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CONSTITUTION OF THE U. STATES.
[BOOK III.
not safely be relied on, as an adequate or satisfactory source of revenue, except as a final resort, when others more eligible failed. The distinction between external and internal taxation was indeed capable of being reduced to practice. But in many emergencies it might leave the national government without any adequate resources, and compel it to a course of taxation ruinous to our trade and industry, and the solid interests of the country. No one of due reflection can contend, that commercial imports are, or could be, equal to all future exigencies of the Union; and indeed ordinarily they may not be found equal to them.
[1] Suppose they are equal to the ordinary expenses of the Union; yet, if war should come, the civil list must be entirely overlooked, or the military left without any adequate supply.
[2] How is it possible, that a government half supplied and half necessitous can fulfil the purposes of its institution, or can provide for the security, advance the prosperity, or support the reputation of the commonwealth? How can it ever possess either energy or stability, dignity or credit, confidence at home, or respectability abroad? How can its administration be any thing else, than a succession of expedients, temporary, impotent, and disgraceful? How will it be able to avoid a frequent sacrifice of its engagements to immediate necessity? How can it undertake, or execute any liberal or enlarged plans of public good?
[3] Who would lend to a
- ↑ The Federalist, No. 41. See 1 Elliot's Debates, 303 to 306.
- ↑ The Federalist, No. 30, 34.—"A government," (said one of our most distinguished statesmen, Mr. Ellsworth, of Connecticut, speaking on this very subject,) "which can command but half its resources, is like a man with but one arm to defend himself." Speech in Connecticut Convention, 7th January, 1788; 3 Amer. Museum, 338.
- ↑ The Federalist, No. 30.
