4.3BSD-UWisc/lib/learn/editor/L60.2b

#print
You can of course combine many files.  Make a file
"total" which contains the pieces "first", "second",
"third", and "fourth" in that order.  Then type "ready".
#create Ref
   It has been already observed that the federal government
ought to possess the power of providing for the support
of the national forces; in which proposition was intended
to be included the expense of raising troops, of building
and equipping fleets, and all other expenses in any wise
connected with military arrangements and operations.  But
these are not the only objects to which the jurisdiction of
the Union in respect to revenue must necessarily be empowered
to extend.  It must embrace a provision for the
support of the national civil list; for the payment of the
national debts contracted, or that may be contracted;
and, in general, for all those matters which will call for
disbursements out of the national treasury.  The conclusion
is that there must be interwoven in the frame of the
government a general power of taxation, in one shape or
another.
   Money is, with propriety, considered as the vital principle
of the body politic; as that which sustains its life and
motion and enables it to perform its most essential functions.
A complete power, therefore, to procure a regular
and adequate supply of revenue, as far as the resources
of the community will permit, may be regarded
as an indispensable ingredient in every constitution.
From a deficiency in this particular, one of two evils
must ensue:  either the people must be subjected to
continual plunder, as a substitute for a more eligible
mode of supplying the public wants, or the government
must sink into a fatal atrophy, and, in a short course of
time, perish.
   In the Ottoman or Turkish empire the sovereign,
though in other respects absolute master of the lives and
fortunes of his subjects, has no right to impose a new tax.
The consequence is that he permits the bashaws or governors
of provinces to pillage the people at discretion,
and, in turn, squeezes out of them the sums of which he
stands in need to satisfy his own exigencies and those of
the state.  In America, from a like cause, the government
of the Union has gradually dwindled into a state of decay,
approaching nearly to annihilation.  Who can doubt that
the happiness of the people in both countries would be
promoted by competent authorities in the proper hands
to provide the revenues which the necessities of the public
might require?
   The present Confederation, feeble as it is, intended to
repose in the United States an unlimited power of providing
for the pecuniary wants of the Union.  But proceeding
upon an erroneous principle, it has been done in
such a manner as entirely to have frustrated the intention.
#create first
   It has been already observed that the federal government
ought to possess the power of providing for the support
of the national forces; in which proposition was intended
to be included the expense of raising troops, of building
and equipping fleets, and all other expenses in any wise
connected with military arrangements and operations.  But
these are not the only objects to which the jurisdiction of
the Union in respect to revenue must necessarily be empowered
to extend.  It must embrace a provision for the
support of the national civil list; for the payment of the
national debts contracted, or that may be contracted;
and, in general, for all those matters which will call for
disbursements out of the national treasury.  The conclusion
is that there must be interwoven in the frame of the
government a general power of taxation, in one shape or
another.
#create fourth
   The present Confederation, feeble as it is, intended to
repose in the United States an unlimited power of providing
for the pecuniary wants of the Union.  But proceeding
upon an erroneous principle, it has been done in
such a manner as entirely to have frustrated the intention.
#create second
   Money is, with propriety, considered as the vital principle
of the body politic; as that which sustains its life and
motion and enables it to perform its most essential functions.
A complete power, therefore, to procure a regular
and adequate supply of revenue, as far as the resources
of the community will permit, may be regarded
as an indispensable ingredient in every constitution.
From a deficiency in this particular, one of two evils
must ensue:  either the people must be subjected to
continual plunder, as a substitute for a more eligible
mode of supplying the public wants, or the government
must sink into a fatal atrophy, and, in a short course of
time, perish.
#create third
   In the Ottoman or Turkish empire the sovereign,
though in other respects absolute master of the lives and
fortunes of his subjects, has no right to impose a new tax.
The consequence is that he permits the bashaws or governors
of provinces to pillage the people at discretion,
and, in turn, squeezes out of them the sums of which he
stands in need to satisfy his own exigencies and those of
the state.  In America, from a like cause, the government
of the Union has gradually dwindled into a state of decay,
approaching nearly to annihilation.  Who can doubt that
the happiness of the people in both countries would be
promoted by competent authorities in the proper hands
to provide the revenues which the necessities of the public
might require?
#user
#cmp total Ref
#next
60.2c 5