The New-Jersey gazette — Burlington [N.J.], 1781-06-20 00:00:00, page 1

Number V.
Mr. COLLINS,
r ICT HE several prefervatory remedies I have
| prescribed in the course of my foregoing
numbers, I submit to the candid conside
ration of my fellow-citizens; I hope they
will indul, me, when I make bold to add another,
which fecms in a natural deduction to follow from
the former.
8. Let ever, citizen freely contribute bis proportion of
the taxes necessary for the support of the war. —Here I
mention a fubjed of the last importance to our poli
tical falyation, and a matter of uneasiness to some
of our citizens (though friends to their country) bo
cause not well understood; therefore hope I Ihall
be excused in treating this fubjed Somewhat more
fully, in the course of this number.
It is so much the propensity of human nature, ra
ther to preserve present property, than part with it
for distant advantages, which they, with the com
munity, in a future day would enjoy, that it too of
ten blinds them, and lays them under a cloud of pre
judices, against the clearest and most demonstrative
arguments. This I have experienced in my former
lucubrations on finance. I therefore beg my candid
readers to lay all Such prejudices aside; and impar
tially confider, what I Ihall endeavour to offer on this
important fubjed.
I. It is Self-evident, that a war cannot be carried
on against the rage and fury of a powerful enemy,
without expence. Such are we necessarily and un
avoidably involved in. Can we then exped to be de
fended without an army ?—To have an army with
out pay, provision and clothing ?—To have the Sup
plies of the army conveyed by extensive land-carri
ages ?—I fay, can we expert to have all this, with
out proportionate expences? What was the last
French war with an infignificant Canada, in compa
rison with the present, when we were only as aux
iliries to the powerful empire of Britain? And how
many thousands had we then to pay? New-Jersey
has paid part of her quota only in the course of this
war.
2. Had we military apparatus and a well flocked
treasury at the commencement of the present contest ?
None. We undertook it without arms ; without am
munition ; without funds. As our cause was just,
we appealed to Heaven; and our civil guides relied
on the virtue of the people, who most Sacredly pledg
ed their honour, by a general association, to Support
the cause of liberty and property (the motto on al
most every Liberty-Pole) at the rife of our lives and
fortunes. This association I confider as the very
foundation on which the exorbitant demands of Bri
tain were boldly refuted; and a dangerous war en
tered into, for the preservation of every thing dear
and valuable to us in this world, with an humble re
liance on the kind interpolitions of Providence in our
favour. Whither or to whom, then, muff our civil
rulers look for the necessary supplies in this war ?—
To us ; only to us ; free citizens of America, whom
the relentless fury of our enemies has not been able
to impoverish. We are now as amply able to Sup
port the war as when it begun. To us must they
look, who have pledged our word and honour, that,
our lives and property Should be devoted to the Sup
port of so glorious a cause. To this has been Since
added our duty and oaths of allegiance. Do we thus
owe allegiance to the state? then we owe that part
of our property to it which is required for its de
xeiice. Therefore those, to whom we commit the
management of the war, have a right to demand a
Efficient Supply, to be levied in taxes; and wetheir
constituents, lay under the most Solemn obligations
to pay them.
3. And as much as is Sufficient for these valuable
purposes (if properly applied) we are able to pay.
It is true, many of our citizens have Suffered mucli
by the ravage depredations of our enemies, but these
are nut irreparable; our lands, the Source of our
a' es, they have not been able to destroy. The
^ trudion of our fuperfluous and luxurious wealth,
does not disable us to Support the war. Let us only
ad as we ought to do, and all things will go Smooth
and easy. Let us forbear purchasing thousands of
the Superfluities, and the less necessaries of life, and
at the end of the year compare things, whether we
are not as healthy, and have been as well fed, and
as warmly clothed, as when we had them —Whe-
ther, what is so preserved, falls much short of the
. whole ffiare of our tax? I have tried it, and find what
I have thus Spared, has been more than double my
tax in the course of the present year, and I never
^^^ T HE [Numb.^2.]
NEW-JERSEY GAZETTE.
Wednesday, June 20, 1781.
6. The taxes we pay (provided they are properly ap
plied ) is befiowing what we can spare, to the best pur
poses our present circumstances allow; for, among all
temporal enjoyments, civil liberty is the greatest bles
sing: if so, then the appropriation of our worldly
possessions, for the preservation of that happiness, is
applying it to the best of purposes.—To pay it now,
and not leave it for our posterity to do, is most to
our advantage: this will appear manifeft if we confi
der the uses of the money the community may now
get in their possession, must be probably applied to.
Our frontiers are so situated, that the purchasing and
cultivating new lands is impracticable. The natural
increate, and the numbers moved to the internal parts
of the country, has already overstocked it, which of
course must raise the price of land, little of it is, or
has been therefore purchased of late, save only by
speculators. Hence we have seen so many waste their
money upon the fuperfluities of life, or abandoned
dissipation. Had not all such monies been better ap
plied in paying the current expences of the war? If
have lived, as to the fupefluities of life, above my
neighbours: Add to this, how much the present cir
cumstances assist in the paying of taxes. Formerly
nothing but wheat, and sometimes Indian-corn, beef
and pork, at dull markets, could difeharge our debts
or pay our taxes: Now we have nothing but there
is a demand for, either for the Support of the army,
or a necessary Supply to our neighbours, which pays
for what we want of them, so that it appears clear
ly manifeft, the man who paid 1. 5 tax in the year
!773, towards the finking fund, if he will be fru
gal and prudent, may now (bring in equal circum
ftanccs) pay thirty or forty, without materially in
juring hjmfelf or family ; and he who will not retrench
the Superfluities, for the preservation of his liberties
and properties, deserves to be distressed for the reco
very of his taxes: Add to the foregoing, that the con
tinent allows four and a half dollars for an hundred
weight of flour, and all other produce in proporti
on, which is upon an average double to what it was
at the period before mentioned ; and it is highly pro
bable to me, that foreign markets would allow our
traders to give higher, if there was a possibility to
glut their extortionate appetites. Now, whatever fo
reign markets allow more for our produce, is clear
gain to us; if these profits were properly distribut
ed, and not embezzled by a few, we would soon ex
perience the advantageous effects. Whatever we
raise the price of the produce we fell for the arniy,
eventually proves the disadvantage of the farmerl;
but at foreign markets the contrary. If the taxes
were collected in the produce of the country, and all
the remainder would fell at foreign markets, so as
would enable our traders to give double,And treble
what it formerly was, it is clearly to be seen, how
easy the taxes may be paid. •„•
4. We ought to pay taxes to the extent of our abi
lities with alacrity, because we therein have a prof
peel of lurmounting every difli;u[ty. It is 'evident
that the main source of our present distresses has been
a neglect of taxing ; and however unjust and ruinous
the depreciation has been, as ' > inoffenfive and help
lets individuals, yet it has paid three or four years
expence of the war, and leaves us an encouraging
profped of conquering our national debt. To encou
rage us in freely contributing our proportion, let us
recoiled what probably is our debt. Congress tells
us in their circular letter of September 13, 1779,
that the national accounts flood then thus : two hun
dred millions of dollars emitted, which at 40 for
one is five millions; almost thirty-four millions
borrowed, at an average depreciated, perhaps five
for one, is about seven millions, let us suppose it nine
millions; money due abroad about 2,000,000; total,
seventeen millions ; arrearages and expences since that
time, above the amount of the taxes, between three
and fix millions ; makes the whole somewhat above
twenty millions of dollars ; about five millions ster
ling, for the whole continent, which is only the half
of one year's expence of England, for the support of
the war, over and above ten millions annually, for
their peace establishment. Should not a review of our
present debts encourage us to pay freely, in order
to keep down a grievous national debt, and prevent
a continuance of our prelent embarrassing difficulties ?
5. The absolute necessity of it, ought to induce
every one to a cordial compliance, for now there is
no other resource left; the emitting more money,
we know the ruinous effects of; the little in circula
tion will leave no profpedtto depend upon loans, so
that taxes alone now can save us. I therefore may
justly conclude, that every man who attempts to op
pose taxing to a necessary degree to support the war,
must either be Jlupidly ignorant, or an abandoned ene
my to his country.
we now pay off the debts, then, when peace com
mences, and new worlds ior settlement open, may
multitudes remove under the encouraging profpedt
that all the fruits of their toil and labour is to be clear
gain to themselves; treed from the discouraging load
of taxes, and this will lower the price of lands in the
interior parts, to such advantage, that the purchaser
will have double the benefit of the whole amount of
thetaxes he has paid. Confider this matter in another
°' view : # Suppose it was practicable to obtain
fufheicnt supplies by foreign or domeflick loans; for
all these would arise an annual interest; which, to
gether with the principal, must in a future day be
difeharged. Then, if even the most prudent put
the money out at interest, which he has to pay in
tax, what would his profit be ? this his money, prin
cipal and interest, must go to pay off these loans ; and.
how many thousands would have squandered away
the sums their taxes would have amounted to? and
then when these loans were to be paid, they must pro
cure it, perhaps to their ten-fold loss. I know the
mattering idea which some have entertained of rlny
foreigners migrating to us after the war, and helping
to pay our debt; but I am confident, let us be in
volved in a large national debt, and we and our chil
dien will ieel little alleviation from our burthens by
the assistance of these foreigners. To fay, let our po
ferity pay it, is much worse ; for what a brute of a pc.
rent mint that be, who will run hin^a^ children fa
debt, for ulelels fuperfluities, with a view to make
his children pay the principal with the interest, and
poverty upon them, without any real bene
fit to himfelt.
^A ' 1 "™ about delivering my sentiments on this
lubjeCt, I happened to get the perusal of an excel
lent treatise of Common Sense, in which he proposes
to lay off a new state back of Virginia, to open of- #
fices for the fal c of these lands, both at home and
abroad, which he supposes might supply the necef
wai; then internal taxation might cease.
"'. ' u PP' ies cannot be procured by taxation, to a
fufficient amount, without really oppressing the coun
try, then I think such a Icheme much preferable to
deftrudive loans. , but if the fubjeds can support the
war by taxes (which I presume they can if their mo
ney is properly and frugally applied) then taxation
appears more fafe and beneficial to the community,
and that on several accounts. 1. Government can
not depend on these resources, until the lands were
actually fold, and the payments secured. 2. The
greatest pait of this money would then be expedited
from foreigners, who would not chufe to risk, un
lets they could procure these lands under their true
value; and then aim at lordships of manners in a
future day. Why fhouid our posterity be laid under
any necessity of paying so much more for a foil they
have fought and bled for, to a foreigner? 3. J
afraid that the fees for these officers would be surer
paid, than the continental treasury, and perhaps, in
the issue, the lands be gone, and we ftfll obliged to
pay the taxes in the bargain. 4. After the war, the
empire will require much to put it in a proper state
of defence ; now the fubjeds cannot lay out their mo
ney to better purposes than paying the current debts -
then they will want it to make valuable improv
ments, therefore, if these lands were then disposed
of to our own people, on reasonable terms, we would
be paid our difburlements, our posterity profit by it
and the empire have a ready fund for' supplying its
necessities.
Upon the whole, it appears manifeft to me, that
did Americans know their true interest, they would
rather, for the present, wear patched garments, and
feed upon common fare, in order to difeharge the
current debts, than gaudy apparel, and sumptuous
dainties, under the increase of a national debt, or
squandering away a treasure of future advantage, for
a momentary relief. l am, Sir, yours, &c.
Feb. 23, 1781. A true Patriot.
From Rivington's Gazette, of June 2,
MADRID, February 5.
The contents of the dispatches lately received by
the Imperial Ambassador, have at last transpired, and
become the general topick of conversation. In the
memorial presented by the said Ambassador, in con
sequence of these dispatches, to our court, the Em
peror profeffes the most perfect sentiments of friend
fliip towards his Catholick Majesty, and sets forth, —
'°That lamenting the effufion of blood, and feeing
the confcquerice, which must unavoidably involve se
veral other powers in the present war, his Imperial
Majesty could not help expressing his most sincere de
sire of becoming a mediator in operating a pacificati
on between the belligerent powers. That his Im-,
perial Majesty had communicated these his sentiments