The known
necessity which so many of the States will be under to impose taxes
for the payment of the interest on their debts furnishes an additional
and very cogent reason why the Federal Government should refrain from
creating a national debt, by which the people would be exposed to
double taxation for a similar object. We possess within ourselves
ample resources for every emergency, and we may be quite sure that
our citizens in no future exigency will be unwilling to supply the
Government with all the means asked for the defense of the country.
In time of peace there can, at all events, be no justification for the
creation of a permanent debt by the Federal Government. Its limited
range of constitutional duties may certainly under such circumstances be
performed without such a resort. It has, it is seen, been avoided during
four years of greater fiscal difficulties than have existed in a similar
period since the adoption of the Constitution, and one also remarkable
for the occurrence of extraordinary causes of expenditures.
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