The writings of George Washington; being his correspondence, addresses, messages, and other papers, official and private, selected and published from the original manuscripts; with a life of the author, notes and illustrations. By Jared Sparks.

470 LIFE OF WASHINGTON. [1791.
his reasons in writing, and he is understood to have reflected deeply, and deliberated even with more than
his usual caution, before he affixed his signature to
the act.
The object of the tax on distilled spirits was to provide a fund for paying the interest on a portion of the
domestic debt. The duties on imports were said to
be strained as far as they would bear, without injury
to commerce, and perhaps to the revenue by holding
out a temptation to smuggling; and, as a new tax must
be laid somewhere, the Secretary of the Treasury
thought it could fall on no commodity less objectionable than ardent spirits distilled in the country. The
tax was opposed as impolitic and unequal in its application. It was branded as an odious excise, hostile to
liberty, the collecting of which would inflame the people, and lead to evasions and perhaps to resistance.
It was unequal, because distilling was practised mostly
in the West, and a few limited districts in other parts.
This argument was more specious than sound,' since
the consumers would actually pay the tax; but it was
vehemently urged by some of the representatives.
The bill was carried, and was more remarkable for its
consequences, than for its characteristics as a legislative act, in whatever light it may be viewed.
The President had fixed on the next recess of Congress for a tour through the southern States. He set
off about the middle of March, and was gone three
months, performing in that time a journey of eighteen
hundred and eighty-seven miles with the same horses.
His route was through Richmond, Wilmington, and
Charleston, as far as Savannah; whence he returned by
way of Augusta, Columbia, and the interior of North
Carolina and Virginia. Before leaving home, he had
ascertained with great accuracy the distances between