To Mr. Errett, Of Pittsburgh. Lower Saginaw, Mich. August 5...

[To Mr. Errelt, of Pütsburgh. Lowek Saginaw, Mich. ? August 5, 1844. 5 Dear Sir-: - Your friendly letter of 12th Ju-Iy, reached me more than a week ago. Agricultural calis, particular! y imperative on. us here at this season of the year, have prevented my answeringit till to-day. Their continuing pressure vill compel me, now, in replying to your letter,- to confine myself rather to a statement of the conclusions I have been brought to on the táriíf question, than to insisting on the reasonings by which I have been led to them. That our government will ever adopt direct taxation of any sort, as a permanent revenue-system, seems to me altogether improbable: - at least, too improbable, to serve as a basis to reason from. A commercial people, as we are, will draw their revenue from the Custo?ns. They will believe- and rightly, as it strikes me - that the proper objects of taxation may be as effectually and as equitably reached by this mode as any other. A tariíf for revenue to meet the ordinary expenditures of the government will have to be the rule. ' This once settled, should occasions arise dernanding exiraordinary e.vpenditures, the people will eheerfully consent to higher duties to meet exigency. But higher duties than are necessary for revenue will never, I apprehend become the permanent policy of the country. It would not be acquiesced in by a majority so largely preponderant as to produce even silent submission, much less cheerful assent to ! it, oiy ihe part of the minority. The moral influenceof our political imtitutions forbids our looking forsucha result. These institutions have impressed on usthe sentiment, that any inequahty of right to enjoy all the benefits flowing out of the action of the government is unjust. The existrng generalion has grown up under this infíuence. It has begotten in them strong repugnance - hay, even a spirit of resistance to any and every thing that has even the semblanee of immunity or privilege conferred on a particular port ion of the community. Right or or wrong, they believe it savoïs of the Aristocraiical, in the most odious senseof that word, as it is received- and naturally enough - by s people whose' Constitution and form of government declares them all equally entitled to its benefits. To insist on a protective tariff, then, further than a revenue tarift" can be made protective, is, as it seems to me, to oppose ihe natural - the constant and therefore, in the the irresistible influence öf principies that lie at the foundation of our politica! organization. There are other eircutnstances foo important to be passed by unnotieedv The uninterrupted peace that we' have enjoyed with European nations, and that they have generally enjoyed among themselves for now more than a quarter of a eentury - the neafness into which this happy relation, aided by the steam-engine, has brought us them- the cönstaney of our mutual intercourse with them - the sympathy and co-operation that this intercourse has already brought about among the good and the learned among ourselves and in other countries, in the pursuits of humanity, literature and science- the ties that íf has created by marriages and in business of almost every name and description- ties that, under its influence, are multiplying 6 strengthening themselves every day - all, all contribute to arouse and fo&ter ourdiscontentat buing eompelled to pay, at New York or Philadelphia, doublé price for articles made in Birmingham or Lyojis, merely toencourage, comparatively, a very few in our own country to engage in the competition to produce thein. It is true, that these causes are almost imperceptible in their processes - but they are, on that account, the harder to be rcslsted. - They may be slow auxiliarles, but unlcss I am greatly deceived as to their power, they will be found sure ones, in removing the obstacles yet remaining in the way of Labor every where receiving all that it can justly Jay claim to. The sentiments I have expressed above would not, I know, meet with acceptance in many parts of the country. Many, even of the most faithful of the Liberty party would probably dissent from them. I have not been forward to publish them, lest, by doing so, I might, in some degree, contribute to divert our friends from our paramount object, the overlhrow of the slave power; - andwbecause I feit well assured, as I still do, that if the Liberty party come into power, the whole country will soon be brough into the most favorable circumstances for harmonizing all its apparently discordant interests, and for settling on their proper bases all the important existing questions of national policy. Now, the labor of the country is made up of two hostile parts - slave and free. Irreconcileable ia their nature, they can never be brought to opératemoniously together under one system of legislation. Let no one, then, look for jarrings and dissensions to pass away from among us, till slave labor haye passed away, or be seen to be passing avay with.a certainty of its speedy and entire disappearance. The accession to power of the Liberty party implies - as I take it- the speedy extinction of slavery every where within our country; and, of course, the bringing of all its Labor into a homogeneous state. Till our labor be brought into this state, all legislation for its benefit must, necessarily, be, in agreat measure, unavailing; and this can be done only by the extinetion of Slavery. But you are ready to ask, how coüld the Liberty party, if in power, extinguish slavery, seeing, as is admitted on nearly all hands, that the general government - except as a war measure, to save itself - has no constitutional power over" that insfitution in the States? I reply - aíl that is necessary to be done, is, for the appointing' power of the general government to bring into offices and stations of honor and trust and profit, thoughout the south, only sueh as are not slave holders - only such as practically acknowledge, that all men arecreated equal and entitled to their lives and liberty. - No objection can be made to the constitutionality of such a course. It is as simple, too, as it is constitutional, and it wili be found as effeetive as it is simple, lts spirit and object would cotnmend it to all, except the slaveholders themselves; for I have always found it true, that however ilow a people may themselves be, to put away wrong from among them, yet Vben snee justice is boldly done on it bv theirmiers, the act never i'ails of receiving their heartiest sanction and approbation. The slaveholders would at first huddle together for their mutual defence. Büt it would be unavailing. They could no more withstand the influeiice of public opinión, now purified by an illustriousact of justice, and ilaming on them frorn every side, than the snow drift of ah April night can withstand the meridian rays of the next day's sun. I have written you a múch longer letter than I intended when I commenced writing. The use you may rnake of it is left entifely at your discretion. I impose no terms of a "cohfidential" character. I entertain no opinions on subjects of general concern, to which ïny fe'Uow citizens who fee! interested to know them are not perfecfly welcom'e. My opinions are the offspring of the best data that I can command. As long as I believe them true, I respect thern too highly to be ashamed of them. If 1 ascertain them to be false, it costs me no struggle to disown them. A single' remark 1 beg to add to what I have said on live tariff. ï am opposed to all rash legislation or to vialent changes in the e.xisting order of things when lawful interests have become implicated with it. Were I now a member of Congress, I should oppose the repeal of the present tariff, before it was' fairlv and fully triecL If it shouM be found to work well for the country, and the country generally were satisfie'd with it. I should continue to support it. In this case, my theory would be proved false by facts- ag'ainst wliich no' theory ought to be maintained. But should it Vorlc i 11 for the country, and there should be a growing discohtent with it, I should favor its reduction to the revenue standard - but so graduall}r, that all the interests involvedin it miglit, ia the highest possible degree, be saved Trom loss. I am, sir, very respecifully, Your obedient serva nt, JAMES G. B1RNEY.