8326. TAXES, Abolition of internal.—[continued]
——. You will perhaps have
been alarmed, as some have been, at the proposition
to abolish the whole of the internal
taxes. But it is perfectly safe. They are
under a million of dollars, and we can economize
the government two or three millions
a year. The impost alone gives us ten or
eleven millions annually, increasing at a compound
ratio of six and two-thirds per cent.
per annum, and consequently doubling in ten
years. But leaving that increase for contingencies,
the present amount will support the
government, pay the interest of the public
debt, and discharge the principal in fifteen
years. If the increase proceeds, and no contingencies
demand it, it will pay off the principal
in a shorter time. Exactly one half of
the public debt, to wit, thirty-seven millions
of dollars, is owned in the United States.
That capital, then, will be set afloat, to be
employed in rescuing our commerce from the
hands of foreigners, or in agriculture, canals,
bridges, or other useful enterprises. By suppressing
at once the whole internal taxes, we
abolish three-fourths of the offices now existing,
and spread over the land.—
To John Dickinson. Washington ed. iv, 425.
(W.
Dec. 1801)
