University of Virginia Library

2782. EXCISE LAW, Infernal.—

The excise
law is an infernal one. The first error
was to admit it by the Constitution; the second,
to act on that admission; the third and
last will be, to make it the instrument of dismembering
the Union, and setting us all
afloat to choose which part of it we will adhere
to.—
To James Madison. Washington ed. iv, 112. Ford ed., vi, 518.
(M. Dec. 1794)