y for these objects a much larger
sum was transferred from the pockets of the people to the favored
classes was carefully concealed, as was also the tendency, if not the
ultimate design, of the system to build up an aristocracy of wealth, to
control the masses of society, and monopolize the political power of the
country.

The several branches of this system were so intimately blended
together that in their operation each sustained and strengthened the
others. Their joint operation was to add new burthens of taxation and to
encourage a largely increased and wasteful expenditure of public money.
It was the interest of the bank that the revenue collected and the
disbursements made by the Government should be large, because, being the
depository of the public money, the larger the amount the greater would
be the bank profits by its use. It was the interest of the favored
classes, who were enriched by the protective tariff, to have the rates
of that protection as high as possible, for the higher those rates the
greater would be their advantage. It was the interest of the people
of all those sections and localities who expected to be benefited by
expenditures for internal improvements that the amount collected should
be as large as possible, to the end that the sum disbursed might also be
the larger. The States, being the beneficiaries in the distribution of
the land money, had an interest in having the rates of tax imposed by
the protective tariff large enough to yield a sufficient revenue from
that source to meet the wants of the Government without disturbing
or taking from them the land fund; so that each of the branches
constituting the system had a common interest in swelling the public
expenditures. They had a direct interest in maintaining the public debt
unpaid and increasing its amount, because this would produce an annual
increased drain upon the Treasury to the amount of the interest and
render augmented taxes necessary. The operation and necessary effect of
the whole system were to encourage large and extravagant expenditures,
and thereby to increase the public patronage, and maintain a rich and
splendid government at the expense of a taxed and impoverished people.

It is manifest that this scheme of enlarged taxation and expenditures,
had it continued to prevail, must soon have converted the Government of
the Union, intended by its framers to be a plain, cheap, and simple
confederation of States, united togethe