The
same has happened on the frontiers, and in the Jerseys, New York,
and other places where the enemy has been- Carolina and Georgia are
likewise suffering the same fate.
That the people generally do not understand the insufficiency of the
taxes to carry on the war, is evident, not only from common
observation, but from the construction of several petitions which were
presented to the Assembly of this state, against the recommendation of
Congress of the 18th of March last, for taking up and funding the
present currency at forty to one, and issuing new money in its
stead. The prayer of the petition was, that the currency might be
appreciated by taxes (meaning the present taxes) and that part of
the taxes be applied to the support of the army, if the army could not
be otherwise supported. Now it could not have been possible for such a
petition to have been presented, had the petitioners known, that so
far from part of the taxes being sufficient for the support of the
whole of them falls three-fourths short of the year's expenses.
Before I proceed to propose methods by which a sufficiency of
money may be raised, I shall take a short view of the general state of
the country.
Notwithstanding the weight of the war, the ravages of the enemy, and
the obstructions she has thrown in the way of trade and commerce, so
soon does a young country outgrow misfortune, that America has already
surmounted many that heavily oppressed her. For the first year or
two of the war, we were shut up within our ports, scarce venturing
to look towards the ocean.
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