1919. CREDIT, Taxation and.—
It is a
wise rule, and should be a fundamental in a
government disposed to cherish its credit,
and at the same time to restrain the use of it
within the limits of its faculties, “never to
borrow a dollar without laying a tax in the
same instant for paying the interest annually,
and the principal within a given term; and to
consider that tax as pledged to the creditors
on the public faith.” On such a pledge as
this, sacredly observed, a government May
always command, on a
reasonable interest,
all the lendable money of their citizens, while
the necessity of an equivalent tax is a salutary
warning to them and their constituents
against oppressions, bankruptcy, and its inevitable
consequence, revolution. But the
term of redemption must be moderate, and at
any rate within the limit of their rightful
powers. But what limits, it will be asked,
does this prescribe to their powers? What
is to hinder them from creating a perpetual
debt? The laws of nature, I answer. The
earth belongs to the living, not to the dead.
The will and the power of man expire with
his life, by nature's law.—
To John W. Eppes. Washington ed. vi, 136.
Ford ed., ix, 389.
(M.
June. 1813)
