Alexandria daily gazette, commercial & political. [volume] (Alexandria [Va.]) 1808-1812, 1811-10-02


ment The interest and instruments OF the
Public Debt, the payment of the millions re-
ouisite for the Civil List, for the Army and
Navy, must still be provided tor; and II In
1909, loan had become necessary Tor these
objects the cause which produced that neces-
sity not having ceased to exist, the necessity
must of course recur. Even then there were
daily becoming due Custom-house Bonds, OF
large amounts. Now, the number OF these IS
daiy diminishing; no others are, as formerly
supplying their place; many have been lost
by the failure of those who signed them-and
many more must be lost by inevitable future
failures in the mercantile world. Indeed, 1t
is very papabe, that as government must de-
pend for its resources upon the solvency OF
merchants, so its deficiency i'll present revenue
NAV be calculated from. the number OF insol-
vencies we daily witness among the merchants.
and hence it IS incontroverube that 1t Loan
was necessary, OF, even expedlent IN 1902, 1t
is utterly indispensable now. And wal, or no
war, Loan, and that of no ordinary ma5nl-
tude, must be authorised next winter, by Con-
gress; evidently, Sir, OF no ordinary rnaSnl-
tude for if when our whole rcvenIe amount
ed to Is millions of tloilars, we had objects OF
expenditure for the whole, II may easily be
seen, that now, when we have no revenue, the
Loan which is to supply what the revenue
produced, cannot be limited to two or three,
nor even to eight or nine millions, unless 1t Is
resolved to let great portion OF the Just
claims upon the Treasury remain unsatlshed.
If this Loan be authorized by Congress.
without, at the same time, providing and
pledging for its discharge adequate and per-
manent funds, subject to none of those Hue
tuations and casualties, to which experience
has proved imposts to be, 1t seems very evil
dent that neither monied men, nor monled In
situations, can safely part with their money
and therefore, unless this description ut beings
have undergone as total = revolution, as ha-
man reason seems to have done, 1t Will be
scarcely possible to obtain relief from them
Their first question, their greatest anxiety
uniformly is, "what security arc we to have Z
The answer is, "the honesty OF government
the disposition they have heretofore manifest
ed to pay their debts as long as they had
means" I" Aye (say the men with the money!
but now you have no means nor are you
likely to have any for great while to come
Your dispositions may be honest; but they
cannot be coined into gold and silver. While
your dispositions would urge you to repay us
your necessities Can leave you no alternative
but to borrow again. If this reasoning bc
substantial and conclusive in the judgment OF
the reader, who has no money to lend, wha
will it be with him from whom 1t is attempted
to borrow, and who in these times Can IND
substantial real estate in abundance as securi-
ty from private individuals /?
If then the government is DESTROYS OF meet
ing its old engagements, it has no alternative
but to borrow and it Cannot borrow without
pledping some substantial fund-And that
fund to be substantial one must be tax
and that tax, in order that the income from 1t
MAY be unhuctuating, must be an internal tax
Let US suppose them daring enough TO venture
one, and to pledge it for the redemption Of
the Loan. Yet they will here be encounter.
ed by an insurmouDtable difficulty, the conse-
quence of their own former Jolly, Tor which Is
precisely the same thing( their own former
dishonesty. This term Is certainly not TOO
harsh, if palp-bie and deliberate breach oil
PUBLIC Farm, in relation to pccuniary en-
eagements be dishonesty in public rulers
The wariness of monied men must have ex-
perienced great relaxation, if they will con-
sent to receive amortgage OF funds, from the
very men, who having the power, did hereto
fore destroy the fund which government had
mortgaged for the redemption of the public
debt. Ofthis most execrable act Of political
turpitude the men now in power have been
guilty.
TIE Imhost, and the Excise on distilled
spirits had been repeatedly * selemnly pledg-
ed, first for the paymen, of the interest efthc
debt, and next for the reimbursement Of GER
tain instalments of the principal. Yet the first
Congress which assembled under Mr.. Jeffer-
sons administration, abolished the Excise on
distilled spirits, and thus withdrew the very
find which had been msrtgaged by the go
vernment for the security of the public credi-
tors and this simply because they had the
ho4ysr to do so, and because it was deemed
totular at that day to do it. The National
credit, of which good and great statesmen in
all ages and countries have been sedulously
careful national credit these men sacrificed to
popularity sacrificed it then that a needless
populace might be made to continue them in
power sacrificed the public creditors to