that the employment of contrabands, instead of being a loss, had been a source of revenue.

The gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Wickliffe), in a recent speech at Indianapolis, stated that money had been misappropriated for the support of such persons. If this were so, we should promptly make the correction, for the Government had no right to expend money in such a manner. He did not believe that there had been a misapplication of money. Speeches of the character made to-day were calculated to poison the minds of the people and cause them to distrust the Government.

Mr. NOBLE (Dem., Ohio) remarked that the President, in reply to the Chicago Committee, said some division commanders were issuing more rations to the negroes than to the soldiers.

Mr. DUNN replied such rations might have been issued, but were paid for under the law authorizing the employment of contrabands on forts, etc.

Mr. NOBLE asked whether the gentleman denied the truth of what he had asserted.

Mr. DUNN remarked that a resolution heretofore offered by himself would bring out the facts. If there had been such misapplication of money as was charged, it would be rebuked. He was especially anxious for an answer, because the public mind had been abused and poisoned on the subject.

Mr. NOBLE inquired whether the gentleman had ever visited Green's Row?

Mr. DUNN replied that he was not a frequenter of that place.

Mr. COX (Dem., Ohio) did not understand Mr. Dunn to say that the payments had been made according to law.

Mr. DUNN replied that if the negroes were employed by the Government they were entitled to compensation like white laborers. The Government could not vote money to them in charity.

Mr. COX said if his friend from Kentucky, as charged by Mr. Dunn, had offered such words as to poison the minds of the people, it was owing to the persistent and consistent action of the Republicans voting down resolutions to get at the truth.

Mr. DUNN-I did not.

Mr. COX knew he did not, but the resolutions for the ascertainment of the facts were voted down. But when a Republican (meaning Mr. Dunn) submitted one with a similar view, it was passed nem. con. He had heretofore stated that sixty negroes in the Department of South Carolina cost the Government $3,500 per month. While the gentleman from Indiana talked about poisoning the public mind, and the gentleman from New-York (Mr. Olin) about rant and fustian, why not let the facts come out? He did not believe that the latter's statement would prove correct. On the contrary, the most extravagant expenditures have been made without law and against the Constitution, which contained no warrant to tax white men for the benefit of negroes.

Mr. McPHERSON (Rep., Pa.) referred to the law of July 17, 1862, which provides that the services of negroes may be engaged for camp, fortification, and naval service, and they may be enrolled and organized under such regulations as may not be inconsistent with the Constitution and laws, and what precedent may prescribe. Another section also provides for paying them.

Mr. WICKLIFFE inquired if the old negro women and children brought hither were engaged on fortifications.

Mr. McPHERSON replied that that was a class with whom he was not at all familiar. He did not know how many negroes had been freed from Rebel masters. Something must be done with those who escaped. They could not be driven into the ocean.

Mr. White's amendment was rejected-29 against 72.

The House then took up Mr. Hooper's substitute for the original bill.

Mr. HOOPER (Rep., Mass.) caused a letter from the Secretary of the Treasury, dated Dec. 23, to be read, accompanying which was a bill embracing the latter's views, and commending to the most favorable consideration of the Committee for a banking organization. The Secretary of the Treasury had requested to be authorized to borrow $900,000,000 on such terms as the exigencies of the public service might require, and said that he should certainly prefer a much more limited authority, and it would be more gratifying and acceptable if Congress would designate what proportion of the aggregate should be obtained in each of the modes suggested. The bill upon which they had acted was not perfect without giving power for the issue of legal tender notes equal to the power of conversion to the notes issued on time. His (Hooper's) bill was mainly that prepared by the Secretary of the Treasury with modifications. He did not believe that the financial affairs of the Government could be successfully administered by the bill upon which the Committee had acted.

Mr. HORTON (Rep., Ohio) replied, opposing Mr. Hooper's bill, and saying the latter had brought to its support the sanction of the Secretary of the Treasury with the momentous authority of the Chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means, the gentleman from New-York, (Spalding), and a very eminent New-York financier. So this bill was a bastard of many fathers, and, like Joseph's coat, was of many colors.

Mr. Hooper's substitute was rejected by a vote of 31 against 79.

Mr. LOVEJOY (Rep., Ill.) offered a new section taxing bank circulation four per centum per annum.

Mr. WASHBURNE (Rep., Ill.) thought they should not shirk a fair vote on the subject, but take the question by Yeas and Nays in the House.

Others debated the question.

Mr. Lovejoy's section was rejected-29 against 79.

Mr. STEVENS (Rep., Pa.) substitute was now considered. He briefly explained its object.

Mr. MORRILL (Rep., Vt.) opposed it.

Mr. STRATTON (Rep., N. J.) spoke in favor of the bill, and moved that the Committee rise in order that the several bills be printed, and that Members might be allowed further time to examine them.

The Committee rose, and the House adjourned until Monday.