: Benjamin Franklin 
Q. What is your name and place of abode? 
A. Franklin, of Philadelphia. 
QO. Do the Americans pay any considerable taxes 
among themselves? 
A. Certainly, many and very heavy taxes. 
Q. What are the present taxes in Pennsylvania, 
laid by the laws of the colony? 
A. There are taxes on all estates, real and per- 
sonal; a poll tax; a tax on all offices, professions, 
trades, and businesses, according to their profits; an 
excise on all wine, rum, and other spirits; and a duty 
of ten pounds per head on all negroes imported, with 
some other duties. 
Q. For what purposes are those taxes laid? 
A. For the support of the civil and military estab- 
lishments of the country, and to discharge the heavy 
debt contracted in the last war. 
Q. How long are those taxes to continue? 
A. Those for discharging the debt are to continue 
till 1772, and longer, if the debt should not be then 
all discharged. The others must always continue. 
Q. Was it not expected that the debt would have 
been sooner discharged? 
A. It was, when the peace was made with France 
and Spain. But a fresh war breaking out with the 
Indians, a fresh load of debt was incurred; and the 
taxes, of course, continued longer by a new law. 
Q. Are not all the people very able to pay those 
taxes? 
A. No. The frontier counties, all along the con- 
tinent, having been frequently ravaged by the enemy 
and greatly impoverished, are able to pay very little 
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