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To The People of
the State of New York:
OOOOTHE effects of Union upon the
commercial prosperity of the States have been sufficiently delineated.
Its tendency to promote the interests of revenue will be the subject
of our present inquiry.
OOOOThe prosperity of commerce is now
perceived and acknowledged by all enlightened statesmen to be the most
useful as well as the most productive source of national wealth, and
has accordingly become a primary object of their political cares. By
multipying the means of gratification, by promoting the introduction
and circulation of the precious metals, those darling objects of human
avarice and enterprise, it serves to vivify and invigorate the
channels of industry, and to make them flow with greater activity and
copiousness. The assiduous merchant, the laborious husbandman, the
active mechanic, and the industrious manufacturer,--all orders of men,
look forward with eager expectation and growing alacrity to this
pleasing reward of their toils. The often-agitated question between
agriculture and commerce has, from indubitable experience, received a
decision which has silenced the rivalship that once subsisted between
them, and has proved, to the satisfaction of their friends, that their
interests are intimately blended and interwoven. It has been found in
various countries that, in proportion as commerce has flourished, land
has risen in value. And how could it have happened otherwise? Could
that which procures a freer vent for the products of the earth, which
furnishes new incitements to the cultivation of land, which is the
most powerful instrument in increasing the quantity of money in a
state--could that, in fine, which is the faithful handmaid of labor
and industry, in every shape, fail to augment that article, which is
the prolific parent of far the greatest part of the objects upon which
they are exerted? It is astonishing that so simple a truth should ever
have had an adversary; and it is one, among a multitude of proofs, how
apt a spirit of ill-informed jealousy, or of too great abstraction and
refinement, is to lead men astray from the plainest truths of reason
and conviction.
OOOOThe ability of a country to pay
taxes must always be proportioned, in a great degree, to the quantity
of money in circulation, and to the celerity with which it circulates.
Commerce, contributing to both these objects, must of necessity render
the payment of taxes easier, and facilitate the requisite supplies to
the treasury. The hereditary dominions of the Emperor of Germany
contain a great extent of fertile, cultivated, and populous territory,
a large proportion of which is situated in mild and luxuriant
climates. In some parts of this territory are to be found the best
gold and silver mines in Europe. And yet, from the want of the
fostering influence of commerce, that monarch can boast but slender
revenues. He has several times been compelled to owe obligations to
the pecuniary succors of other nations for the preservation of his
essential interests, and is unable, upon the strength of his own
resources, to sustain a long or continued war.
OOOOBut it is not in this aspect of the
subject alone that Union will be seen to conduce to the purpose of
revenue. There are other points of view, in which its influence will
appear more immediate and decisive. It is evident from the state of
the country, from the habits of the people, from the experience we
have had on the point itself, that it is impracticable to raise any
very considerable sums by direct taxation. Tax laws have in vain been
multiplied; new methods to enforce the collection have in vain been
tried; the public expectation has been uniformly disappointed, and the
treasuries of the States have remained empty. The popular system of
administration inherent in the nature of popular government,
coinciding with the real scarcity of money incident to a languid and
mutilated state of trade, has hitherto defeated every experiment for
extensive collections, and has at length taught the different
legislatures the folly of attempting them.
OOOONo person acquainted with what
happens in other countries will be surprised at this circumstance. In
so opulent a nation as that of Britain, where direct taxes from
superior wealth must be much more tolerable, and, from the vigor of
the government, much more practicable, than in America, far the
greatest part of the national revenue is derived from taxes of the
indirect kind, from imposts, and from excises. Duties on imported
articles form a large branch of this latter description.
OOOOIn America, it is evident that we
must a long time depend for the means of revenue chiefly on such
duties. In most parts of it, excises must be confined within a narrow
compass. The genius of the people will ill brook the inquisitive and
peremptory spirit of excise laws. The pockets of the farmers, on the
other hand, will reluctantly yield but scanty supplies, in the
unwelcome shape of impositions on their houses and lands; and personal
property is too precarious and invisible a fund to be laid hold of in
any other way than by the inperceptible agency of taxes on
consumption.
OOOOIf these remarks have any
foundation, that state of things which will best enable us to improve
and extend so valuable a resource must be best adapted to our
political welfare. And it cannot admit of a serious doubt, that this
state of things must rest on the basis of a general Union. As far as
this would be conducive to the interests of commerce, so far it must
tend to the extension of the revenue to be drawn from that source. As
far as it would contribute to rendering regulations for the collection
of the duties more simple and efficacious, so far it must serve to
answer the purposes of making the same rate of duties more productive,
and of putting it into the power of the government to increase the
rate without prejudice to trade.
OOOOThe relative situation of these
States; the number of rivers with which they are intersected, and of
bays that wash there shores; the facility of communication in every
direction; the affinity of language and manners; the familiar habits
of intercourse; --all these are circumstances that would conspire to
render an illicit trade between them a matter of little difficulty,
and would insure frequent evasions of the commercial regulations of
each other. The separate States or confederacies would be necessitated
by mutual jealousy to avoid the temptations to that kind of trade by
the lowness of their duties. The temper of our governments, for a long
time to come, would not permit those rigorous precautions by which the
European nations guard the avenues into their respective countries, as
well by land as by water; and which, even there, are found
insufficient obstacles to the adventurous stratagems of avarice.
OOOOIn France, there is an army of
patrols (as they are called) constantly employed to secure their
fiscal regulations against the inroads of the dealers in contraband
trade. Mr. Neckar computes the number of these patrols at upwards of
twenty thousand. This shows the immense difficulty in preventing that
species of traffic, where there is an inland communication, and places
in a strong light the disadvantages with which the collection of
duties in this country would be encumbered, if by disunion the States
should be placed in a situation, with respect to each other,
resembling that of France with respect to her neighbors. The arbitrary
and vexatious powers with which the patrols are necessarily armed,
would be intolerable in a free country.
OOOOIf, on the contrary, there be but
one government pervading all the States, there will be, as to the
principal part of our commerce, but ONE SIDE to guard--the ATLANTIC
COAST. Vessels arriving directly from foreign countries, laden with
valuable cargoes, would rarely choose to hazard themselves to the
complicated and critical perils which would attend attempts to unlade
prior to their coming into port. They would have to dread both the
dangers of the coast, and of detection, as well after as before their
arrival at the places of their final destination. An ordinary degree
of vigilance would be competent to the prevention of any material
infractions upon the rights of the revenue. A few armed vessels,
judiciously stationed at the entrances of our ports, might at a small
expense be made useful sentinels of the laws. And the government
having the same interest to provide against violations everywhere, the
co-operation of its measures in each State would have a powerful
tendency to render them effectual. Here also we should preserve by
Union, an advantage which nature holds out to us, and which would be
relinquished by separation. The United States lie at a great distance
from Europe, and at a considerable distance from all other places with
which they would have extensive connections of foreign trade. The
passage from them to us, in a few hours, or in a single night, as
between the coasts of France and Britain, and of other neighboring
nations, would be impracticable. This is a prodigious security against
a direct contraband with foreign countries; but a circuitous
contraband to one State, through the medium of another, would be both
easy and safe. The difference between a direct importation from
abroad, and an indirect importation through the channel of a
neighboring State, in small parcels, according to time and
opportunity, with the additional facilities of inland communication,
must be palpable to every man of discernment.
OOOOIt is therefore evident, that one
national government would be able, at much less expense, to extend the
duties on imports, beyond comparison, further than would be
practicable to the States separately, or to any partial confederacies.
Hitherto, I believe, it may safely be asserted, that these duties have
not upon an average exceeded in any State three per cent. In France
they are estimated to be about fifteen per cent., and in Britain they
exceed this proportion [1].
There seems to be nothing to hinder their being increased in this
country to at least treble their present amount. The single article of
ardent spirits, under federal regulation, might be made to furnish a
considerable revenue. Upon a ratio to the importation into this State,
the whole quantity imported into the United States may be estimated at
four millions of gallons; which, at a shilling per gallon, would
produce two hundred thousand pounds. That article would well bear this
rate of duty; and if it should tend to diminish the consumption of it,
such an effect would be equally favorable to the agriculture, to the
economy, to the morals, and to the health of the society. There is,
perhaps, nothing so much a subject of national extravagance as these
spirits.
OOOOWhat will be the consequence, if we
are not able to avail ourselves of the resource in question in its
full extent? A nation cannot long exist without revenues. Destitute of
this essential support, it must resign its independence, and sink into
the degraded condition of a province. This is an extremity to which no
government will of choice accede. Revenue, therefore, must be had at
all events. In this country, if the principal part be not drawn from
commerce, it must fall with oppressive weight upon land. It has been
already intimated that excises, in their true signification, are too
little in unison with the feelings of the people, to admit of great
use being made of that mode of taxation; nor, indeed, in the States
where almost the sole employment is agriculture, are the objects
proper for excise sufficiently numerous to permit very ample
collections in that way. Personal estate (as has been before
remarked), from the difficulty in tracing it, cannot be subjected to
large contributions, by any other means than by taxes on consumption.
In populous cities, it may be enough the subject of conjecture, to
occasion the oppression of individuals, without much aggregate benefit
to the State; but beyond these circles, it must, in a great measure,
escape the eye and the hand of the tax-gatherer. As the necessities of
the State, nevertheless, must be satisfied in some mode or other, the
defect of other resources must throw the principal weight of public
burdens on the possessors of land. And as, on the other hand, the
wants of the government can never obtain an adequate supply, unless
all the sources of revenue are open to its demands, the finances of
the community, under such embarrassments, cannot be put into a
situation consistent with its respectability or its security. Thus we
shall not even have the consolations of a full treasury, to atone for
the oppression of that valuable class of the citizens who are employed
in the cultivation of the soil. But public and private distress will
keep pace with each other in gloomy concert; and unite in deploring
the infatuation of those counsels which led to disunion.
OOOOPUBLIUS.
1. If my memory be right
they amount to twenty per cent.
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