hosts of enemies. They will soon have need of money. At this hour, we are not able to pay the interest of their loan. What is to be done? Will you borrow money again from other citizens of that oppressed republic, to pay the interest of what you borrowed from their brethren? This would a painful expedient: but our want of government may render it necessary. You have two or three ministers abroad; they must soon return home, for they cannot be supported. You have four or five hundred troops scattered along the Ohio to protect the frontier inhabitants, and give some value to your lands; those troops are ill paid, and in a fair way for being disbanded. There is hardly a circumstance remaining-hardly one external mark-by which you can deserve to be called a nation. You are not in a condition to resist the most contemptuous enemy. What is there to prevent an Algerine pirate from landing on your coast, and carrying your citizens into slavery? You have not a single sloop of war. Does one of the states attempt to raise a little money by imposts or other commercial regulations? A neighbouring state immediately alters her laws, and defeats the revenue by throwing the trade into a different channel. Instead of supporting or assisting, we are uniformly taking the advantage of one another. Such an assemblage of people are not a nation. Like a dark cloud, without cohesion or firmness, we are ready to be torn asunder, and scattered abroad by every breeze of external violence, or internal commotion. Is there a man in this state, who believes it possible for us to continue under such a government? Let us suppose but for a minute, that such a measure should be attempted. Let us suppose that the several states shall be required and obliged to pay their several quotas according to the original plan. You know that North Carolina, in the last four years, has not paid one dollar into the treasury for eight dollars that she ought to have paid. We must increase our taxes exceedingly, and those taxes must be of the most grievous kind; they must be taxes on land and heads, taxes that cannot fail to grind the face of the poor; for it is clear that we can raise little by imports and exports. Some foreign goods are imported by water from the northern states: such goods pay a duty for the benefit of those states, which is seldom drawn back. This operates as a tax upon our citizens. On this side, Virginia promotes her revenue to the amount of twenty-five thousand dollars every year, by a tax on our tobacco that she exports. South Carolina, on the other side, may avail herself of similar opportunities. Two-thirds of foreign goods that are consumed in this state, are imported by land from Virginia or South Carolina. Such goods pay a certain impost for the benefit of the importing states, but our treasury is not profited by this commerce. By such means our citizens are taxed more than one hundred thousand dollars every year; but the state does not receive credit for a shilling of that money. Like a patient that is bleeding at both arms, North Carolina must soon expire under such wasteful operations. Unless I am greatly mistaken, we have seen enough of the state of the union, and of North Carolina in particular, to be assured that another form of government is become necessary. Is the form of government now proposed well calculated to give relief? To this we must answer in the affirmative. All foreign goods that shall be imported into these states, are to pay a duty for the use of the nation. All the states will be on a footing, whether they have bad ports or good ones. No duties will be laid on exports; hence the planter will receive the true value for his produce, wherever it may be shipped. If excises are laid on wine, spirits, or other luxuries, they must be uniform throughout the states. By a careful management of imposts and excises, the national expenses may be discharged without any other species of tax; but if a poll tax or land tax shall ever become necessary, the weight must press equally on every part of the union. For in all cases. such taxes must be according to the number of inhabitants. Is it not a pleasing consideration that North Carolina, under all her natural disadvantages, must have the same facility of paying her share of the public debt, as the most favoured, or the most fortunate state? She gains no advantage by this plan, but she recovers from her misfortunes. She stands on the same footing with her sisters, and they are too generous to desire that she should stand on lower ground. When you consider those parts of the new system which are of the greatest import—those which respect the general question of liberty and safety-you will recollect that the states in convention were unanimous; and you must remember, that some of the members of that body have risqued their lives in defence of liberty: but the system does not require the help of such arguments; it will bear the most scrupulous examination. When you refer the proposed system to the particular circumstances of North Carolina, and consider how she is to be affected by this plan, you must find the utmost reason to rejoice in the prospect of better times. This is a sentiment that I have ventured with the greater confidence, because it is the general opinion of my late honourable colleagues,* and I have the utmost reliance in their superior abilities. But if our constituents shall discover faults where we could not see any-or if they shall suppose that a plan is formed for abridging their liberties, when we imagined that we had been securing both liberty and property on a more stable foundation-if they perceive that they are to suffer a loss, where we thought they must rise from a misfortune-they will, at least do us the justice to charge those errors to the head, and not to the heart. The proposed system is now in your hands, and with it the fate of your country. We have a common interest for we are embarked in the same vessel. At present she is in a sea of trouble, without sails, oars, or pilot; ready to be dashed to pieces by every flaw of wind. You may secure a port, unless you think it better to remain at sea. If there is any man among you that wishes for troubled times and fluctuating measures, that he may live by speculations, and thrive by the calamities of the state, this government is not for him. If there is any man who envies the prosperity of a native citizen -who wishes that we should remain without native merchants or seamen, without shipping, without manufactures, without commerce-poor and contemptible, the tributaries of a sovereign country-this government is not for him. * Williamson was a member of the Federal Convention.-Ed. And if there is any man who has never been reconciled to our independence, who wishes to see us degraded and insulted abroad, oppressed by anarchy at home, and torn into pieces by factionsincapable of resistance, and ready to become a prey to the first invader-this government is not for him. But it is a government, unless I am greatly mistaken, that gives the fairest promise of being firm and honourable; safe from foreign invasion or domestic sedition-a government by which our commerce must be protected and enlarged; the value of our produce and of our lands must be increased; the labourer and the mechanic must be encouraged and supported. It is a form of government that is perfectly fitted for protecting liberty and property, and for cherishing the good citizen and honest man. |