8358. TAXES, Wasted.—
If there be anything
amiss in the present state of our affairs,
as the formidable deficit lately unfolded to
us indicates, I ascribe it to the inattention of
Congress to their duties, to their unwise dissipation
and waste of the public contributions.
They seemed, some little while ago, to be at a
loss for objects whereon to throw away the
supposed fathomless funds of the treasury.
* * * I am aware that in one of their most
ruinous vagaries the people were themselves
betrayed into the same phrenzy with their
representatives. The deficit produced, and a
heavy tax to supply it, will, I trust, bring both
to their sober senses.—
To Thomas Ritchie. Washington ed. vii, 191.
Ford ed., x, 170.
(M.
1820)
