The Founders on Taxation and Debt
This has not been a particularly joyful season inside the beltway. All we’ve seen is a lot of clamoring, to little effect. In the hinterlands, we hear the echoes of the politicians’ raucous debate about government spending, government borrowing, and government intrusion into our homes and business. One side yells that the only solution is to tax the rich until they squeal, while the other side of the aisle insists we must reform entitlements or go the way of Greece.
What would the Founders think about all this? Here is what they said in their own words.
The people of the U.S. owe their independence and their liberty, to the wisdom of descrying in the minute tax of 3 pence on tea, the magnitude of the evil comprized in the precedent. Let them exert the same wisdom, in watching against every evil lurking under plausible disguises, and growing up from small beginnings. — James Madison
As a very important source of strength and security, cherish public credit. One method of preserving it is to use it as sparingly as possible: avoiding occasions of expensed by cultivating peace, but remembering also that timely disbursements to prepare for danger frequently prevent much greater disbursements to repel it; avoiding likewise the accumulation of debt, not only by shunning occasions of expense, but by vigorous exertions in time of peace to discharge the debts which unavoidable wars may have occasioned, not ungenerously throwing upon posterity the burthen which we ourselves ought to bear. — George Washington, Farewell Address
The apportionment of taxes on the various descriptions of property is an act which seems to require the most exact impartiality; yet there is, perhaps, no legislative act in which greater opportunity and temptation are given to a predominant party to trample on the rules of justice. — James Madison, Federalist 10
If we run into such [government] debts, as that we must be taxed in our meat and in our drink, in our necessaries and our comforts, in our labors and our amusements, for our callings and our creeds, as the people of England are, our people, like them, must come to labor sixteen hours in twenty-four, give the earnings of fifteen of these to the government for their debts and daily expenses, and the sixteenth being insufficient to afford us bread, we must live, as they now do, on oatmeal and potatoes, have no time to think, no means of calling the mismanagers to account; but be glad to obtain subsistence by hiring ourselves to rivet their chains on the necks of our fellow-suffers. — Thomas Jefferson
By any plain method of argument, as we are running the next generation into debt, we ought to do the work of it, otherwise we use them meanly and pitifully. — Thomas Paine
Excessive taxation … will carry reason and reflection to every man’s door, and particularly in the hour of election. — Thomas Jefferson
If the system be established on basis of Income, and his just proportion on that scale has been already drawn from every one, to step into the field of consumption, and tax special articles in that, as broadcloth or homespun, wine or whiskey, a coach or a wagon, is doubly taxing the same article. For that portion of Income with which these articles are purchased, having already paid its tax as Income, to pay another tax on the thing it purchased, is paying twice for the same thing; it is an aggrievance on the citizens who use these articles in exoneration of those who do not, contrary to the most sacred of the duties of a government, to do equal and impartial justice to all its citizens. — Thomas Jefferson
If duties are too high, they lessen the consumption; the collection is eluded; and the product to the treasury is not so great as when they are confined within proper and moderate bounds. — Alexander Hamilton, Federalist 21
In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes. — Benjamin Franklin
And here are a quote on the subject from a more current president.
No matter what anyone may say about making the rich and the corporations pay the taxes, in the end they come out of the people who toil. It is your fellow workers who are ordered to work for the Government, every time an appropriation bill is passed. The people pay the expense of government, often many times over, in the increased cost of living. I want taxes to be less, that the people may have more. — Calvin Coolidge
James D. Best is the author of Tempest at Dawn, a novel about the 1787 Constitutional Convention. Look for his forthcoming book, Principled Action, Lessons from the Origins of the American Republic.
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“Excessive taxation … will carry reason and reflection to every man’s door, and particularly in the hour of election.” — Thomas Jefferson
Let’s hope he’s right.
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Quite a bit of cherry picking on this page…
Here is a little information for those that want to learn the actual history of some of it – http://www.politifact.com/virginia/statements/2011/sep/09/bob-goodlatte/goodlatte-says-thomas-jefferson-strongly-backed-ba/
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Let’s see, you reference a site about a completely unrelated quote and use it to diminish the quotes used in this article. An intellectually honest person would challenge what we wrote, not deflect by going to a different issue. Beside, this Politicfact article shows that Jefferson was always uncomfortable with national debt, just unsure of a solution. Also, our national debt is now 100% of GDP. Jefferson worried about leaving the next generation even a small debt. We should be ashamed about enslaving our children with such enormous debt that it will sap their spirit, destroy their happiness, and deprive them of liberties Americans have taken granted for two centuries.
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Each sentence in the composition below is either a direct or faithfully paraphrased quote from Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, Benjamin Franklin or Adam Smith (author of “Wealth of Nationsâ€, which helped to inspire our system of capitalism). The intent of the phrases as presented has been kept consistent with the intent of the phrases in the original context. Only modernizations of the language, and some connective phrases, have been applied.
Tax Advice From Our Forefathers
— A compilation of wisdom. —
Taxes are never welcome. They seldom fail to excite uneasiness and rebellion. This is why governments are often more willing to borrow against the future rather than raise taxes in the present. But succumbing completely to such temptation is dangerous; it can result in national economic distress and even bankruptcy. Certainly, every specific proposal for a raised tax is sure to meet with opposition. This is why it is of utmost importance that no one should sink under the burden. It is the duty of the legislature to hold the scales with a judicious hand and balance one proposal against another. The great art is to distribute the public burdens fairly, such that they do not fall too heavily upon any single part of the community. But note that the necessities of life — food, shelter and transportation — are the greatest expense of the poor, and the greater part of their little revenue is spent in getting it. In contrast, the luxuries and vanities of life occasion the principal expense of the rich. Therefore, it is completely reasonable that the rich should contribute to the public expense, not only in proportion to their revenue, but something more than in that proportion.
Some have noted that the collection of taxes already falls principally on the rich. But I say that it is our desire to make them contribute the whole money we want, if possible. The rich must be made to pay for their luxuries. And we have a hope that they will furnish enough for all the expenses of government and the interest of our whole public debt. I tell you now that an enormous proportion of property vested in a few individuals is dangerous to the rights and destructive of the common happiness of mankind; and, therefore, every free state has a right by its laws to discourage the possession of such property. It is the government’s prerogative to take such action because property superfluous to basic survival of the individual and family is in fact the property of the government, who, by its laws has created the nation’s wealth, and so it may therefore dispose of or recall that wealth at will, whenever the needs and welfare of the country’s citizens require it. Therefore, we ought to go as far as may be practical in making the luxury of the rich a tributary to the public treasury, in order to diminish the taxation burden on the poor.
From my experience, I have seen that man is an animal which devours his own kind, for I can apply no milder term to the general prey of the rich on the poor. So the greater goal is to establish political equality by blocking the opportunities of the fortunate few to accumulate an immoderate, and often an unmerited and unearned accumulation of riches. Instead, there ought to be a smooth and silent operation of laws and policy which reduce levels of extreme wealth and raise people up from extreme poverty towards a humane and comfortable standard. Indeed, the poor and middle classes should see the government supported, their children educated, and the face of this country made a paradise by the contributions of the rich alone, without anyone else being called on to spend a cent from their earnings. It is in fact a happy and fortunate circumstance that the interests of the government and this nation coincide with a proper distribution of the public tax burdens, and also with the need to guard the least wealthy part of the community from oppression!
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The actual quotes:
Taxes are never welcome to a community. They seldom fail to excite uneasy sensations more or less extensive. Hence a too strong propensity in the governments of nations to anticipate and mortgage the resources of posterity rather than encounter the inconveniences of a present increase in taxes. . . . when not dictated by very peculiar circumstances, is of the worst kind. Its obvious tendency is, by enhancing the permanent burdens of the people, to produce lasting distress, and its natural issue is in National Bankruptcy.â€â€“ Hamilton
Every proposal for a specific tax is sure to meet with opposition. – Hamilton
… it is of the greatest importance that no one should sink under the immediate pressure. – Hamilton
It must be the province of the legislature to hold the scales with a judicious hand and balance one by another. – Hamilton
The great art is to distribute the public burdens well and not suffer them, either first, or last, to fall too heavily upon parts of the community; else distress and disorder must ensue. – Hamilton
The necessaries of life occasion the great expense of the poor. They find it difficult to get food, and the greater part of their little revenue is spent in getting it. The luxuries and vanities of life occasion the principal expense of the rich … It is not very unreasonable that the rich should contribute to the public expense, not only in proportion to their revenue, but something more than in that proportion.– Adam Smith, author of “Wealth of Nationsâ€, an early treatise on what we call capitalism, published 1776
As these [the collection of taxes] fall principally on the rich, it is a general desire to make them contribute the whole money we want, if possible. – Jefferson
The rich must be made to pay for their luxuries – Hamilton
And we have a hope that they will furnish enough for the expenses of government and the interest of our whole public debt, foreign and domestic. – Jefferson
That an enormous proportion of property vested in a few individuals is dangerous to the rights and destructive of the common happiness of mankind; and, therefore, every free state hath a right by its laws to discourage the possession of such property. – Franklin
Property superfluous to such purposes [food, shelter, and survival of the individual] is the Property of the Publick, who, by their Laws, have created it, and who may therefore by other Laws dispose of it, whenever the Welfare of the Publick shall demand. – Franklin
make it a fixed point of policy in the national administration to go as far as may be practicable in making the luxury of the rich tributary to the public treasury, in order to diminish the necessity of those impositions which might create dissatisfaction in the poorer and most numerous classes of the society. – Hamilton
The issue today is the same as it has been throughout all history, whether man shall be allowed to govern himself or be ruled by a small elite. – attributed to Jefferson
Experience demands that man is the only animal which devours his own kind, for I can apply no milder term to the general prey of the rich on the poor. – Jefferson
The great object should be to combat the evil: 1. By establishing a political equality among all; 2. By withholding unnecessary opportunities from a few to increase the inequality of property by an immoderate, and especially an unmerited, accumulation of riches; 3. By the silent operation of laws which, without violating the rights of property, reduce extreme wealth towards a state of mediocrity and raise extreme indigence towards a state of comfort; – Hamilton
The farmer will see his government supported, his children educated, and the face of this country made a paradise by the contributions of the rich alone, without his being called on to spend a cent from his earnings – Jefferson
Happy it is when the interest which the government has in the preservation of its own power, coincides with a proper distribution of the public burdens, and tends to guard the least wealthy part of the community from oppression! – Hamilton
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