med by the means of protecting them.

The power of regulating and calling forth the militia has been already
sufficiently vindicated and explained.

The power of levying and borrowing money, being the sinew of that which
is to be exerted in the national defense, is properly thrown into the
same class with it. This power, also, has been examined already with
much attention, and has, I trust, been clearly shown to be necessary,
both in the extent and form given to it by the Constitution. I will
address one additional reflection only to those who contend that the
power ought to have been restrained to external--taxation by which they
mean, taxes on articles imported from other countries. It cannot be
doubted that this will always be a valuable source of revenue; that for
a considerable time it must be a principal source; that at this moment
it is an essential one. But we may form very mistaken ideas on this
subject, if we do not call to mind in our calculations, that the extent
of revenue drawn from foreign commerce must vary with the variations,
both in the extent and the kind of imports; and that these variations
do not correspond with the progress of population, which must be the
general measure of the public wants. As long as agriculture continues
the sole field of labor, the importation of manufactures must increase
as the consumers multiply. As soon as domestic manufactures are begun by
the hands not called for by agriculture, the imported manufactures will
decrease as the numbers of people increase. In a more remote stage, the
imports may consist in a considerable part of raw materials, which will
be wrought into articles for exportation, and will, therefore,
require rather the encouragement of bounties, than to be loaded with
discouraging duties. A system of government, meant for duration, ought
to contemplate these revolutions, and be able to accommodate itself to
them.

Some, who have not denied the necessity of the power of taxation, have
grounded a very fierce attack against the Constitution, on the language
in which it is defined. It has been urged and echoed, that the power "to
lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises, to pay the debts,
and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United
States," amounts to an unlimited commission to exercise every power
which may be alleged to be necessary for the common defense or general
welfare. No stronger proof could be given of the distres