The enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1804-1815, 1805-10-18

there cafes where unlimited arbitrary power
might be advantageouily concentred for moment
in one man. But 10 proipe9 Of fuch cafe, though
Polible, has been or ought be thought fuiheient
tn induce you provide for it in your contribution.
fyou had been convinced therefore, that the pow
er you have delegated TO eongrefs OF borrowing mo-
ney the credit of the United States DANCE
rous it would be to delegate the power of Great
ing Dictator you doubtless would not have inherited
iuch caufe in your contribution, without fonie
difcation or restriction, which would not have been
difficult tn apply to 10 tremendous an narument of
innovation and abule. Though great miichiefs have
already been done by the exerc(e Of this power thus
indifcreetiy trulled of your hands, yet it is
impoiible arreR the evil where it is; and in my
opinion you ought to attempt it without farther de-
lay Otherwiie it will inevitably go increa6ng
degree which no man will pretend to calculate
and no friend to his country think of but with
horror. Annex to your contribution amendment
to this efeGf Tia. in ja'a,e no aGanffi0n obii
cation for the Payment Of ,7Oney Fail Be- n7S5e author
Jed BY tie COagyeT tie Eseem'i0s any ofssr eteer
Of tie United States, 70 10 Re binding tie feopie
fbertef, except in cal: Of actual ieoasa and ben for
the sle pnrp:e IF nsda,c dsafs agaigfjse invaGen
Experience has certainly taught by this time,
what teory unhappiy did not, that few detached
citizens, however vr,uous in other repeas, cannot
be fafely truaed with the faes of nations, and the
'appinefs Of future ages, in buiines attended with
o many teiilptations as tlat OIL tlrutlng the nand IN
10 the long and open purle OF pofferity. The gid
dineis of power, the violence of palion, the multi.
form Fluctuations of artul peculators, will amo!t ne
ceiiary drive them hes,iipng fell future earn
'ngs, and entail lavery mankind; when it can be
done by the tinIpe af of voting; and when the ref
poniibility is who fent them, bot to gene
rations not yet in being.
Look back through ten years of your hiGory, and
examine, if you with patience; the rife, progress
and prelent ffate of your national debt, See with
what wanton Prodigaty i; has been hunted up from
every corner aud in every ihape, affirmed, funded,
and iaddled upon you. You were told ten years ago.
and with fuch effrontery as appeared to gain your
belief, that il You would have the eoodnes 20 fund
the propoled debt, with all its accumul,iors it would
be very eafily leened and very foon extinqui.bsd ;
that the rate of intereG in America would foon fall
from FIX to fv-, and then fou rer cent, and you
were battered with the idea that YOU would peeiily
be able TO make loans at thee latter rates TO
Purchaie in the old capital and by that means 70
dliiniih the annual call for money as to be able by
| furPluage Of revenue to fink the whole deb, in
ihort time. You have now had ten years of peace
unce this arrangement eight of which were years OF
iuch uncalculated PROPERTY never before ex-
perienced by any nation, and was anoniihinc even
to yourlelvss. During this time, how have the prof
poets, held out in your funding fcheme, been realized
Your debt has been conaantly increafng and your
government is now borrowing money or trying to
borrow It, at eight per cent; and for other obe6f
Is can diicern, but to augment the b!eiTngs of
national debt AS to the rate of intereh offered, it
is matter OF very little importance in my view of
the iubjea. Twin the money were not to be found
at tzofnty per cent rather, with the government
OF the United States, unable to borrow dollar
al any interett whatever, and always to CONT
nue. 20, except in cafe of war and invaiion.
The actual ftate of things with you, if not defpe-
rate, is at ea difqueting to the friends of liberty
when lee the American Executive adverting to
borrow money at egbt per cent, what do fee but
youthful, free, and Aourihing nation advertiiing it.
ielt tor fale fee infant Hercules after having
tranged the ierpent in his CRADLE and riieu on his
feet with an indication of future force defined to free
the world from violence, tie hmfelf for life 70 the
aPron-irings OF the fame Juno who had brought the
erpents to devour him. Your leaders attach YOU to
England, not only by commercial treaties, which
ought to humble you in your own eyes, as much as
they dgrace you in the eyes of the world but by feek
ing precedents in every thing among the WORT of
her follies; things indeed that carcely pals for fol-
lies in her, free the weakness, wickednels con-
Hts chiefly in applying them to a country where
they do not belong, and for which they could
nave been invented. Your phyGcians have gone to
decrePd, incorporate old man, and borrowed his
trong cordials his bandages and equity velvet ioes
to adminter them with cracl empiricGn to ifurdv
plow-boy.
But in anfwer to what fuggefted relative to the
belt mode of defence againG the infuts of Europa
1T will be taid that you have fettled your dpute with
England, without reforting to it and, what is more
you have ttiPulated that you never will refort to it.
Have you ever calculated the real expence, pan,
Preient and to come, Of fettling that dput. in the
manner in which you have done it 1t has colt YOU.
IT. facrifice of character perhaps irretreyable in
the dgrace of having injured your old friend in her
d'itreis, aided your mon nveteiate enemy and aban
doned the itrong hold which the nature of things
had given you, and in which you always would have
been able to defend yOux elves againft them both with
perfect dignity and independence. You feen to have
forgotten that different nations as well as different
animals, have different means of defence, with which
nature and circumstances have respectively endowed
them. England is defended amoft entirely by ma
Rhine force, without deemiug it neceary to for,fv
her towns, or keep foot any comfortable army by
land; Aultria depends wholly upon her land troops
and her Notifications. The Pope, though for many
ages the mott powerful monarch in Europe, DEPEND
ed on no Phyca force oy land fea, but altogether
ON moral force, or church policy. Now if either of
the latter powers had faid to England lay Aide
your navy; IT is dionorabe to make ufe of wooden
walls and floating batteries; you ought to allow your
enemy to land in your country when he pleaes, and
then ruf to your bayonet or your prayer-book for
deience'--is il probable that England would have
oeenperiuaded by that argument, TO fet fire to her
ihipsf The defence Of the United States lay in the
peculiar nature of their commerce. Won had N, ;,