Antifederalist No. 21 Why The Articles Failed |
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That the present confederation is inadequate to the objects of the union, seems to be
universally allowed. The only question is, what additional powers are wanting to give due
energy to the federal government? We should, however, be careful, in forming our opinion
on this subject, not to impute the temporary and extraordinary difficulties that have
hitherto impeded the execution of the confederation, to defects in the system itself. For
years past, the harpies of power have been industriously inculcating the idea that all our
difficulties proceed from the impotency of Congress, and have at length succeeded to give
to this sentiment almost universal currency and belief. The devastations, losses and
burdens occasioned by the late war; the excessive importations of foreign merchandise and
luxuries, which have drained the country of its specie and involved it in debt, are all
overlooked, and the inadequacy of the powers of the present confederation is erroneously
supposed to be the only cause of our difficulties. Hence persons of every description are
reveling in the anticipation of the halcyon days consequent on the establishment of the
new constitution. What gross deception and fatal delusion! Although very considerable
benefit might be derived from strengthening the hands of Congress, so as to enable them to
regulate commerce, and counteract the adverse restrictions of other nations, which would
meet with the concurrence of all persons; yet this benefit is accompanied in the new
constitution with the scourge of despotic power. . . .
Taxation is in every government a very delicate and difficult subject. Hence it has been
the policy of all wise statesmen, as far as circumstances permitted, to lead the people by
small beginnings and almost imperceptible degrees, into the habits of taxation. Where the
contrary conduct has been pursued, it has ever failed of full success, not unfrequently
proving the ruin of the projectors. The imposing of a burdensome tax at once on a people,
without the usual gradations, is the severest test that any government can be put to;
despotism itself has often proved unequal to the attempt. Under this conviction, let us
take a review of our situation before and since the revolution. From the first settlement
of this country until the commencement of the late war, the taxes were so light and
trivial as to be scarcely felt by the people. When we engaged in the expensive contest
with Great Britain, the Congress, sensible of the difficulty of levying the monies
necessary to its support, by direct taxation, had resource to an anticipation of the
public resources, by emitting bills of credit, and thus postponed the necessity of
taxation for several years. This means was pursued to a most ruinous length. But about the
year 80 or 81, it was wholly exhausted, the bills of credit had suffered such a
depreciation from the excessive quantities in circulation, that they ceased to be useful
as a medium. The country at this period was very much impoverished and exhausted; commerce
had been suspended for near six years; the husbandman, for want of a market, limited his
crops to his own subsistence; the frequent calls of the militia and long continuance in
actual service, the devastations of the enemy, the subsistence of our own armies, the
evils of the depreciation of the paper money, which fell chiefly upon the patriotic and
virtuous part of the community, had all concurred to produce great distress throughout
America. In this situation of affairs, we still had the same powerful enemy to contend
with, who had even more numerous and better appointed armies in the field than at any
former time. Our allies were applied to in this exigency, but the pecuniary assistance
that we could procure from them was soon exhausted. The only resource now remaining was to
obtain by direct taxation, the moneys necessary for our defense. The history of mankind
does not furnish a similar instance of an attempt to levy such enormous taxes at once, nor
of a people so wholly unprepared and uninured to them -- the lamp of sacred liberty must
indeed have burned with unsullied luster, every sordid principle of the mind must have
been then extinct, when the people not only submitted to the grievous impositions, but
cheerfully exerted themselves to comply with the calls of their country. Their abilities,
however, were not equal to furnish the necessary sums -- indeed, the requisition of the
year 1782, amounted to the whole income of their farms and other property, including the
means of their subsistence. Perhaps the strained exertions of two years would not have
sufficed to the discharge of this requisition. How then can we impute the difficulties of
the people to a due compliance with the requisitions of Congress, to a defect in the
confederation? Any government, however energetic, in similar circumstances, would have
experienced the same fate. If we review the proceedings of the States, we shall find that
they gave every sanction and authority to the requisitions of Congress that their laws
could confer, that they attempted to collect the sums called for in the same manner as is
proposed to be done in future by the general government, instead of the State
legislatures....
The wheels of the general government having been thus clogged, and the arrearages of taxes
still accumulating, it may be asked what prospect is there of the government resuming its
proper tone, -- unless more compulsory powers are granted? To this it may be answered,
that the produce of imposts on commerce, which all agree to vest in Congress, together
with the immense tracts of land at their disposal, will rapidly lessen and eventually
discharge the present encumbrances. When this takes place, the mode by requisition will be
found perfectly adequate to the extraordinary exigencies of the union. Congress have
lately sold land to the amount of eight millions of dollars, which is a considerable
portion of the whole debt.
It is to be lamented that the interested and designing have availed themselves so
successfully of the present crisis, and under the specious pretense of having discovered a
panacea for all the ills of the people, they are about establishing a system of
government, that will prove more destructive to them than the wooden horse filled with
soldiers did in ancient times to the city of Troy. This horse was introduced by their
hostile enemy the Grecians, by a prostitution of the sacred rites of their religion; in
like manner, my fellow citizens, are aspiring despots among yourselves prostituting the
name of a Washington to cloak their designs upon your liberties.
I would ask how was the proposed Constitution to have showered down those treasures upon
every class of citizens, as has been so industriously inculcated and so fondly believed by
some? Would it have been by the addition of numerous and expensive establishments? By
doubling our judiciaries, instituting federal courts in every county of every state? By a
superb presidential court? By a large standing army? In short, by putting it in the power
of the future government to levy money at pleasure, and placing this government so
independent of the people as to enable the administration to gratify every corrupt passion
of the mind, to riot on your spoils, without check or control?
A transfer to Congress of the power of imposing imposts on commerce, the unlimited
regulation of trade, and to make treaties, I believe is all that is wanting to render
America as prosperous as it is in the power of any form of government to render her; this
properly understood would meet the views of all the honest and well meaning.
What gave birth to the late continental Convention? Was it not the situation of our
commerce, which lay at the mercy of every foreign power, who, from motives of interest or
enmity, could restrict and control it without risking a retaliation on the part of
America, as Congress was impotent on this subject? Such indeed was the case with respect
to Britain, whose hostile regulations gave such a stab to our navigation as to threaten
its annihilation, it became the interest of even the American merchant to give a
preference to foreign bottoms; hence the distress of our seamen, shipwrights, and every
mechanic art dependent on navigation.
By these regulations too, we were limited in markets for our produce; our vessels were
excluded from their West India islands; many of our staple commodities were denied
entrance in Britain. Hence the husbandman were distressed by the demand for their crops
being lessened and their prices reduced. This is the source to which may be traced every
evil we experience, that can be relieved by a more energetic government. Recollect the
language of complaint for years past; compare the recommendations of Congress, founded on
such complaints, pointing out the remedy; examine the reasons assigned by the different
states for appointing delegates to the late Convention; view the powers vested in that
body -- they all harmonize in the sentiment, that the due regulation of trade and
navigation was the anxious wish of every class of citizens, was the great object of
calling the Convention.
This object being provided for by the Constitution proposed by the general Convention,
people overlooked and were not sensible of the needless sacrifice they were making for it.
Allowing for a moment that it would be possible for trade to flourish under a despotic
government, of what avail would be a prosperous state of commerce, when the produce of it
would be at the absolute disposal of an arbitrary unchecked general government, who may
levy at pleasure the most oppressive taxes; who may destroy every principle of freedom;
who may even destroy the privilege of complaining....
After so recent a triumph over British despots, after such torrents of blood and treasure
have been spent, after involving ourselves in the distresses of an arduous war, and
incurring such a debt, for the express purpose of asserting the rights of humanity, it is
truly astonishing that a set of men among ourselves should have had the effrontery to
attempt the destruction of our liberties. But in this enlightened age, to dupe the people
by the arts they are practicing, is still more extraordinary. . .
CENTINEL
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