political arithmetick would probably in a state of peace,
exhibit an expenditure of about twenty millions annually,
by all our governments, state and continental, partly for
necessary purposes, and partly to feed parties of interest;
and a gross income to banks of about five millions annually.
This total exceeds a moiety of our exports, and yet the system, discontented with this proportion of them, may possibly
propose to be let loose upon exports more directly. Twenty
five millions of income at six per centum, require a principal of four hundred and fifty millions. Supposing the lands
of the United States to be of the average value of four dollars an acre, this income covers above one hundred and
twelve millions of acres. If a moiety of it is received by
funding and banking, then these two parties of interest,
have already attached upon more acres of land here, than
the whole family have been able to lay hold of in England.
The question to be determined is, which is best for mankind a government for advancing the prosperity of an entire nation, or one for selecting, by law, sundry minor nations out of the great one, and extracting as much money
as possible, in straight and crooked ways, under honest and
fraudulent pretexts, from the entire nation, to enrich these
legal selections. If the united interest of the king, nobility,
priesthood, stockjobbers, placemen, chartered companies,
army and navy, with their associates, governs the British
government, then the national association (if there is or ever
was one) has no government. There is no British nation,
except a combined minority of interests, distinct from the
general interest. It might with equal propriety be asserted, that the servants and drudges who enrich the East India
company, were members of that company, as that British
people, not belonging to the association of exclusive interests. but serving and enriching it, were members of the
British nation. The first species of government does good
to a multitude of people, without injuring one; the second,
does good to a few people, by injuring a multitude. The
latter is the principle of every species of political oppres-
Page:Inquiry into the Principles and Policy of the Government of the United States.djvu/652
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THE LEGAL POLICY OF THE U. STATES.