771Import Duties, [20 April] 1789 (Madison Papers)
FitzSimons proposed a drawback of six cents per gallon on exports of rum distilled in the United States. Mr. Madison Was sorry the gentlemen from Massachusetts were absent, because they could give authentic information with respect to the quantity. He had in his hands a state of the exports from Massachusetts, which he believed to be pretty accurate, from January 1, to December 31, 1787. From...
772Tonnage Duties, [21 April] 1789 (Madison Papers)
The tonnage duty on vessels belonging to subjects of countries having a commercial treaty with the United States, or belonging partly to such subjects and partly to United States citizens, was under debate. Goodhue moved for a sixty-cent rate. Mr. Madison . Some gentlemen have seemed to call in question the policy of discriminating between nations in commercial alliance with the United States,...
773Import Duties, [24 April] 1789 (Madison Papers)
Formal consideration of the Committee of the Whole report was now before the House. Several representatives argued that the proposed fifteen-cent duty on Jamaica rum was too high. Mr. Madison . The question is not whether the whole scale of duties agreed to in the committee shall be reduced, but whether the particular duty on the article of spirit; I will not differ with the gentlemen...
774Import Duties, [25 April] 1789 (Madison Papers)
A fifteen-cent duty on Jamaica rum was approved. The House then took up the twelve-cent duty on other spirits. Smith (Maryland), in order to introduce the principle of discrimination between treaty and nontreaty countries, moved for a six-cent per gallon duty on French brandy ( Gazette of the U.S. , 29 Apr. 1789). Mr. Madison . Discriminations however small may have a good political effect;...
775Import Duties, [28 April] 1789 (Madison Papers)
Goodhue, Gerry, and Thatcher of Massachusetts objected to the six-cent duty on molasses as ruinous to the Massachusetts fishing industry and rum distillers and burdensome to the poor. Mr. Madison . I shall make no observation, Mr. Speaker, upon the language of the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Thatcher) because I do not conceive it expresses either the deliberate temper of his own mind, or...