From the
extent of our country, its diversified interests, different pursuits,
and different habits, it is too obvious for argument that a single
consolidated government would be wholly inadequate to watch over and
protect its interests; and every friend of our free institutions should
be always prepared to maintain unimpaired and in full vigor the rights
and sovereignty of the States and to confine the action of the General
Government strictly to the sphere of its appropriate duties.
There is, perhaps, no one of the powers conferred on the Federal
Government so liable to abuse as the taxing power. The most productive
and convenient sources of revenue were necessarily given to it, that it
might be able to perform the important duties imposed upon it; and the
taxes which it lays upon commerce being concealed from the real payer in
the price of the article, they do not so readily attract the attention
of the people as smaller sums demanded from them directly by the
taxgatherer. But the tax imposed on goods enhances by so much the price
of the commodity to the consumer, and as many of these duties are
imposed on articles of necessity which are daily used by the great body
of the people, the money raised by these imposts is drawn from their
pockets.
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