Duty on Stills. the fruits crushed to pomace, the roots reduced to pulp, and the saccharine substance diluted in water, they all, after the extinction of their vital principle, and when mingled with a due proportion of humidity, and likewise moved by a proper degree of caloric or anticrouon, commence a train of intestine actions, called fermentation. In the course of these commotions among the particles of the fermenting materials, its original constitution is further destroyed or changed, and new products are formed. Among these is a vinous liquid, which, by the seasonable application of an increased and boiling heat, may be conex-verted into alcohol. The vats or tubs in which the fermentation is carried on may be made the measure of the duty on the spirit the fermenting mass is estimated to contain or afford. capacity, like that of the stills, may be ascertained by gauging. The fermentation may thus be made to furnish a rule whereby the amount of duty shall be calculated; the batch of beer, wort, or wash, be excised; or, rather, the future spirit will be dutied in the batch. On this view of the subject, the law might re- After the grain shall have been ground to meal, quire that each distiller should state the quantity and kind of the materials he means to employ for the purpose of extracting spirit, and that he should purchase a license from the revenue officer accordingly. The mode of grinding, fermenting, working, and preparing the materials might be left afterwards to his own skill and discretion. If, by extraordinary success in his operations, he should procure much spirit, pro rata, from his ingredients, let him, at least for the present, enjoy the benefit of his discoveries. An improved plan of arranging the fiscal as well as the economical details might be reasonably expected to arise, in due time, from careful and reiterated sets of periments. The Government, by making discreet and reasonable inquiry, would acquire and enjoy the ultimate advantage of them. A mode of laying such a duty may be conceived thus: (a) Grain.-Rye, A. Upon domestic materials. cents the bushel of cents the bushel of pounds. Rice, barley, or any other grain, cents the bushel of pounds. pounds. Maize, (b) Fruit, or its products.-Pomace or cider, cents the gallon. Mash of peaches, cents the gallon. Blackberries, gooseberries, or other fruits, cents the gallon of bruised pulp. (c) Roots, and their parts.-Potatoes, cents the bushel. Other roots, bushel. cents the (d) Saccharine juices, or sweets.-Domestic molasses, or sugar cane, grown within the United States, cents the gallon. Syrup or juice of the maple, cents the gallon. Juice of green maize, or other vegetables, cents the gallon. B. Upon foreign materials. An increased rate of duty, whenever they come under either of the preceding heads, of thirty per cent. on the existing ratio. The possession, by a distiller, of materials proper for distillation, other than his own crop, to be considered as prima facie evidence of an intention to distil them; but the possessor may show they were otherwise employed. The possession of a still, or distilling apparatus, to be presumptive evidence of an intention to distil, until the contrary shall be shown. The license may authorize the purchaser to distil as many bushels of grain, as many gallons of pomace or cider, as great a quantity of roots, or as much sweet or saccharine juice, as shall be therein expressed. Care might be taken to make him pay for a maximum; and he may afterwards be checked by the capacity of the still, and the duration for which it is employed. Upon this plan, it appears to me that a certain revenue can be laid and collected. The bulk of the materials would be adverse to concealment. There would be no espionage to offend the citizen by penetrating too deeply into his private affairs. 2d. Concerning the imposition of a duty upon the process of fermentation, when intended to prepare substances for eliciting distilled spirit. Their 3d. Concerning the laying a duty upon the process of distilling ardent spirit. This is the operation whereby a vinous fluid is atilized, or turned to vapor; it has, therefore, changed into alcohol. The liquid is readily volbeen called a spirit, or aerial thing. Being readily inflammable, it is termed ardent spirit. As one of its remarkable effects on the human constituthe inner coat of the stomach, is to produce drunktion, when applied to the olfactory organ, or to enness, it has been distinguished as intoxicating or inebriating spirit; and inasmuch as it has usually been prepared by that sort of alembic called the still, it has been known by the name of distilled spirit. This conversion takes place in consequence of new chemical affinities among the constituent parts or particles of the material or thing distilled. If it remained in the vat or tub in the ordinary temperature, the vinous would change to acetous; or, in other terms, the wine would turn to vinegar. By being exposed to a higher and quicker heat the fermentation is suddenly stopped, and a new product formed by the change of the vinous matter to spirituous, or by a conversion of wine to alcohol. In laying the duty upon this process of conversion, the capacity of the alembic, whether still, boiler, or any other vessel, has been considered by some as affording the best rule or criterion by which the product could be judged. I remember very well the difficulty which had arisen on this method of estimating the price of a license before the year 1802. Some of the distillers had discovered new and improved ways of working, by which they were running off greater quantities of spirit than had ever been practised. They who adopted these improvements actually procured unusual quantities of alcoholic fluid, through stills of very moderate capacities, in a surprisingly short time. This was effected chiefly by the construction of the distillatory vessels. They had broad bottoms, with an extensive sur Duty on Stills. ment for the privilege of converting vinous liquor into alcohol. The difficulties in the way of laying the duties in an equitable manner would be very much diminished if all the stills and apparatus for distillation were constructed upon one and an uniform plan, and all of them worked, as then they would be, by a similar and corresponding process. These inequalities may be referred to four principal heads: 1. Of stills constructed upon the old plan. 2. Of stills constructed not exactly upon the old plan, and yet not upon the best modern improveaid of steam, or boiling vapor. 3. Boilers, or a distilling apparatus worked by ment. face for exposure to the fire; they had low heads, so that the vapor had but a short distance to rise. The heads were capacious, enabling the condensation to be performed there, and within them. Such condensation altered the capacity of the spirit to contain caloric. While in the vaporous state, the spirit contained a large proportion of caloric; on condensing to liquid, its capacity for caloric was so much diminished, that a great deal was left for absorption by the surrounding bodies. To receive this disengaged and abundant caloric, the distiller had aptly contrived to surround the head of his still by water, or by the fermenting liquid of the vat. If water was employed, it became heated, by this admirable piece of economy, to a degree fit to answer the purpose of macerating and fermenting the raw material in the tubs or vats. If the wort, beer, or fermented mass, was made to encircle or surround the head of the still, that wort, beer, or fermented material itself became heated, and prepared the better to be received into the body of the still. While condensation of vapor is going on within the head, the distillation. Consequently, a high duty laid upon spirit so brought to a liquid state on its inner sur- the capacity of such, according to the rates of face was received, as it trickled down, into a sort the most improved still, would bear heavily and of canal, trough, or gutter, near the neck of the unequally. It must check the progress of distilstill, and carried through the worm to the ex-lation, by forcing a number of the distilleries to tremity of the tube, to be drawn off. By this contrivance, the liquid spirit condensed in the head was collected within the neck, and, instead of falling back into the body of the still, to be elevated by force of fire anew, was fairly carried off, very economically, at once. For certain facts and proceedings relative to distillation, I refer to the report of the Committee of Ways and Means for 1802, as it is recorded substantially in the sixth volume of the Medical Repository, page 208, and to the eighth volume of the same work, pages 148 to 164, for a review of Krafft's American Distiller. In the former of these, the quantity actually distilled is considered the only sure test; and, in the latter, it is shown how a still of small capacity may produce a great quantity of spirit. 4. Of other modern contrivances, such as log stills, rectifying vats, and some other utensils, not belonging strictly to either of the former descriptions. I consider some of these as inferior modes of stop; for the man who used the most improved still, and performed three times as much work, paid no more duty than his neighbor who distilled only a third upon the same tax. The enemy of distilled spirits has no cause for exultation on this event. The deficiency of domestic liquors was made up by importations from foreign places. Rum has been brought from the West Indies to supply the want of whiskey, A policy in the British colonies favorable to distilling for exportation furnished the spirit drinkers among ourselves with as much as they desired. Congress, if I rightly understand their statute on the subject, make the capacity of the still the rule whereby the duty is laid and collected. The acknowledged inequality of this rule is not very easy to correct. There are stills constructed The advantages derived from the new mode of in the old way, with contracted bottoms, enlarged constructing stills rendered the duty then in force bellies, long necks, and high small heads. Some upon their capacities so unequal and inefficient, of these have been erected at great expense; the that an immediate remedy was demanded. Some proprietors do not incline to pull them down and progress had been made in devising a legislative erect modern stills in their stead; but they perexpedient by the proper authorities, when it was severe in working them under all the comparative determined by Congress that the internal taxes disadvantages. In many instances these distilshould be repealed. That act, the moment itleries, with their fixtures and apparatus, are let took place, superseded all further attempts to raise money for the Treasury by a duty on distillation. The subject was dismissed from the investigation of our political economists. But the invention of distillers was as active and busy as ever. Persevering in their efforts, they went on, adding one improvement to another, until they have facilitated and cheapened the process of distillation, and the art of procuring ardent spirit from the crude material, almost as much as is practicable. or leased to other persons. It cannot be expected that a short lessee or temporary tenant will cause expensive alterations to be made, which the landlord or proprietor himself would not authorize or undertake. The person who occupies such a distillery works the existing apparatus in the best way he can; but if he pays the duty on the capacity at the rate required for improved and modern stills, he pays proportionably, perhaps, a double duty and more. At length, after so many amendments in the It has been said this inconvenience is chargedistilling apparatus, and so many alterations in the able to the ignorance and obstinacy of the owner, distilling process, the Government once more or his lessee, who might change the form of their came forward and demanded of the distillers pay-stills, and put themselves on a footing with their Duty on Stills. neighbors. So they might, and of right they ought to do so. It is not wholly conformable to our usages to direct individuals how to conduct their private concerns; yet, in the materials, and sometimes in the manner and place of constructing houses; in the execution and registry of deeds, mortgages, and wills; in the navigation of ships; in the importation of merchandise, and many other cases, the Legislature beneficially interferes and directs. So, in the present instance, the Government might, upon considerations of the soundest policy, refuse altogether to grant licenses to those old-fashioned stills. It might be declared that licenses should be granted to stills on Anderson's, Krafft's, or Parsons's construction, or any preferable one which the Treasury should choose. This would stop all the others, and compel the present complaining owners and possessors to model them anew, conformably to the provisions of law. Such a regulation might seem to border rather more upon the imperative than could be wished. In reality I believe it would be found far less inconvenient than at first sight it appears. Already the old stills are a sort of depreciated property; in the progress of improvement their value must suffer a further diminution. A distiller, whether he owns the establishment he works, or hires it of his neighbor, will reasonably wish to pursue his business in the approved and modern way. A distillery upon the improved plan is worth more money to the proprietor, even if he works it himself; it will bring more rent if he lets it to another; therefore, the alteration necessary to bring the old-fashioned still to the modern standard of excellence, though expensive in the first instance, will, in the end, be substantially better both for the owner and occupant; the improvement will enable him to do more business; his work will be performed in an easier and better manner. The practical result from the whole is, that the new fixtures and apparatus being made to conform to the new principles of distillation, the inequality arising from the unequal quantities distilled in different distilleries, under the same duties, will be wholly done away, or reduced to a trifling variation. Such a regulation of stills I conceive to be a Constitutional power. My experiments and observations convince me it is necessary to render them as uniform as possible, that the duty may also be equalized as nearly as practicable. There is no expedient within my knowledge that promises so fair and equal a result; it ought to be required of all distilleries to comply with the rule, and all will then be upon equal terms. But while a marked difference exists in the construction and working of the distilling apparatus, I question very much whether any rule can be found that will apply to them all; at least I must own that the experiments whence such a regulation can be deduced are not within the circle of my knowledge. In this case the alleged inconvenience to the citizen will be pronounced by the liberal and patriotic statesman as one to which he ought to submit for the public good. It is obligatory on him to comply, and cheerfully too, with so reasonable a requisition. No man is obliged to distil ardent spirit; they who embark in the business are bound by feelings of respect to the Government, and of obedience to its wise and wholesome laws, to comply with a rule so practicable and so useful. Upon a moral contemplation of this subject the argument is conclusive in favor of the project now offered; the baneful effects of numerous small stills all over the country are universally acknowledged; their number ought to be lessened. The business would be rendered more easy for the collectors of the revenue, if licenses should be refused, peremptorily, to all stills of a smaller capacity than say thirty gallons. I should recommend such a restriction, both as salutary in its tendency, and beneficial to the revenue. The Government, which concedes a great deal to the accommodation of the citizen, may expect in return some condescension, some conciliation on the part of the citizen. If our people, in the exercise of their inventive powers, choose to modify their apparatus a thousand different ways, I see no ground of substantial justice or of sound policy that should induce the Legislature to follow them through all their meandering and devious courses. If, nevertheless, Congress should not judge it safe to proceed in this way, nor feel an inclination to reform, by this radical measure, the actual irregularities, it is much to be feared no method can be adopted that will go so far to equalize the duty on the process for forming alcohol. Hitherto I have indulged my thoughts conformably to the instructions received from the Commissioner of the Revenue, to devise some new method of imposing the duty, in such way as will lay an equal burden on the materials and vessels used in distillation. On summing up the evidence upon this part of the inquiry, the following conclusions rationally present themselves: First, the duty on the raw material may certainly be made as uniform as anything that is the subject of legislation. A distiller pays for the quantity he means to work up, and for no more; the main difficulty will be to prevent his working up more than he pays for; yet a due degree of vigilance will methodize this matter tolerably well. Second, the same remak may be applied to the fermenting vat. The capacity of this reservoir or vessel, ascertained by the gauger, will afford a rule by which the duty may be evenly and regularly estimated. But magnitude will not disclose the frequency of the charges, nor will it show how often the industry and skill of the distiller shall repeat his fermenting batches. The presumption arising from a knowledge of the quantity of materials that may be fermented at a time, and an acquaintance with the term for which a license is taken out, with some other particulars and details, will enable a tolerably correct opinion to be formed of the quantity of grain, fruits, Duty on Stills. roots, or juices intended to be distilled; the tub or vat may be rated accordingly. The rule thus, with all its imperfections, will be found full as good as that which refers to the capacity of the still, without knowing how frequently it is charged and discharged. For the reason stated in the Commissioner's letter, I have endeavored to avoid the stationing an officer in the distillery to determine the quantity of beer or wort; but simply to use the ascertained capacity of the mashtub or fermenting vat, as a sort of index to the amount of alcoholic liquor the distiller intended to prepare. To this it is probable the habits of our citizens would oppose no serious objection. The small variance that might exist in the fermenting process of different vessels will, it is believed, make no memorable difference in the proceeds. A person experimentally conversant in these proceedings would not fail to urge the importance of causing all the fermenting vessels to be constructed according to a form which the law might prescribe, or empower the revenue department to direct. am now considering them, should be conformed to a special regulation. To render it as little inconvenient as possible, the regulation might go into effect at an assigned future day, say six or twelve months after the passing of the act; until then the present rate of duty might be continued ; as at present, stills ought to be subjected to the lowest rate of duty. As far as experiments warrant a conclusion, they will hereafter be continued at the most moderate tax of the three grades. It might be easy for Congress to favor those persons who promptly complied with the new and improved system, by exempting such as were willing and obedient from the payment of the duty for three or six months, as an indemnity, encouragement, or reward. Third, the uniformity already recommended in the construction of stills will naturally lead to an equalization of the duty upon them. When the vessels, apparatus, and utensils of one distil-sils lery shall be similar to those of another, the respective proprietors will have no cause to complain of disparity; nor will the revenue department be puzzled, as at present, for a rule by which equal justice may be measured to all. Fourth. Concerning the imposition of a duty upon the distilled product itself. This is introduced into this report chiefly for the sake of method; being not a part of the subject referred, it is not discussed. But if it had been proposed for my consideration, it might have been rapidly disposed of, inasmuch as other Governments furnish volumes of precedent and practice in relation to it. I have thus considered, in such way as I supposed pertinent, the four fundamental modes of equalizing the duty; but I have by no means exhausted the subject; other modes of laying it upon the distilling process remain to be mentioned. Should Congress not venture to regulate, by law, the construction of stills, nor to refuse licenses to those below a certain and defined capacity, another expedient may be tried. This consists in arranging all distillatory vessels under three heads: 1. Stills, properly so called. 2. Boilers, where steam is an auxiliary. 3. New improvements on both, and preferred to both; of which preference the erection should be considered as evidence. I shall examine them separately. 1. There is no need of defining what particular apparatus, or connexion of vessels and implements, constitute a still. I take it for granted the meaning is perfectly understood by those who superintend the revenue, as well as by those who prepare alcohol. It might be insisted that all the vessels coming under the character of stills, as I I present this to your judgment as a cardinal point, under a firm persuasion that, with prudent management, the reform may be wrought in a tranquillizing manner, without oppressing, or even alarming the citizen. The proposed amendment in the system will be gradually introduced, and in the end be as favorable to the interest and comfort of the distiller as to the uniformity of laying the duty, and the ease of collecting it. 2. Boilers, as the act expresses it, are the utenemployed for the purpose of generating steam in those distilleries where wooden or other vessels are used instead of metal stills, and the action of steam is substituted for the immediate application of fire to the materials from which spirituous liquors are distilled. I have not, as yet, been satisfied, during the short and limited time allowed by the authority under which I act, that there can be any practical distinction established between the several sorts of boilers; all of them are utensils or instruments of a similar nature; they depend upon the same principle; they are so analogous in their nature and construction that they ought to form a distinct and separate class of cases. I therefore recommend that measures be taken to cause boilers to be constructed according to a prescribed rule, model, or form. They will thus be clearly discriminated from stills, and be arranged entirely by themselves. This may be done under the same provisions, mutatis mutandis, as for stills. It will produce uniformity, or an approximation to it, near enough for the purposes of revenue; it being understood what a boiler is, as contradistinguished from a still, and all the implements of that kind classed together, they may all be dutied upon a principle deduced therefrom, and pervading the whole class. The existing statute appears to me to be correct in deciding that boilers should pay a higher duty than stills. As far as my mind is guided by experimental assays, the present rate of a double duty is as low as the distiller ought to pay, or the Government to receive. 3. But I would place in a third class all the vessels and implements for distillation varying from stills and boilers at the time of passing the law, and comprehending all improvements in distillation after the act went into operation. To this class of cases an additional amount or third rate of duty ought to attach. This augmented Duty on Stills. sum may be reasonably demanded, under a pre-equal or even a greater quantity than, under a sumption that the newest method adopted is pre- slow movement, will be conveyed by a larger one. ferable to any other in use, or the distiller would The diameter thus affording no safe criterion, any not employ it. To erect and work such appa- duty predicated upon it would, as far as my obratus would admit a construction that it possesses servation and judgment go, be but a mere esticertain advantages. A greater quantity of spirit mate, and a very rough one too, of the duty that prepared by each gallon of such vessel's capacity a boiler ought to pay. probably subjects that vessel to an increased tax. The proposal now offered will, it is hoped, serve as a reply to that paragraph of the Commissioner's letter relating to "probable cases arising from new forms of distilling vessels that may be introduced into use." The regulations of law may then follow close by on the heels of discoveries, if they do not travel pari passu with them. Thus I have endeavored to fulfil the promise I made you, by submitting to your discernment my views of a radical cure for the disorder; and, if that should be declined, of a palliative course of treatment. Some other ideas press forward with earnestness, and importune me to reduce them to writing. I gratify them, and honor them by an incorporation into this report. Read on, and you will discover them. The intricacy of tracing the application of steam to a measure of capacity of any kind is increased by the constant progress of invention and discovery. The talent of our citizens is incessantly occupied in devising novel and improved methods of doing business. One of the later contrivances, and a most ingenious one too, is to carry the alcoholic vapor of the still direct into a wooden vessel of clean water. The steam of the spirit soon raises the water to the boiling point. It then distils over into another vessel containing water, which, being heated in like manner by the condensed steam, passes over to a succeeding one. This operation is carried on through a series of vessels, which perform the work of distillation and rectification at once. And, in the midst of all these operations, conI have attended to the Commissioner's sugges- ducted by means of capacious and successive tions of proportioning the duty, in an inverse boilers, the duty is construed to attach the body ratio, to the height the spirit has to rise from the of the still, or there is a dispute, or perhaps a bottom of the still. It does not appear, from ex-lawsuit, with the collector about it. periments, that anything could be gained by that Experiments are likewise making to distil spiexpedient; for it would be easy to construct stills rits in an apparatus exhausted of atmospheric air. exceedingly low, and to take off the spirit a few By performing the operation in vacuo, it is prefeet from the bottom. The breadth and extent of sumed much fuel will be saved, on account of the the evaporating surface might be substituted for easier rise of vapor. The authors of this project height in estimating the amount of liquor dis- are very sanguine in their expectation of a highly tilled. Besides, the dissimilar forms of the still, advantageous result. It is within my knowledge the different area of surface receiving caloric and that attempts are making to quicken and econoexhaling vapor, the disproportionate skill and mize the evaporating or distilling progress by the convenience for applying the fire, and several removal of atmospheric pressure. The continuother incidents to the process, all concur to pro-ance of experiments will, in time, show their duce varying results, which are not sufficiently bearing and importance. digested to constitute the basis of any fiscal arrangement that aims at correctness. The way of laying the duty upon the steam tube, when traced to its source, resolves itself into a duty on the fireplace, or rather into a duty upon the fuel consumed in the fireplace of a distillery. I shall offer a few remarks upon the project of laying the duties on the fuel employed in distilling spirits before I conclude my task. The means of surmounting these anomalies are comprehended in the modes of reform proposed in the preceding part of this report, of the distilling apparatus itself. Until something of this kind shall be done, I do not perceive how there can be either a uniform or equal method of laying the duty. But that uniformity being once established in the construction of stills, will lead, of course, to uniformity in the mode of working them, and thereby an equalization of the product be so far estimated, that, taking the several parts of the operation together, a rule may be discovered for fixing the duty in a fair and equaling quantity of spirit. There may be small variway upon their evaporating surfaces. It is also suggested by the Commissioner of the Revenue, that possibly the capacity of the vessels conveying the steam might constitute a better principle for the imposition of the duty than the capacity of the vessels in which it is generated. I have attended to this point as minutely as I could; and have not been able to derive from it any practical rule. The main difficulty arises from the velocity of steam, like that of any other fluid in a small pipe, enabling it to transmit an The capacity of the fireplace has been proposed as the measure of the duty. To me the fuel actually consumed in a distillery seems preferable. The quantity of fuel burned per month or per year in a distillery can be ascertained exactly. Each cord of wood, or an equivalent in coal, may be estimated to produce a correspond ations, according as maple, birch, beech, oak, hickory, pine, or any other wood is employed. The calculation might be made upon oak, as the most common in the United States. The average ratio between the fuel burned and the spirit produced can be ascertained without any serious difficulty. Fire is the agent by means of which vinous matter is turned to alcoholic. If the quantity and strength of the agent could be measured, such measure would be precisely what we want. The |