o remain untouched, as a resource when some great
emergency should require an exertion of all the faculties of the
United States.

Against the substitution of a duty on internal negotiations, it was
said, that revenue to any considerable extent could be collected from
them only by means of a stamp act, which was not less obnoxious to
popular resentment than an excise, would be less certainly productive
than the proposed duties, and was, in every respect, less eligible.

The honour, the justice, and the faith of the United States were
pledged, it was said, to that class of creditors for whose claims the
bill under consideration was intended to provide. No means of making
the provision had been suggested, which, on examination, would be
found equally eligible with a duty on ardent spirits. Much of the
public prejudice which appeared in certain parts of the United States
against the measure, was to be ascribed to their hostility to the term
"excise," a term which had been inaccurately applied to the duty in
question. When the law should be carried into operation, it would be
found not to possess those odious qualities which had excited
resentment against a system of excise. In those states where the
collection of a duty on spirits distilled within the country had
become familiar to the people, the same prejudices did not exist. On
the good sense and virtue of the nation they could confidently rely
for acquiescence in a measure which the public exigencies rendered
necessary, which tended to equalize the public burdens, and which in
its execution would not be oppressive.

A motion made by Mr. Jackson, to strike out that section which imposed
a duty on domestic distilled spirits, was negatived by thirty-six to
sixteen; and the bill was carried by thirty-five to twenty-one.

Some days after the passage of this bill, another question was brought
forward, which was understood to involve principles of deep interest
to the government.

[Sidenote: On a national bank.]

The secretary of the treasury had been the uniform advocate of a
national bank. Believing that such an institution would be "of primary
importance to the prosperous administration of the finances; and of
the greatest utility in the operations connected with the support of
public credit," he had earnestly recommended its adoption in the first
general system which he presented to the view of congress; and, at the
present session, had repeated that recommendation