THE 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.
The 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 multiplying 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.
The 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.
But 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.
No 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.
In 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
imperceptible agency of taxes on consumption.
If 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.
The relative situation of these States; the number of rivers with
which they are intersected, and of bays that wash their shores; the
facility for 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.
In 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.
If, 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 unload 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 cooperation 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.
It 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 percent. In France they are estimated to
be about fifteen percent., and in Britain they exceeded this
proportion. (footnote 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.
What 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 it 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.
Signed "PUBLIUS"
Footnotes Explained:
Footnote Number 1. If my memory be right they amount to twenty
percent.
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