The Pennsylvania packet, or, The general advertiser — Lancaster, Pa.;Philadelphia, Pa., 1782-12-12 00:00:00, page 2

As mankind individually considered, before they
(objected themselves to the social compaa, were unsafe
from violence and outr,ge, so separate Rates were in
st cure from the Inroads of their ambitious neighbours,
more potent than themselves, except they united to
ward off the common enemy- —from thence arose con
federate Rates, to preserve toe balance of power.
We have now, in a vety brief manner, brought the
race of human bongs from their original savage Rate
down to their prefect luxury and refinement ; and as
the united Rates of America have effected a revolution,
mod ma. e themselves of weight in the grand scale of na
tions, as far as is for their interest, as one sovereign
independent Bate, they are called upon to conned
themselves with the powers of the earth; and as far
also as is for the benefit of each particular Rate, the
fame ought to appear in support of the union, and in
ter^R of the united Rates.
If the unied Rates were to execute and ratify a trea
ty with a foreign power, without a protped of some
benefit, it would be a political absurdity ; and also, if
either of the Rates was to fubferibe ar< tie* of confede
ration with all or any of her fitter Rates, without
fame advantageous vie v, it would be equally ridicu
lous. Our alliance with France fnews our colledive
wisdom in the former, and cur confederated union our
separate wisdom in the latter. We united together
when unity was effentia! to our preservation, and we
concluded a treaty with his inoft chriflian majesty
when foreign aid became a domestic necessity.
After a (even years fuccebful war, it is recommend
ed to the foveral Rates to impose five per cent, upon
all their imported and prize goods, to center in a con
tinental exchequer-
^r.°P R INt^ R,.
Please to re-publish the following, from the Provi
delict Gazette, and oblige your's, &c. H.
Pp HAT the protection of person, and security of
{ property, form the basts Of all righteous govern
ments, remains uhcontefleti.
Mankind in theif pfißine Rate, finding that the weak
en were a prey to the. Wronger, fought a remedy by
forming rhemfeives into a social band, fubjefl to laws
hy tnem'felves inflituted, to be appealed to, as the un
ei ring tonchflone of civil right and wrong—from thence
fjrang society.
As the sons of the earth grew refined in the works
of their hands, and opened an intercourse with each
other by commerce, their wants naturally increased;
luxuries were soon ranked as conveniences, and con
veniences^s necessaries—hence the delicacies which have
pampered up the great, and by intoxicating them, when
at the zenith of power have deluged the world with
blood.
L e t us confider the dangerous tendency of such a
mcafure to the Rates at large, and the inequality of
its operation, upon every principle.
I lay it down as a m-xim, and a maxim inseparable
from freedom, that power in the hands of one man, or
any number of men, to draw resources from a free peo
ple, even with the immediate and express content of
their legislature, except accountable to the people from
whom the monies are so drawn, is dangerous; but
monies drawn from a people, and collected by the ser
vants of the authority appointed for that intent, with
out the particular content of the legislature, for an
express and definite purpose, and not accountable to
the people for the expenditure of the fame, is detrac
tive of freedom, liberty and independence. If thb five
per cent, comes under the latter m xim; it ought to be
reprobated by every freeman.
The powers of an over-grown private purse are well
known; the danger of a misapplication of it, political
ly considered, ought ever to be held up to our view ;
the ancients were aware of it, or why the Agrarian
law at Rome ? or why the ponderous medium of Spar
ta? the former to destroy the over bearing influence
of riches among the Romans, and the latter to pre
vent the hoarding up the representative of property,
left a conversion of it Should take place injurious to the
rights of the people.
How much more dangerous is that material Anew
of war in hand impowered to draw monies from each of
the separate Rates, but to give them separately no ac
count of expenditures, or the Situation of an exche
quer which the people have it not in thefr power to
contioul!
This dangerous coffer, now held up to be so saluta
ry, may tempt Some daring son of ambition, possessed
of the treasures collected, and the cords to draw in
more, viz. the colledots under him, accountable on
ly to him, and by him appointed, to leap over the
barriers of civil liberty, and at the head of a mercena
ry army, to Sheath his treacherous (word in the
bowels of his unwary country ; or to tempt a num
ber of men to vote themselves absolute, amenable to
no one, and vi et ARMIS enforce their will, as the
law of the land. These horrors we ought to be ap
prehensive @f, for in the modern Rory of Sweden, there
is a Guflavus, and a registered nobility in the golden
book of Venice.
If the necessity of a national revenue be never so
great, yet the mode recommended of accumulating it
is impracticable, and from its unequal operation dan
gerous. There is no trad of land on the globe, vari
egated as the trad of the united Rates, but the inha
bitants dwelling thereupon, although they may have
the fame final pursuits, yet the modes of obtaining
their wishes, from their local Situation, the difference
of climate and foil, and a multiplicity of other causes,
must essentially vary. A Southern Rate less commer
cial, possessing valuable flaples, rather chooses, and
perhaps with good policy, from the scarcity of seamen
and tradesmen, and of consequence the expence and
difficulty of Ship building and navigation, to be more
attentive to the foil : a northern Rate more commer
cial, Situate upon the borders of the ocean, with few
or no flaples, having fine ports filled with handicrafts
men, the best of wood for Ship building, fortunately
fi.uated to encourage the fisheries (the most esteemed
nursery for seamen) wifely prefer# commerce : an in.
On the FIVE PER CENT.
If the five per cent, is to be paid by both the impor
ter and consumer, it will introduce the evils attendant
upon both; so that view the measure upon any confi
dertion, it is unjust and unequal, and consequently
dangerous and oppressive to a free state.
If the idea of the impost being paid by the consumer
should be extended to the less commercial Rates, I an
swer, they have internal staples, which serve them in a
great degree as substitutes for foreign produce, such as
cotton, indigo, peach brandy, whifky, &c. &c. upon
which they will pay no continental duty; and further,
the taxation of a free people ought to be in proportion
to their ability as a people at large, nt as the con
sumption or importation of any particular articles,
otherwise it will have a partial operation. The less
commercial Rates do not consume, compared with the
more commercial Rates, so great a quantity of foreign
goods as is proportionate to their wealth and their just
part of the excise, therefore the conclusion is plain,
they will not pay their equable proportion into the
continental fund- Allowing then the consumer to pay
the whole duty, it will nevertheless be unequal, and so
it will be found to be, if we view it through every Rage
of its operation.
What is meant by separate Rates confederating toge
ther for offence and defence? Is it meant that a state of
twenty millions value, and a proportionable number
of inhabitants, should be at no greater expence, for
the necessary charges of national affairs, than a state of
one-eighth that value, and an eighth part the number
of inhabitants ? Is it meant if one Rate has an immense
growth of tobacco, yielding vast riches to the land
holders, and another, by her commercial intercourse,
supports her industrious and adventurous inhabitants,
that the commerce of the latter should pay a stipend to
national fund, and not the produce of the former,
merely because the great state procures riches by an
internal staple, and the other by commerce ? Surely
termediate flafe, perhaps, has ft in her power to di
vide her attentionjbetwixt the land and the sea. So that
if we were to affix any peculiar mode of business to
any two flares, we Should undoubtedly do a manifeft
injury to one. How then can it be supposed that the
one- mode of raffing a revenue from people of so many
different callings, so variously Situated with refp^a to
foreign powers and each other, and so disproportionate
io the branch of business affeffed,Should operate equally ?
Tot five per cent, as now recommended, is not ^-.
ly unequal in its operation in one Rate compared with
auotoer, in one county in one state, compared with a
nother county in the fame Rate, in one town in one
county compared with another town in the fame coun
ty, but also it operates unequally upon the different
inhabitants of the fame town, in proportion to their
property and social obligations.
And firft it presses hard against the commercial
Raes in general; secondly, harder against the more
commercial; anl thirdly, hardest against the most
commercial. There being no two Rates in the union
that merchandize equally in proportion to their worth,
of consequence one throws the burthen upon another,
a second upon a third, a third upon a fourth, and so
on, until the greateß weight is thrown upon the moR
commercial state in the union, which, comparatively
fpe king, I confiler to be the Rate of Rhode-IRand,
which has hitnerto so wifely refufed her assent to the
me sure.
The state lad mentioned will pay perhaps eight
times h-r proportion: the towns of Newport and
Providence (w ich must expert to thrive only from
commerce) and the other trading towns in the state,
will pay, in the firft inßance, full fifteen times their
proportion of this national fund ; nay, some individu
als of those towns, will pay fifty times as much as
some other individuals, citizens of the united Rates, of
the fame property, and who receive equal protection.
Surely this is alarming! a great part of it must final
ly come out of the farmers, tradesmen and poorer
fort of people, who have large families, whether the
consumer pays the duty or not, as I (hall proceed to
(hew.
That the merchants cannot do business for less
profit than it now affords them, the books of the va
rious insurance offices, from one end of the continent
to tne other, will clearly demonflrate. What is the
natural consequence? They must not only add five
per cent- to their imports, but also a considerable sum
more for the immediate advance of their cash, which
is at this period very difficult to procure. Somebody
rAuft pay this extra expence : it must not fall upon
the merchant, for if it does, commerce will be so em
barraffed, that it will be a certain loss to pursue it.
This impost with- which commerce is loaded, must be
paid by the citizens at large, either directly or indi
realy; diredly, by paying the additional sum for
foreign produce, or indirectly, by the farmer's felling
his produce for a less sum than he now does ; so the
tra 'efman must fall his price, and the labourer must
content himfelf to take a fnialler'fum than he now re
ceives for the daily sweat of his brow. It is absurd to
fay, that the m reliant opposes the impost because he
will be the greatest fuff rer, for in the end he will not;
he will either leave the state where he cannot carry
on his business to advantage, or remain and fuffer
with his fellow citizen* in proportion ro his confump
tion only ;fo that the duy will fall principally upon
the farmer, mechanic and day-labourer, whether the
consumer pays it or not.
If the consumer pays it, nothing is more obvious,
as they are the principal consumers; if upon the im
porter, the ruin of commerce being consequent, it
must tend to impoverish, and perhaps destroy the
whole community, if the consumer is to pay this impost,
which I think the most probable, eery poor man, in
stead of receiving a bounty for each child, as several
wife Rates have given, will have to pay a severe tax for
every addition to his family, while the unfocia! bache
lor, who lives in the fame manner he does, and pos
sesses the fame property, who is but the tenth part re
benefit to the community, pays but a tenth the ex
pence to the support of a government which guaran
tees to him every social advantage with his neighbour
thus overburthened.
such reasoning h absurd. It may be termed good
policy not to check our produce by an assize, so it
may be deemed better to let our commerce remain
free.
If we turn oureyes to the united provinces of Hol
land, we shall fee a people ftruggliog with disadvan
tages which we know nothing of, surrounded by am
bitious neighbours, threatened every moment with am
inundation, and their sea-ports but for artificial af
fiflance inaccessible, rich beyond description; their
ports crowded with (hipping,and their cities the marts
of the world, merely (as a celebrated writer expresses
it) " by treating that inexhaustible source of power,
trade, as gently as possible, for fear of driving f#
fickle a traveller into other climes."
(To be continued.)
Dreadful daughter m n y be expelled if those vast ar
mies, the Turkish and Ruffian should aflually en
gage. The banks of the Heifhr, which in their last
war flowed with blood, cannot be forgotten. Here
lay ft ven thousand dead Turks, a facrifice to the ig
norance of their general ; for the men were taken by
the Ruffians in both flanks before they could possibly
form. Upwards of ten thousand more were (hot, drown
ed, or taken prisoners afterwards.
In the year 1775, lord Shelburne solemnly delivered
it in parliament as his firm creed, that " the cord of
" America once broken, there was an end of all the
6 < funds. The fcherne of separating from America,
" and letting trade take its own course, was a wi d
" and dangerous doßrine. Ingenious (peculations,
" touching the inutility of cußom-houfes and regular
“ tions of trade, had better be left to our rivals. Our
" business was to adhere to the praOical rules whic
"time and experience had established. We were not
" in a Rate to make experiments. The trade of
'' America is mortgaged to our flock brokers. It
" would be dishonest to touch it " His lordship ad
ded, " trinifters ought to know this, and tremble at
" whatever hazarded the loss of our American Corn
“ merce." —On this open declaration <fhis lordship,
that great pillar of Eritifh grandeur, the body ^
Mr. CLAYPOOLE,
I herewith beg leave to transmit you an amendment
proposed at the late Sitting of the Assembly, to the
Bill published in your last, which you will please to
give a place in your Paper ; together with a short
Query touching the fame. Your's J. F.
AT the end of such fales"—l' was moved and se
conded, to insert next after the words, “ That is
to fay," the following amendment, viz.—The officers
of the land-office shall, within two months after the
passing of this aft, proceed in the usual mode to open
the land-office for the sale of the lands aforefaid, to
such officers, soldiers, and their representatives only,
as may have preserved their certificates unalienated,
or to such person of persons as may make payment
in specie, at the rate of I. specie for every 100
acres, to be paid by such officer or soldier, or other
persons in his, her, or their own certificates, and
touching any alienation of the fame, such officer, sol
dier, or their representatives, shall answer on oath
before a member of the supreme executive council, or
before some proper person appointed by the council,
if required : and such officer, soldier, or other person,
having filed his location, and paid the consideration in
his, her, or their own proper certificates, shall, on
payment of the usual fees of office, obtain a warrant,
survey and patent in the usual form—The office to
continue open as aforefaid for the term of four months
only ; at the end of which time, the surveyor general
shall cause the residue of the lands aforefaid to he laid
out into lots, &c. Whereupon the yeas and nays
were celled by Mr. Delany and Mr. Magoffin, and
IS it not evident at firft blush, that the above Bill,
as published for consideration, without the foregoing
amendment, will enable foroid [peculators to obtain
every foot of land originally intended as a reward for
those brave men, who by their unwearied exertions
and patriotic perseverance have freed their country
from tyranny, and nearly eflablifhed a glorious inde
pendence ?
are as follow, viz.
YEA S.
I Samuel Morris,
2 Sharp Delany,
3 George Gray,
4 Isaac Gray,
5 Thomas Reese,
6 Henry Hill,
7 James Morris,
8 Samuel Afhmead,
9 Jacob Rush,
io Christopher Kucher,
II S. J. Attlee,
12 Abraham Scott,
13 James Jacks,
14 Mathias Slough,
15 Joseph Magoffin,
16 Michael Siuyfer,
17 Michael Halin,
18 Thomas Lilly,
19 Daniel Clymer,
20 William Maclay,
21 John Carnahan,
22 Mathew Richie,
And so it was determined in the negative.
L o n d o n. oa o . 7.
Q U E R Y.
NAY S.
I John Steinrqetz,
2 Thomas Long,
3 Joseph Savage,
4 jofeph Thomas,
5 Perfifor Frazer,
6 Thomas Strawbridge^
7 David Thomas,
8 John Lindsey,
9 James Boyd,
10 Joseph Montgomery,
it John Whitehill,
12 John Craig,
13 William Brown,
14 James Mercer,
15 John Hay,
16 Robert MTherfon r
17 Moses M'Clean,
18 Patrick Scott,
19 Stephen Duncan,
20 Will. Brown, (Camb,)
21 John Carothers,
22 James M'Clean,
23 James Johnston,
24 Jonathan Hoge,
25 Patrick Maxwell,
26 Christian Lower,
27 Abraham Lincoln,,
28 Jonas Hartzet,
29 Jacob Arndt,
30 Jacob Stroud,
31 Robert Latimer,
32 Charles Cefone: