To this Hotspur of the South, contentious, eccentric almost to insanity, insolent, overbearing, pert, vain-glorious, wilful, keen in debate, ready in retort, of sharpest irony, tantalizing, without knowledge, without experience, or tact, or wisdom, but of superior abilities, and a probity far above that of the men whose ends he now served, but from whom he soon broke; with those abilities ripened by use and that probity only blinded by the vanity which sought distinction from office, he finally turned against them, and though unsuccessfully, left an impression by contrast, not to be effaced,-to him was intrusted by Jefferson, for a time his prompter with Gallatin as his guide, an assault upon leading measures of the defeated Federalists.

In his Message Jefferson declared,-"that in consideration of the tendency to multiply offices and dependencies, and to increase expence to the ultimate term of the burthen which the Citizens can bear, it behoves us to avail ourselves of every occasion for taking off the surcharge, that it may never be seen here, that, after leaving to labor the smallest portion of its earnings on which it can subsist, Government shall itself consume the residue of what it was instituted to guard." By the leading resolutions moved by Randolph, three great party objects were to be accomplished, for, with the advent of Jefferson to power, the Government had become a government, not of the nation and for the nation, but of party and for party. It appealed, indeed, constantly to the people, but to that portion of the people who envy and hate government, because they most require to be governed--to the quickened passions, not to the true great interests of the many. The three objects to be accomplished—were, as Jefferson had written, "economy pushed to the utter

* Jefferson to Macon-before quoted. Jeff. Works, iv. 397. May 14, 1801.

most." What in his view and in the view of over-burthened labor more popular?"A chaste reformation of the army," whose officers selected by and devoted to Washington and to his principles, had been a hated barrier to Democratic ambition-the displacement of the Judges recently appointed by Adams-a last exertion of expiring power, naturally obnoxious to those who regarded the power of government as little else than that of providing and dispensing place, and saw in these Judges a body, surely earnest in the support of laws it might be convenient to violate-and whose tenure of office recognized the power of the Constitution—a power mistakingly supposed to be above the power of party.-Nor was the issue these resolutions presented without every promise of advantage to its presenters.-Would the Federalists, openly accused of extravagant improvidence, dare to oppose a provident economy? Would they, whose object had been charged to be the elevation of the Military above the Civil power, dare to espouse the maintaining of “a standing army in time of peace," which Jefferson had so recently declared in his message, he the constitutional Commander of that army, "neither needful nor safe"? Would they, without all the certain consequences of ignominious defeat, maintain in office-though by the Constitution beyond the reach of the Executive or the Legisla ture, “midnight Judges," lowering over the liberties of the people? Such were the hazards to be incurred by the opposers of these probing resolutions.

The reductions in the civil and military establishments, disapproved as they were by the Federalists, from a belief, that they were mere temporary baits for popularity, and inconsistent with the true interests of the country, justified a corresponding reduction of the Revenue. They

were willing to meet the Executive in the proposed purposc of relieving the laboring classes; and, with this view, Bayard urged a reduction of the duty on salt. He was followed by Rutledge in a proposal for a diminution of the duties on other necessaries of life-brown sugar, coffee, and bohea tea. These bore on the poorer population. The internal duties were chiefly taxes on luxuries— some of them pernicious luxuries. The Democratic party nevertheless refused to take off this "surcharge of burthens" on the poor.

To meet the objection of the expense attending the collection of the Internal Revenue, it was proposed to inquire in detail, whether some reductions of that expense might not be made. The Report of the Secretary of the Treasury was referred to. No other reply was given to the proposal. It was rejected by a silent vote on a motion for the previous question, soon to become the frequent instrument of legislative tyranny.

The restoration of peace, it was alleged, had affected the value of labor; ought not war duties on the necessaries of life to be repealed, if the real object was the relief of industry? The tax on stills had been denounced, yet since its imposition, distilleries had increased to the enormous number of two and twenty thousand, and the revenue from them had also increased. Was this an oppressive tax? Was it favorable to morality that their product should be increased and rendered cheaper? that the substitutes for it, the aliments of temperance, tea and coffee, should be burthened? Ought the charges on Commerce to be retained, and a tax on pleasure carriages, the luxury of the wealthy, to be abolished? If the tax on stills is odious-if the stamp tax is inconvenient, at least stop these. Suffer the four remaining items of internal

revenue to remain, and repeal the additional duty on salt.

The majority of the House insisted, that the system of internal revenue was odious to the people, and at war with the genius of a free government-was unequal and expensive-that the Excise was injurious to the emigrant, who found in the distillation of spirits, a demand for the grain he needed, that it diminished the consumption, and was a tax on the article. It was also proposed, before the revenue was thus reduced, that compensation should be made to the sufferers by French spoliations, which France had refused, and who were not provided for in the recent treaty. This proposal was rejected. In the much opposed treaty with Great Britain, indemnity had been obtained.

After long delay, the bill repealing the system of Internal Revenue passed by a vote of sixty-one to twentyfour. It also passed the Senate, and became a law. Thus by party influence, acting on local interests and stimulating prejudices, that wise policy which Hamilton had acted upon of charging an excise on manufactures raised to maturity by protection, and thus returning to the Treasury an equivalent for the burthens such protection had imposed, was wholly departed from; and the important power of resorting to this great and ultimately indispensable national resource, was almost annulled. All the burthens of the nation have since been charged upon Commerce; and the National credit and resources and private property have been jeoparded by the fluctuating legislation of contending interests, espousing opposite theories, made to become mere party issues.

* Sales at auction. Licenses to retailers. Duties on refined sugars. The Carriage tax.

In his "Examination" of the Message Hamilton made several important reflections on this innovation. Jefferson founded this measure on "a reasonable ground of confidence that this revenue could be dispensed with." Hamilton declared, that by a prudent statesman,

"Nothing less than experimental certainty ought to have been relied on." There was no pressure of circumstances to precipitate it. The revenue from imports was problematical. It might be necessary to reduce the rates in order to a beneficial course of trade.-"Is it not desirable," he asked, "that Government should have it in its power to discharge the debt faster than may have been contemplated? The laws, providing for its extinguishment within a given time, had made an auxiliary provision, by declaring, that surpluses should become part of the Sinking Fund for the purpose of abridging that term. The auxiliary was thus renounced, and the provident care of the laws to accelerate its discharge was disappointed." "The tone is entirely changed. Those who projected and established the present system of public credit, and were charged with a design to perpetuate the debt, under the pretext that a public debt was a public blessing, are of a sudden discovered to have done too much for its speedy discharge, and its duration is to be prolonged by throwing away a part of the Fund destined for its prompt redemption." "The Message had condemned the policy of taxing industry to accumulate treasure for wars to happen we know not when, and which might not happen but for temptations offered by that treasure. The statutes had provided, by the appropriation of the surpluses, against such accumulation of treasure until the whole debt was extinguished. Thus, either there was an ignorance of financial arrangements or a deliberate design to delude the people." "Between the two, let the worshippers of the Idol make their option."

The immediate payment of the debt, he admitted, would be injurious, "by producing, in the first instance, a money plethora, inauspicious to the energies, and to the morality and industry of the nation. The quick efflux of money to pay that part in the hands of foreigners and to procure abroad the means of gratifying an increased extravagance, would, after some time, substitute a too great vacuity to a too great fulness-thus leaving us to struggle with the bad habits incident to the latter state, and with the embarrassments of a defective circulation. These considerations are applicable in a less degree to a very