The struggle,
therefore, on our part to be successful must be made at the threshold.
To make our efforts effective, severe economy is necessary. This is the
surest provision for the national welfare, and it is at the same time
the best preservative of the principles on which our institutions rest.
Simplicity and economy in the affairs of state have never failed to
chasten and invigorate republican principles, while these have been
as surely subverted by national prodigality, under whatever specious
pretexts it may have been introduced or fostered.
These considerations can not be lost upon a people who have never been
inattentive to the effect of their policy upon the institutions they
have created for themselves, but at the present moment their force is
augmented by the necessity which a decreasing revenue must impose. The
check lately given to importations of articles subject to duties, the
derangements in the operations of internal trade, and especially the
reduction gradually taking place in our tariff of duties, all tend
materially to lessen our receipts; indeed, it is probable that the
diminution resulting from the last cause alone will not fall short of
$5,000,000 in the year 1842, as the final reduction of all duties to
20 per cent then takes effect.
Pages:
619
620
621
622
623
624
625
626
627
628
629
630
631
632
633
634
635
636
637
638
639
640
641
642
643