That the present Confederation is inadequate to the objects of the
Union seems to be universally allowed. The only question is—What
additional powers are wanting to give due energy to the federal
government? We should, however, be careful, in forming our opinion
on this subject, not to impute the temporary and extraordinary
difficulties that have hitherto impeded the execution of the
Confederation to defects in the system itself.
Taxation is in every government a very delicate and difficult
subject. Hence it has been the policy of all wise statesmen, as far
as circumstances permitted, to lead the people by small beginnings
and almost imperceptible degrees into the habits of taxation. Where
the contrary conduct has been pursued, it has ever failed of full
success, not infrequently proving the ruin of the projectors. The
imposing of a burdensome tax at once on a people, without the usual
gradations, is the severest test that any government can be put to;
despotism itself has often proved unequal to the attempt. Under this
conviction, let us take a review of our situation before and since
the Revolution. From the first settlement of this country until the
commencement of the late war, the taxes were so light and trivial as
to be scarcely felt by the people. When we engaged in the expensive
contest with Great Britain, the Congress, sensible of the difficulty
of levying the moneys necessary to its support by direct taxation,
had resource to an anticipation of the public resources by emitting
bills of credit, and thus postponed the necessity of taxation for
several years. This means was pursued to a most ruinous length.
But about the year '80 or '81, it was wholly exhausted, the bills of
credit had suffered such a depreciation from the excessive
quantities in circulation that they ceased to be useful as a medium.
The country at this period was very much impoverished and exhausted;
commerce had been suspended for near six years; the husbandman, for
want of a market, limited his crops to his own subsistence; the
frequent calls of the militia and long continuance in actual
service, the devastations of the enemy, the subsistence of our own
armies, the evils of the depreciation of the paper money, which fell
chiefly upon the patriotic and virtuous part of the community, had
all concurred to produce great distress throughout America. In this
situation of affairs, we still had the same powerful enemy to
contend with, who had even more numerous and better appointed armies
in the field than at any former time. Our allies were applied to in
this exigency, but the pecuniary assistance that we could procure
from them was soon exhausted. The only resource now remaining was to
obtain by direct taxation the moneys necessary for our defense.
The history of mankind does not furnish a similar instance of an
attempt to levy such enormous taxes at once, nor of a people so
wholly unprepared and uninured to them—the lamp of sacred liberty
must indeed have burned with unsullied luster, every sordid
principle of the mind must have been then extinct, when the people
not only submitted to the grievous impositions but cheerfully
exerted themselves to comply with the calls of their country. Their
abilities, however, were not equal to furnish the necessary
sums—indeed, the requisition of the year 1782 amounted to the whole
income of their farms and other property, including the means of
their subsistence. Perhaps the strained exertions of two years would
not have sufficed to the discharge of this requisition. How then can
we impute the difficulties of the people to a due compliance with
the requisitions of Congress to a defect in the Confederation? Any
government, however energetic in similar circumstances, would have
experienced the same fate. If we review the proceedings of the
states, we shall find that they gave every sanction and authority to
the requisitions of Congress that their laws could confer, that they
attempted to collect the sums called for in the same manner as is
proposed to be done in future by the general government instead of
the state legislatures.
It is a maxim that a government ought to be cautious not to govern
overmuch, for, when the cord of power is drawn too tight, it
generally proves its destruction. The impracticability of complying
with the requisitions of Congress has lessened the sense of
obligation and duty in the people and thus weakened the ties of the
Union; the opinion of power in a free government is much more
efficacious than the exercise of it; it requires the maturity of
time and repeated practice to give due energy and certainty to the
operations of government. …
I am persuaded that a due consideration will evince that the present
inefficacy of the requisitions of Congress is not owing to a defect
in the Confederation but the peculiar circumstances of the times.
The wheels of the general government having been thus clogged, and
the arrearages of taxes still accumulating, it may be asked: What
prospect is there of the government resuming its proper tone unless
more compulsory powers are granted? To this it may be answered that
the produce of imposts on commerce, which all agree to vest in
Congress, together with the immense tracts of land at their
disposal, will rapidly lessen and eventually discharge the present
encumbrances. When this takes place, the mode by requisition will be
found perfectly adequate to the extraordinary exigencies of the
Union. Congress have lately sold land to the amount of eight
millions of dollars, which is a considerable portion of the whole
debt.
It is to be lamented that the interested and designing have availed
themselves so successfully of the present crisis, and under the
specious pretense of having discovered a panacea for all the ills of
the people, they are about establishing a system of government that
will prove more destructive to them than the wooden horse filled
with soldiers did in ancient times to the city of Troy. This horse
was introduced by their hostile enemy the Grecians by a prostitution
of the sacred rites of their religion; in like manner, my fellow
citizens, are aspiring despots among yourselves prostituting the
name of a Washington to cloak their designs upon your liberties.
I would ask: How was the proposed Constitution to have showered down
those treasures upon every class of citizens, as has been so
industriously inculcated and so fondly believed by some? Would it
have been by the addition of numerous and expensive establishments?
By doubling our judiciaries, instituting federal courts in every
county of every state? By a superb presidential court? By a large
standing army? In short, by putting it in the power of the future
government to levy money at pleasure, and placing this government so
independent of the people as to enable the administration to gratify
every corrupt passion of the mind, to riot on your spoils, without
check or control?
A transfer to Congress of the power of imposing imposts on commerce,
the unlimited regulation of trade, and to make treaties—I believe is
all that is wanting to render America as prosperous as it is in the
power of any form of government to render her; this properly
understood would meet the views of all the honest and well-meaning.
What gave birth to the late Continental Convention? Was it not the
situation of our commerce, which lay at the mercy of every foreign
power who, from motives of interest or enmity, could restrict and
control it without risking a retaliation on the part of America, as
Congress was impotent on this subject? Such indeed was the case with
respect to Britain, whose hostile regulations gave such a stab to
our navigation as to threaten its annihilation. It became the
interest of even the American merchant to give a preference to
foreign bottoms; hence the distress of our seamen, shipwrights, and
every mechanic art dependent on navigation.
By these regulations, too, we were limited in markets for our
produce; our vessels were excluded from their West India islands;
many of our staple commodities were denied entrance in Britain.
Hence the husbandmen were distressed by the demand for their crops
being lessened and their prices reduced. This is the source to which
may be traced every evil we experience, that can be relieved by a
more energetic government. Recollect the language of complaint for
years past; compare the recommendations of Congress, founded on such
complaints, pointing out the remedy; examine the reasons assigned by
the different states for appointing delegates to the late
Convention; view the powers vested in that body—they all harmonize
in the sentiment that the due regulation of trade and navigation was
the anxious wish of every class of citizens, was the great object of
calling the Convention.
This object being provided for by the Constitution proposed by the
general Convention, people overlooked and were not sensible of the
needless sacrifice they were making for it. Allowing for a moment
that it would be possible for trade to flourish under a despotic
government, of what avail would be a prosperous state of commerce?
When the produce of it would be at the absolute disposal of an
arbitrary unchecked general government, who may levy at pleasure the
most oppressive taxes; who may destroy every principle of freedom;
who may even destroy the privilege of complaining.
If you are in doubt about the nature and principles of the proposed
government, view the conduct of its authors and patrons: that
affords the best explanation, the most striking comment.
The evil genius of darkness presided at its birth, it came forth
under the veil of mystery, its true features being carefully
concealed, and every deceptive art has been and is practising to
have this spurious brat received as the genuine offspring of
heaven-born liberty. So fearful are its patrons that you should
discern the imposition that they have hurried on its adoption, with
the greatest precipitation. They have endeavored also to preclude
all investigation; they have endeavored to intimidate all
opposition. By such means as these have they surreptitiously
procured a Convention in this state, favorable to their views; and
here again investigation and discussion are abridged, the final
question is moved before the subject has been under consideration,
an appeal to the people is precluded even in the last resort, lest
their eyes should be opened; the Convention have denied the minority
the privilege of entering the reasons of their dissent on its
journals. Thus despotism is already triumphant, and the genius of
liberty is on the eve of her exit, is about bidding an eternal adieu
to this once happy people.
After so recent a triumph over British despots, after such torrents
of blood and treasure have been spent, after involving ourselves in
the distresses of an arduous war and incurring such a debt for the
express purpose of asserting the rights of humanity, it is truly
astonishing that a set of men among ourselves should have had the
effrontery to attempt the destruction of our liberties. But in this
enlightened age, to dupe the people by the arts they are practising
is still more extraordinary. …
That the powers of Congress ought to be strengthened, all allow; but
is this a conclusive proof of the necessity to adopt the proposed
plan? Is it a proof that because the late Convention, in the first
essay upon so arduous and difficult a subject, harmonized in their
ideas, that a future convention will not, or that after a full
investigation and mature consideration of the objections, they will
not plan a better government and one more agreeable to the
sentiments of America, or is it any proof that they can never again
agree in any plan? The late Convention. must indeed have been
inspired, as some of its advocates have asserted, to admit the truth
of these positions, or even to admit the possibility of the proposed
government being such a one as America ought to adopt; for this body
went upon original ground, foreign from their intentions or powers.
They must therefore have been wholly uninformed of the sentiments of
their constituents in respect to this form of government, as it was
not in their contemplation when the Convention was appointed to
erect a new government but to strengthen the old one. Indeed, they
seem to have been determined to monopolize the exclusive merit of
the discovery, or rather, as if darkness was essential to its
success, they precluded all communication with the people by closing
their doors. Thus the well-disposed members, unassisted by public
information and opinion, were induced by those arts that are now
practising on the people to give their sanction to this system of
despotism.
Centinel Storing, Herbert J., ed. The Complete
Anti-Federalist. 7 vols. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1981.