Page:Essays on the Constitution of the United States, published during its discussion by the people 1787-1788.djvu/238

 226 A COUNTRYMAN. Town voters are partly I'epresentatives, i. e. many people pay town taxes who have no right to vote, but the money they vote away is principally their own. The towns in this state tax them- selves less willingly than smaller bodies. They generally however tax themselves sufficiently to nearly pay the demands against them within the year, very seldom raise money beforehand by taxes. The Generally Assembly of this state could never be in- duced to attempt to do more than pay the annual interest of what they owe, and occasionally sink very small parts of the principal, and they never in fact did thus much, and we are all witnesses that they are full as careful of the public money as we can wishs It never was a complaint that they were too ready to allow indi- viduals large sums. A man who has a claim against a town, and applies to a town-meeting, is very likely to obtain justice: but he who has a claim against the state, and applies to the Gen- eral Assembly, stands but a poor chance to obtain justice. Some rule will be found to exclude his claim, — or to lessen it, — or he will be paid in a security not worth half the money. You have uniformly experienced that your representatives are as careful, if not more so, of your money, than you yourselves are in your town-meetings; but still your representatives are generally men of property, and those of them who are most in- dependent, and those whom you have sent to Congress, have not been by any means the least careful. (226)