University of Virginia Library

2373. ECONOMY vs. TAXATION.—

When, merely by avoiding false objects of expense,
we are able, without a direct tax, without
internal taxes, and without borrowing, to make large and effectual payments toward the
discharge of our public debt and the emancipation
of our posterity from that moral canker,
it is an encouragement of the highest
order, to proceed as we have begun, in substituting
economy for taxation, and in pursuing


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what is useful for a nation placed as we are,
rather than what is practiced by others under
different circumstances.—
Second Annual Message, Washington ed. viii, 19. Ford ed., viii, 185.
(Dec. 1802)