4783. LOANS, Limited.—
Of the modes
which are within the limits of right, that of
raising within the year its whole expenses by
taxation, might be beyond the abilities of our
citizens to bear. It is, moreover, generally
desirable that the public contribution should
be as uniform as practicable from year to year,
that our habits of industry and expense May
become adapted to them; and that they May
be duly digested and incorporated with our
annual economy. There remains, then, for us
but the method of limited anticipation, the
laying taxes for a term of years within that
of our right, which may be sold for a present
sum equal to the expenses of the year; in
other words, to obtain a loan equal to the
expenses of the year, laying a tax adequate
to its interest, and to such a surplus as
will reimburse, by growing instalments, the
whole principle within the term. This is, in
fact, what has been called raising money on
the sale of annuities for years. In this way
a new loan, and of course a new tax, is requisite
every year during the continuance of
the war; and should that be so long as to
produce an accumulation of tax beyond our
ability, in time of war the resource would
be an enactment of the taxes requisite to ensure
good terms, by securing the lender, with
a suspension of the payment of instalments
of principal and perhaps of interest also, until
the restoration of peace. This method of anticipating
our taxes, or of borrowing on annuities
for years, insures repayment to the
lender, guards the rights of posterity, prevents
a perpetual alienation of the public contributions,
and consequent destitution of every
resource even for the ordinary support of government.—
To J. W. Eppes. Washington ed. vi, 198.
Ford ed., ix, 398.
(P.F.,,
Sep. 1813)
