It seems to me we are strangely insensible to that lesson of history.

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…

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.

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…

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.

There are strong reasons against any tax on coal; and the reasons are stronger still against this increased tax.

This might be advantageous to certain proprietors, but it must be damaging to the country.

But this tax will be positively oppressive to coal-purchasers in New England, to say nothing of New York.

This is the greatest coal-field, as it is also the greatest corn-field, in the world.

If Pittsburg complains of coal at two dollars a ton, what must Boston say, when you make it nine dollars?

But I forget: there can be no wisdom without justice.

If it be said that the interests of New England are protected even by the bill before the Senate, I have to say in reply, that no interest of hers is protected at the expense of the rest of the country.

Let it be shown that there is any part of the country which will suffer from the favor accorded to New England as her coal-purchasers must suffer from the favor accorded to the distant coal-owners of the mountains, and I will do what I can…

I ask nothing but that justice which I am always willing to accord.

We constitute parts of one country with common interests, and the prosperity of each is bound up in the prosperity of all.

But the Cumberland coal is so completely adapted to glassworks, railways, ocean steamships, blacksmiths’ forges, that it may be said to command the market exclusively.

There are peculiar reasons why coal should be cheap, whether viewed as a necessary or as a motive power.

As a necessary, it enters into the comforts of life; as a motive power, it is the substitute for water-power.

What reason can you give for a tax on motive power from coal which is not equally strong for a tax on motive power from water, unless it be that one is “black” and the other is “white”?

I plead that you shall not needlessly add to the public burden in a particular portion of the country.

Next after the industry of a people is cheap coal, as an element of national prosperity.

Without it, even industry will lose much of its activity and variety.

It is coal that has vitalized and quickened all the mighty energies of England.

From coal have come all the various products of her manufactories, and these again have furnished the freights for her ships, so that she has become not only a great manufacturing nation, but also a great commercial nation.