February 5, 1861; The Charleston Mercury
One of the most important, if not the greatest, of all questions to be brought before the Southern Congress, will be the question of taxation. Shall the treasury of the new confederacy be filled by direct or indirect taxation? As a measure of taxation alone, the latter method, whose practical application is by a tariff of duties on imports, recommends itself by the consideration that the tax is included in the price of the imported commodity when it is sold, and eluding observation, is more willingly borne by the people. If the object of governments was to raise money, the scheme that would enable them to extort the most out of the people ought perhaps to obtain the preference over all others. But since it is or ought to be the object of every people to have the public business of the country transacted as cheaply as may be consistent with the respectability and dignity of their government, the method of taxation that reveals to them most faithfully and promptly the true cost of the government, and the real source from whence the taxes are drawn, should certainly command this preference….