The Pennsylvania packet, or, The general advertiser — Lancaster, Pa.;Philadelphia, Pa., 1782-11-23 00:00:00, page 2

-LETTER L
In ANSWER to the CITIZEN of Rhode Tfcd on
the five per cent. duty.
A Writer under the Pile of a Citizen of Rhode-
Island has undertaken to vindicate the said Bate
in her yet neglecting to pass the law recommended by
congress for layinga duty of five per cent, on foreign
impo red goods ; the monies arising therefrom to be
applied towards discharging the interest and principal
of the debts which are or may be contrasted by the
united flatus (of which Rhole ffland is one) for the
defence of the country and for fwpporting'and efla
blifhing the independence thereof.
The Resolution of Congress is as follows:
"In Congress, February 3, 1781.
" Refolded, That it b a recommended to the several
“ Rates, as INDISPENSABLY NECESSARY, that
" they vest a power in cong efs to hvy, for the use of
" the uni ed dates, a du r y of fi^e per cent, ad valorem,
' at the time and place of importation, upon all goods,
" waresand merchandize, of foreign growth and ma
<c nufaftures, which m?y b* imported into any of the
" said Rates, after the 6rh day of May, 1781 ; except
" arms, ammunition; eloathing and otuer articles im
" ported on account of the united dates, or any of
“ them, and except wool cards, and co'ton cards,
" and wire lor making them, and also except fa t
" during the war : also a duty of five per cent oh all
" prizes and prize goods, condemned in the court of
" admiralty ofany o f these Rates, as lawful prize.
" That the monies arising from these duties be appro.
" printed to the discharge of the principal and intereß
" of the debts already contracted, or which may be
" contrasted on the lath of the united Rates, for sup
a porting the present war.—That the said duties be
" continued, until the said debts shall be fully and fi
“ na'ly discharged."
On tnis Refolotion I shall remark.
First, Here is the purpose for which the money fliall
be railed. Namely, to pay off the interest and princi
pal of the debts, foreign and domeflic, which we our
selves, the public of America, have, thro' our repre
sentatives in congress, contracted, or may contract for
our defence, and pledged our faith to discharge.
Secondly, Toe manner, rate or rates, by which the
money shall be railed, viz. five pounds, out of every
hundred pounds worth of foreign goods which shall be
imported.
Thirdly, The time for which the said duty shall con
tinue; that is, until the interest and principal of the
debts shall be paid.
In consequence of this plan and recommendation,
(the ju flic, and propriety of which appeared so evident
and striking and so “ INDISPENSABLY NECES
SARY," to our honour and reputation) twelve of the
Rates passed the said law. Rhode-Ifland only remains
delinquent*.
Having thus stated the outlines of the fubjeft, I shall
proceed to my remarks on the publication which have
appeared, andadd thereto such other observations as
the case may require.
The citizen of Rhode-Ifland, in objection to the
five per cent, duty, begins his argument at a very re
mote point from the fubjefl He fits out with oblique
ly traducing the character of all government whatever.
His positions are loose and general, and by endeavour
ing to make them apply to every thing, they apply
direftiy to nothing. He speaks of executive po^ r as if
it were something existing in its own right. Perpetu
al in itfelf; and neither conflituted by nor controula
ble by the people. He confounds all kinds of government
together; and that without perceiving, that the fame
kind of reasoning which is applicable in one case, is
foreign to the purpose in another.
It is somewhat strange, that the theoyof govern
ment, which is exceedingly simple in itfelf, and in ge
neral well known by dmo every farmer in America,
should be to perplexed, mifeonceived and tortured, by
those whose very bafinefs and duty it is to understand
it fully and exercise it justly.
His pieces are entitled,
“ ON THE FIVE PER CENT. DUTY,
' BY A CIT ZEN OF RHODE-fSLAND."
And his firft paragraph is in these words :
“ Is it expedient, fays he, in ANY government, that
" the supreme executive power should hold the reve
" nue independant of the people? To have this quef
" tion soberly and sensibly dis uffed, is a matter of
" fom consequence, at any time and any place ; it
" taking place of right among the mod important
" principles of civil government. But at this time is,
" in bus country, peculiarly interesting—it applying
" home cloftly upon every individual who is capable
" o' forming a judgment upon 'he effects which a quef
“ tion, SO RADICAL IN THE CONSTITUTION,
" may have upon us and our posterity.?
W en this gentleman afa 'WHETHER IT IS EX
' PFD'ENT IN ANY GOVERNMENT, THAT
< THE SUPREME EXECUTIVE POWER SHOULD
'HOLD THE REVENUE INDEPENDANT OF
' THE PEOPLE,' he asks a quefiion which every man
in America, without the least hesitation, can answer at
onte, because the whole of them will unanimously an
swer NO. They can answer no otherwise. It is the
very being, principle, and constitution of a republic,
that the people have nothing in their govern nent in
dependent of themselves. The question may belong to
Turk, or Persia where the government is all executive,
and that executive felf-created, and totally independ
ant of the people; but in a republic, like the united
Rates, where the appointment of the executive power
is wholly in our own hands, to make and unmake,
change and alter as we please, and where every thing
which it has and does is in trust for us who gave it,
how is it possible that the fame quefiion can apply here,
or with what Shadow of propr ety can it be put.
• ft is generally said that twelve of the Rates have
passed the law, and the Citizen of Rhode-Ifland seems
to admit the sass, but whether the state of Georgia, just
emerging from the tyranny of the enemy, has yet had
time to complete such a law, is a circumstance I am
lot clear in.
There are feme truths so felf evident and obvious, of
which this is one, that they ought never to be stated
in the form of a quefiion for debate, because it is hab
iting the mind to think doubtfully 0 what there ought
to be no doubt upon. The people of America are much
forwarder in their ideas of their own rights, than this
gentleman supposes, if he thinks that the queflion on
which he refls so much expectation, can be any sub
jest for debate at all.
He mud likewise be exceedingly backward in his no
tions of a free government, and the principles of a re
public, to call t' at " A RADICAL QUESTION IN
TRE CONSTI UTION," which the constitution
knows notiring of, and which is altogetherein oppofiti
on to it, and wholly repugnant to the principle on
which republics are founded. A revenue held by the
supreme executive power independant of the people !
was such a thing ever heard of in a republic? Was
such a quefiion ever *fk in one before?
Who have we in America but the people? Mem
bers of congress, of assemblies, or council are flill a
part of the peop'e. Their honours do not take them
out of the aggregate body. They frrve their appoint
ed time and are Succeeded by others. They are sub
jef? to the laws they pass, and mud contribute their
proportion of taxes in common with the rest. There
is no such thin? in America as a power of any kind
independent of the people. There is no other race of
men in it but the people, and coafequentiy there can
be no revenue held independent of them,; and there
fore the quefiion is a nullity, and to reason upon it is
throwing away time and words for nothing; for we
admit, n y we contend for the fa&, and reprobate the
quefiion as partaking of a slavish idea
But whether it be admitted or rejected is a matter
totally foreign to the five per cent, duy. It may'
placed as a Balking horse to keep fom'thing else out
of fight : But I never can persuade mfelf, that the
gentleman who puts it can mean any thing erioufy
by it. He moll know, nay, he does know belt.
For he knows that the five per cent, duty is already
appropriated in the plan for r^ifing it. He knows its
NOT of the nature of a REVENUE, to be expended
as circumstances may arise, but as a FUND, to be
applied to the payment of monies which we owe; and
of which monies, both for ign and domeflic, Rhode-
Island has had her Ihareof the benefit. He knows that
it is appropriated to ' e use of toe CREDITORS and
not of the CONGRESS, and that to involve jt un er
a quefiion of r p venu A , held independent of the people,
is ungenerous, iucufiflent, impolitic and urduA.
He may, perhaps, think, that by fitting out with a
question of popular reception, he has erected a work
that cannot be r^y demolished; aud indeed he is
right ; for like a breafl-work of fpunge it has not
fubflance enoug" init to be knocked down. You may
fire through it forever, and kid every man behind it,
engineer and all, and Bill the work, like the quefiion,
useless in th rpfelves, will retain their figure.
But to come closer to the point—The case with the
five per cent, duty is simply this:
The fever?! flares, of which Rhode Island is one,
formed themblv's into a union, and lent delegates to
congress as representatives of themselves. They em
powered those delegates to pledge the public faith for
the just payment of any monies they might borrow,
at dome or abroad, or any debts they might contract
in the name, and for the defence of themselves, the
united flares of America. Monies have been borrow
ed and deists hav been contracted by virtue of this de
legation and authority, and now the fame people who
authorize §" F m to borrow, and who have received
the bcm fit of it, and who likewise, by their represen
tatives, pledged their faith and honour for payment,
are called upon to fulfil that obligation.—This is,
in plain language, the long and the Short of the story ;
and therefore what is laid about perpetual revenue,
held independent of t e people, is absurd, because it
is foreign to the purpose ; for this, as I have before
observed is NOT A REVENUE, but a FUND for
the payment of a debt, ppropriated to the purpose,
and limited in its duration.
When I speak of congress, I do not mean a body of
men, I mean an affenably of states; sod thole dates,
thus assembled, have, as the most easy, elegib'e mode
of payment, proposed a duty of five per cent, on im
ported goods. Twelve of the states have adopted the
meafurq and passed laws for that purpose Rhode
Island, alone, is delinquent. Thus flands the case at
present.
It is an exceeding easy thing, when men are so d'f
pofed, to exhibit any measure, however pood, just
hr necessary it may be, in an odious and offenfive
light, by tacking to it a number of deformities which
have no relation to it, and which are as foreign to its
condition, as th filthy blanket of an Indian is to the
person ofa decent agreeable woman. A writerin Mr.
Bradford's paper of the 16th infant (who is very like
ly the fame gentleman that Piles himfelf a citizen of
Rhode-Ifland in another paper) has heaped ten of
those odious coverings, numerically arranged, on the
five per cent. duty.
The case is, that he either with s to obfeure the fub
je&, and hunt it down without the chance of being
understood, or he totally misunderstands it himfelf.
He talks of a revenue at the diferetion of congress,
when the matter in quefiion is a fund fort e payment
of a debt ; and he (peaks of it as perpetual, when the
very plan for raising it limits its duration. And thus,
by miflaking the case, he runs into teedlefs iuconfiften
cies, wide and foreign from the fubjefl.
But let us examine the naked quefiion, uncloathed
either with invented deformities or needless embellish
ments
Suppose that, in the present wants of the united
states for money, any number of men, friendly dif
poftd to our cause and interest in foreign countries or
at home, were to propose to lend us three or four
millions of dollars at a reasonable interest, demanding
at the fame time to know what security the states would
give for the payment of the interest and principle.
Should we not, in such a case, appear like fools in
the world, unacquainted with the nature of govern
ment, of politics, of commerce, and of every thing re
lative so the common concerns of life, were we to fa,
to them, WE WILL TAKE YOUR MONEY AND
PASS A LAW TO PAY THE INTEREST OF IT
FOR ONE YEAR ONLY, AND AFTER THAT
WE WILL THINK FURTHER ABOUT IT ; would
we, I aik, place ourselves in this foolilh situation, to
be laughed at by every one, as men who did not un
derhand what they were about, or did not mean to
ad honestly by their friends. Or would we not rather
call about to fee what funds and resources we had got,
and make proposals of security adequate to the offer,
and put the debt in a certain train of payment at
once, justly and fairly between debtor and creditor.
Now this is exactly the case with the fi e per cent,
duty.
The common cry has b°en, WHY DON'T CQN^
GUESS BORROW—WHY DON'T CONGRESS
MORROW —but who, in the name of Heaven, will le»d
if you do not take care to pay, and fix on permanent
funds for that purpose, and nicely and faithfully ful
fil the obligation
I cannot help conlidering the publication of both
these gentlemen (if they are diftina persons) as tend
ing 10 llab and wound the honour and cause of their
country in the nicest and tenderest part; and am con
cerned that their imprudence, to give it no hardier
name, thoud make it necessary to bring debates and
arguments into view which ought never to have been
flarted, because there never ought to have been any
occasion for th.m.
Having thus opened the case, and fhewo how it at
present hands, 1 shall in my next letter, lhew thatthe
fix per cent, duty, is a more eligible and productive
mode of raffing, moo^y, since money must be had, than
any other which c.m be devised; because it is the least
felt, the mofl equal in is operation and the easiest
collected.
. my third letter, with which I mean to close the
matter, I shall more particularly confine myfelf to the
molt important of all fubjeds in this part of the world;
the union of he states ; for under the pretence of vin
dicating a state, in the present inflance deficient in her
duty in the union, there is a Bile of language en
courag d in the publication of those gentlemen, which,
applied to the union, is highly reprehensible.
TH E important and conflitutional advantages
which you have secured to your country, together
with the wife and magnanimous conduct of Great-
Britain, in aiding your aflidnous and temperate en&
deavours, demand my felicitations at the close ofa
session which will ever reflect the gte left honour up te
on the national charafter of both kingdoms It
must afford you the most agreeable recollection, that
in the piogrefs that you have made to re-efta&ilh
your constitution, no a&s of violence, nor of impati
ence, have marked its track. A religious attention to
the laws has circumferibed your efforts, within the
Drift ft bounds of loyalty and good order. Your
claims have been direfted by the fame spirit which
gave birth and stability to the liberties of Great Bri.
tain, and which could not fail of fucceediog from the
moment that the councils of that kingdom were direct
ed by the avowed friends of the constitution. The
communication of such a spirit of conflitutional liber
ty, from one kingdom to the other, mud naturally
produce that reciprocal confidence, and that mutual
affeftion, tie beneficial effefts of which we already be
gin to feel. A grateful zeal and a generous ardour
have united this whole kingdom in the most cordial
and vigourous efforts, which afford the most substan
tial profpefts of frufirating the designs of our com
mon enemy, and of re-establishing and securing the
glory of the whole empire.
Gentlemen of the House of Commons,
WHEN I confider the very aCtive and generous
share which you have taken in bringing about these
great and glorious events, I am obliged equally to ex
press to you the gratitude of iris majesty for the last
effufion <f your generosity in the defence of the em
pire, [IOOOO seamen to man the navy] as to give you
his most gracious thanks for the subsidies which you
granted early in the session with so much cordiality.
His majefly's royal example mull not only assure you
of the moflrightful and oeconomical use of the aids
which you have given, but it furnifhes to you the most
folenin pledge of an attentive enquiry for every me
thod which the circumflances of this country will ad
mit of, in order to alleviate the burthens of his faith
ful and grateful people. To co-operate with you in
NOTWITHSTANDING all the endeavours of the
' celebrated Mr. Henry Flood, to convince his coun
trymen that the repeal of the British act, of the 6th of
George I. did not involve an express acknowledgement
of their independent legislation, the duke of Port
land, favoured by the ascendency which adminifirati
-00 had gained over the minds of the Irish, through
Mr Gratta , happily elofed the session of parliament
on the 27th of Joly, when he gave the royal assent to
24 public and private bills. Among the firft, the most
remarkable are, ' an aft to regulate the manner of
puffing bils, and to prevent delays in the calling of
parliaments." [This ad is to repeal, in a great measure,
Poyning's aft of parliament.] "An aft to secure the
independence of the judees, and the impartial admi
nistration of juflice." [This secures to thfm liberal
salaries and commissions, during good behaviour.]
“ An a& for correa ng errors in judgments, decrees,
and orders." [By this last act, the appeal, in the
lad resort, to the house of peers of Great-Britain, from
the Ir:fh courts, is abolished, and the peers of Ireland
are rrinflated in their judicial rights.] " An aft to
punish mutiny and deferrion, and for the better pay
ing the army, &c " " An aft to enable his majesty
to withdraw from Ireland, upon such service as he
he may think proper, 5000 of the troops b hanging to
the efiablifhmcDt of ris kingdom, &c. &c." After
the assent was given, the duke of Portland finifhed the
(effion by the following speech:
My Lords and Gentlemen,
LONDO N, August 6.
A Friend to Rhode-Ifland and the Union.