1801 Examination 2 · Founding Made Plain

1THE EXAMINATION.

2Number II.

3[New York, December 21, 1801]

4The next most prominent feature

5 in the Message,

6 is the proposal

7 to abandon at once

8 all the internal revenue

9 of the country.

10The motives avowed

11 for this astonishing scheme,

12 are that

13 "there is reasonable ground

14 of confidence

15 that this part of the revenue

16 may now be safely

17 dispensed with—

18 that the remaining sources

19 will be sufficient

20 to provide for the support

21 of government,

22 to pay the interest

23 of the public debt,

24 and to discharge the principal

25 in shorter periods

26 than the laws

27 or the general expectation

28 had contemplated—

29 and that though wars

30 and untoward events

31 might change this prospect

32 of things,

33 and call for expences

34 which the impost could not meet—

35 yet that sound principles

36 would not justify our taxing

37 the industry of our fellow-citizens

38 to accumulate treasure

39 for wars to happen

40 we know not when,

41 and which might not perhaps happen

42 but from the temptations

43 offered by that treasure."

44If we allow these

45 to be more than ostensible motives,

46 we shall be driven

47 to ascribe this conduct

48 to a deficiency of intellect,

49 and to an ignorance

50 of our financial arrangements,

51 greater than could have been

52 suspected;

53 if but ostensible,

54 it is then impossible

55 to trace the suggestion

56 to any other source

57 than the culpable desire

58 of gaining or securing popularity

59 at an immediate expense

60 of public utility,

61 equivalent, on a pecuniary scale,

62 to a million* of dollars annually;

63 and at the greater expense

64 of a very serious invasion

65 of our system of public credit.

66That these at least

67 are the certain consequences

68 of the measure,

69 shall be demonstrated

70 by arguments,

71 which are believed

72 to be unanswerable.

73To do this the more effectually,

74 it is necessary to premise,

75 that some of the revenues

76 now proposed to be relinquished,

77 are, with every solemnity of law,

78 pledged

79 for paying the interest

80 and redeeming the principal

81 of our public debt,

82 foreign and domestic.

83As to the interest,

84 and such parts of the principal

85 as by the original constitution

86 of the debt

87 are payable

88 by annual instalments,

89 the appropriation is absolute.

90As to the residue,

91 it is qualified.

92On the 3d of March, 1795,

93 was passed an act of Congress

94 which forms a main pillar

95 in the fabric of our public debt—

96 which, maturing and perfecting

97 the establishment

98 of a sinking fund,

99 endeavors, with peculiar solicitude,

100 to render it adequate,

101 effectual and inviolable:

102 by the 8th section of this act

103 it is provided,

104 "That all surpluses of the revenue,

105 which shall remain

106 at the end of any year,

107 and which at the next session

108 of Congress

109 shall not be otherwise appropriated

110 or reserved by law,

111 shall ipso facto become a part

112 of the "Sinking Fund""

113This fund,

114 by other provisions of the same act,

115 is vested in commissioners in trust,

116 to be applied

117 to the redemption of the debt,

118 by reimbursement or by purchase,

119 until the whole shall be extinguished:

120 and the faith of the United States

121 is expressly engaged,

122 that the moneys

123 which are to constitute the fund,

124 shall inviolably remain

125 so appropriated and vested,

126 until the redemption of the debt

127 shall be completely effected.

128The simple statement

129 of these provisions

130 goes far to confirm the character

131 which we have given

132 to the proposition.

133But a distinct examination

134 of the reasons

135 by which it is supported,

136 will, when taken in connection

137 with those provisions,

138 place beyond doubt

139 its absurd and pernicious tendency.

140The first inducement offered

141 for relinquishing

142 the internal revenue,

143 is a reasonable ground of confidence

144 that it may safely

145 be dispensed with.

146When it is considered

147 that we are in the very crisis

148 of an important change

149 of situation;

150 passing from a state

151 in which neutrality had procured

152 to our commerce,

153 and to the revenues depending on it,

154 a great artificial increase—

155 with good reason to look

156 for a diminution,

157 and without satisfactory data

158 to enable us to fix the extent

159 of this diminution:

160 can any thing be more rash,

161 more empirical,

162 than voluntarily to abandon

163 a valuable and growing branch

164 of income

165 of which we are already

166 in possession?

167Can it be said,

168 that merely

169 "a reasonable ground of confidence,"

170 is a sufficient warrant

171 for so important a surrender?

172Surely we ought to have been told

173 that there was at least

174 a moral certainty of the fact.

175But even this

176 would not have been deemed enough

177 by a prudent statesman.

178Nothing less

179 than experimental certainty

180 ought to have been relied upon.

181There was no pressure of circumstances

182 making it proper

183 to precipitate the measure.

184It would have been ridiculous

185 to pretend that the burden

186 is so heavy,

187 as to demand immediate relief;

188 and without this incentive

189 to relinquishment,

190 experience ought undoubtedly

191 to have been taken

192 as the only fit and sure guide.

193Not only is it problematical

194 what the present duties on imports

195 will for succeeding years produce;

196 but it is in a degree questionable,

197 whether it may not be found necessary

198 to reduce the rates.

199That they are now high,

200 when compared

201 with the commercial capital

202 of our country,

203 is not to be denied,

204 and whether they may not be found

205 too high

206 for a beneficial course

207 of our trade,

208 is yet to be decided by experiment.

209The latter augmentations

210 of the rates of duty

211 were made at times

212 and under circumstances

213 in the situations

214 of this and of other countries,

215 which forbid us to regard

216 past experience as conclusive

217 on the point.

218Should it be said in answer,

219 that the revenues can hereafter

220 be renewed,

221 if on trial it shall be found

222 that they have been

223 prematurely abandoned,

224 the decisive reply is,

225 that this is to invert

226 the natural order

227 of just reasoning.

228Were it now the question,

229 whether such revenues should be created,

230 in anticipation

231 of a possible deficiency,

232 the correct answer would be,

233 let experiment first ascertain

234 the necessity:

235 as they already exist,

236 on a question to abolish them,

237 the answer equally ought to be,

238 let experience first show them

239 to be unnecessary.

240But how can they be unnecessary?

241Let us grant

242 that the remaining sources

243 will be equal to the purposes

244 enumerated in the Message,

245 does it follow

246 that it will not still be wise

247 to retain the internal revenue?

248Is it not desirable

249 that government should have it

250 in its power

251 to discharge the debt faster

252 than may have been contemplated?

253Is not this a felicity

254 in our situation

255 which ought to be improved?

256A precious item

257 in the public fortune

258 which ought not rashly

259 to be squandered?

260But it is not even true

261 that the laws have exclusively

262 contemplated a definite period

263 for the ultimate redemption

264 of the entire debt.

265They have only made

266 a determinate provision

267 for its extinguishment,

268 at all events,

269 within a given term of years:

270 but, anxious to shorten the period,

271 they, in the clause

272 which has been quoted

273 respecting the surpluses of revenue,

274 have made an auxiliary provision

275 for the purpose

276 of abridging that term.

277The Message,

278 while it goes to impair the efficacy

279 of the principal provision,

280 proposes formally to renounce

281 the auxiliary,

282 and thus to disappoint

283 the provident care of the laws

284 to accelerate the discharge

285 of the debt.

286How is this reconcilable

287 with the wanton and unjust clamors

288 heretofore vented

289 against those

290 who projected and established

291 our present system

292 of public credit;

293 charging them with a design

294 to perpetuate the debt,

295 under the pretext

296 that a public debt

297 was a public blessing?

298It is not to be forgotten,

299 that in these clamors

300 Mr. Jefferson

301 liberally participated!

302Now, it seems,

303 the tone is entirely changed.

304The past administrations,

305 who had so long been calumniated

306 by the imputation

307 of that pernicious design,

308 are of a sudden discovered

309 to have done too much

310 for the speedy discharge

311 of the debt,

312 and its duration is to be prolonged,

313 by throwing away a part

314 of the fund destined

315 for its prompt redemption.

316Wonderful union

317 of consistency and wisdom!

318Before we yield our approbation

319 to the proposal,

320 we ought to have a guarantee

321 for the continuance of our peace,

322 long enough to give effect

323 to the leisurely operation

324 of that residue of the fund

325 which it is intended to retain:

326 else war,

327 which never fails to bring with it

328 an accumulation of debt,

329 may intervene,

330 and we may then rapidly hasten

331 to that period

332 when the exigencies of government

333 may render it necessary

334 to appropriate too large a portion

335 of the earnings of labor.

336To guard against

337 so unfortunate a result,

338 towards which there is always

339 too great a tendency

340 in the affairs of nations,

341 our past administrations

342 have evinced a deep foresight,

343 and exercised a truly patriotic care.

344Unhappy will it be,

345 if any succeeding projector

346 shall be permitted

347 to frustrate their salutary plan.

348It has been seen,

349 that the Message anticipates

350 and attempts to answer objections

351 to the dereliction of revenue:

352 it is said, that

353 "sound principles will not permit us

354 to tax the industry of our citizens

355 to accumulate treasure

356 for wars to happen

357 we know not when,

358 and which might not perhaps happen

359 but for the temptations

360 offered by that treasure."

361Unless, however,

362 the accumulation of treasure

363 be the necessary consequence

364 of retaining the revenue,

365 this argument is evidently futile.

366But the President

367 had only to open our statute book

368 to learn,

369 that this consequence is chimerical.

370All future surpluses of revenue,

371 being already eventually appropriated

372 to the discharge

373 of the public debt,

374 it follows

375 that till the whole debt

376 shall have been extinguished,

377 there could be no accumulation

378 of treasure—

379 no spoil from that source

380 to tempt the rapacity

381 of a greedy invader.

382Here we fix the charge

383 of ignorance

384 of our financial arrangements:

385 to which there can be no alternative

386 but a deliberate design

387 to delude the people.

388Between the two,

389 let the worshippers of the Idol

390 make their option.

391Lucius Crassus.

392New-York Evening Post, December 21, 1801.

393* This is taken as a round number.

394 The present nett product,

395 including the duties on stamps,

396 seems to be between eight

397 and nine hundred thousand.

398 Very speedily,

399 by the natural progress

400 of the country,

401 they would amount to a million,

402 and soon after exceed it.

403 A million therefore

404 is a moderate ratio.