1777) Essays |
their civil government, over three millions of people,
amounted to but £70,000 sterling, and drew from
thence a conclusion, that they ought to be taxed
until their expense was equal in proportion to that
which it costs Great Britain to govern eight millions.
He had no idea of a contrary conclusion, that, if three
millions may be well governed for £70,000, eight
millions may be well governed for three times that
sum, and that therefore the expense of his own government
 should be diminished. In that corrupted
nation, no man is ashamed of being concerned in
lucrative government jobs, in which the public money
is egregiously misapplied and squandered, the treasury
 pillaged, and more numerous and heavy taxes
accumulated, to the great oppression of the people.
But the prospect of a greater number of such jobs
by a war, is an inducement with many to cry out
for war upon all occasions, and to oppose every proposition
 of peace. Hence the constant increase of
the national debt, and the absolute improbability
of its ever being discharged.
4. Respecting the amount and certainty of income,
and solidity of security; the whole thirteen States of
America are engaged for the payment of every debt
contracted by the Congress, and the debt to be contracted
 by the present war is the only debt they will
have to pay; all, or nearly all the former debts of
particular colonies being already discharged; whereas
 England will have to pay, not only the enormous
debt this war must occasion, but all their vast preceding
 debt, or the interest of it; and, while America
 is enriching itself by prizes made upon the British

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