tence of that paper, which bore us
through the conflict of five years' hostility. In the moment when no
others dared oppose Great Britain in her career towards universal
empire, we met her ambition with our fortitude, encountered her
tyranny with our virtue, and opposed her credit with our own. We may
perceive what our credit would have done, had it been supported by
revenue, from what it has already effected without that support. And
we have no reason to doubt but that it may be restored, when we
reflect on the fate which paper currencies have formerly sustained.
The appeal, as I have already had the honor to observe, is made by
Congress to the several States. Some of them have answered by passing
the laws required, others are silent. Whence this silence proceeds, I
confess myself at a loss to determine. Some reasons, indeed, I have
heard assigned by individuals in conversation, but I cannot conceive
that they should have weighed with the Legislatures. Indeed I can
hardly conceive how any reasons can have weighed against a matter of
such importance as the keeping public faith inviolate.

I have heard it said, that commerce will not bear a five per cent
duty. Those who make such assertions must be very little acquainted
with the subject. The articles of commerce are either such as people
want, or such as they do not want. If they be such as people want,
they must be purchased at the price for which they can be had; and the
duty being on all, gives to no seller any advantage over another. If,
on the contrary, the article be such as people do not want, they must
either increase their industry so as to afford the use of it with the
duty, or else they must dispense with that use. In the former case,
the commerce is just where it was, and in the latter case the people
consume less of foreign superfluities, which certainty is a public
benefit.[38]

I have also heard it said, that the duty should be carried to the
account of the State where it is levied. What can be the object of
those, who contend for this point, I know not. If there are doubts as
to the justice of Congress, that body should not have been intrusted
with the power of apportioning quotas on the several States. If, on
the contrary, those who make this proposition, expect that the
commercial States, by carrying the five per cent duty to their private
account, can derive from their neighbors, the idea is as fallacious as
it is unjust. The equity of Congress woul