8281. TAXATION, Control over.—
The
Congress * * * are of opinion that the
Colonies of America possess the exclusive
privilege of giving and granting their own
money; that this involves the right of deliberating
whether they will make any gift, for
what purpose it shall be made, and what shall
be the amount of the gift, and that it is a
high breach of this privilege, for any body of
men, extraneous to their constitutions to prescribe
the purposes for which money shall be
levied on them; to take to themselves the
authority of judging of their conditions, circumstances
and situation, of determining the
amount of the contributions to be levied. As
they possess a right of appropriating their
gifts, so are they entitled, at all times, to inquire
into their application, to see that they
be not wasted among the venal and corrupt,
for the purpose of undermining the civil
rights of the givers, nor yet be diverted to the
support of standing armies, inconsistent with
their freedom and subversive of their quiet.—
Reply to Lord North's Conciliatory Proposition.
Ford ed., i, 477.
(July. 1775)
