Let,
at the same time, a tax of ten, fifteen, or twenty per cent. per
annum, to be collected quarterly, be levied on all property. These
alternatives, by being perfectly voluntary, will take in all sorts
of people. Here is the test; here is the tax. He who takes the former,
conscientiously proves his affection to the cause, and binds himself
to pay his quota by the best services in his power, and is thereby
justly exempt from the latter; and those who choose the latter, pay
their quota in money, to be excused from the former, or rather, it
is the price paid to us for their supposed, though mistaken, insurance
with the enemy.
But this is only a part of the advantage which would arise by
knowing the different characters of men. The Whigs stake everything on
the issue of their arms, while the Tories, by their disaffection,
are sapping and undermining their strength; and, of consequence, the
property of the Whigs is the more exposed thereby; and whatever injury
their estates may sustain by the movements of the enemy, must either
be borne by themselves, who have done everything which has yet been
done, or by the Tories, who have not only done nothing, but have, by
their disaffection, invited the enemy on.
In the present crisis we ought to know, square by square and house
by house, who are in real allegiance with the United Independent
States, and who are not. Let but the line be made clear and
distinct, and all men will then know what they are to trust to. It
would not only be good policy but strict justice, to raise fifty or
one hundred thousand pounds, or more, if it is necessary, out of the
estates and property of the king of England's votaries, resident in
Philadelphia, to be distributed, as a reward to those inhabitants of
the city and State, who should turn out and repulse the enemy,
should they attempt to march this way; and likewise, to bind the
property of all such persons to make good the damages which that of
the Whigs might sustain.
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