There are two distinct things which make the payment of taxes
difficult; the one is the large and real value of the sum to be
paid, and the other is the scarcity of the thing in which the
payment is to be made; and although these appear to be one and the
same, they are in several instances riot only different, but the
difficulty springs from different causes.
Suppose a tax to be laid equal to one half of what a man's yearly
income is, such a tax could not be paid, because the property could
not be spared; and on the other hand, suppose a very trifling tax
was laid, to be collected in pearls, such a tax likewise could not
be paid, because they could not be had. Now any person may see that
these are distinct cases, and the latter of them is a representation
of our own.
That the difficulty cannot proceed from the former, that is, from
the real value or weight of the tax, is evident at the first view to
any person who will consider it.
The amount of the quota of taxes for this State for the year,
1780, (and so in proportion for every other State,) is twenty millions
of dollars, which at seventy for one, is but sixty-four thousand two
hundred and eighty pounds three shillings sterling, and on an average,
is no more than three shillings and five pence sterling per head,
per annum, per man, woman and child, or threepence two-fifths per head
per month. Now here is a clear, positive fact, that cannot be
contradicted, and which proves that the difficulty cannot be in the
weight of the tax, for in itself it is a trifle, and far from being
adequate to our quota of the expense of the war.
Pages:
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199