The only difference
can be, that without it that burthen would have been otherwise
distributed, and would have fallen with unequal weight, instead of being
equally borne as it now is.
These conclusions which have been drawn respecting the non-increase of
the debt, proceed upon the presumption that every part of the public
debt, as well that of the States individually, as that of the United
States, was to have been honestly paid. If there is any fallacy in this
supposition, the inferences may be erroneous; but the error would imply
the disgrace of the United States, or parts of them,--a disgrace from
which every man of true honor and genuine patriotism will be happy to
see them rescued.
When we hear the epithets, "vile matter," "corrupt mass," bestowed upon
the public debt, and the owners of it indiscriminately maligned as the
harpies and vultures of the community, there is ground to suspect that
those who hold the language, though they may not dare to avow it,
contemplate a more summary process for getting rid of debts than that of
paying them. Charity itself cannot avoid concluding from the language
and conduct of some men, (and some of them of no inconsiderable
importance,) that in their vocabularies _creditor_ and _enemy_ are
synonymous terms, and that they have a laudable antipathy against every
man to whom they owe money, either as individuals or as members of the
society.
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