359
PAPERS OF MIRABEAU BuoNAPARTE LAMAR
national independence shall be generally ackno.wledged. The radi- cal policy of Texas is anti-tariff, because its commercial commodi- ties are of the raw material, which fears no impost rivalry, and pay- ing no contributions to manufactories. Yet the immediate adoption of free trade, as is proposed by many of our citizens, and statesmen, would in the present situation of our country, exhibit an apparent recklessness and imprudence, which could not fail to affect our credit .abroad; for it should never be forgotten, that fickleness and instability in a young government like ours, is as destructive to its character, as a vitiated currency is to its wealth, or oppression to its peace. In addition to this, it should be borne in mind, that the reve- nue collected through custom-houses has been, and is still our chief dependence for sustaining the credit of our public issues, which must most certainly sink into a disastrous and degrading depreciation with the repeal of the imposts. Indeed if we abolish the tariff in the present impoverished condition of the treasury, the government will be left destitute of the means of sustaining itself, during the interval of collecting the necessary fund by direct taxation, or raising it on foreign loans, which, in either case, under the most favorable circum- stances, will require several months to effect; and this destitution of means, will occur at a moment, when the energies of the govern- ment are demanded for frontier defence. Under these circumstances I feel constrained to ask of the honorable congress a continuance of the tariff to meet the exigencies of the times, until other sources of wealth, and revenue, shall be opened for supplying the treasury, and defraying the necessary expenses of the government. There is no one subject in the whole range of political economy that carries with it a more universal and intense interest, then that of the circulating medium, and none is more worthy the immediate and profound attention of Congress. The necessity of adopting some practical mode of supplying the general demand for money, which will combine convenience with security, is felt every where, and by all classes. The insufficiency of the present means, is too obvious to be longer relied upon. As a temporary expedient, it has answered a valuable purpose; but experience already admonishes us, that to urge it further, or to continue it longer, would be equally injudicious and prejudicial. If the unavailing efforts of England, France, and the United States, to give confidence and a uniform circulation to inconvertible paper as the representative of money, were not suffi- cient evidence of its impracticability; the present depreciation of our own promissory notes, gives a testimony that is calcuhlted to force conviction upon the judgment of every citizen. The exchequer bills of England, the assignats of France, and the treasury bills of the United States, fnrnish memorable examples of the inability of. the most powerful and opulent governments, to establish a good practical circulating medium on their own credit .alone, without the facilities of prompt redemption. The precious metals are the only unform standard of value; and no paper representative can acquire general confidence, and answer the legitimate purposes of trade, unless it be convertible at the pleasure of the holder into gold or silver· for there are occasions constantly arising in the fluctuations of bu;iness, when nothing else than specie, or its actual convertible
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