Page:Memoir upon the negotiations between Spain and the United States of America which led to the treaty of 1819.djvu/108

 98

��iiient of the goveiiiment: the largest sum it has pro- duced^ namely 135,000 dollars, was in the year 1815.

The Banks also contribute something to the national treasury, Avhen the government sanctions their institution; it then stipulates with them to pay a bonus for the protection which it ajBPords them, but this contribution is temporary and de- terminate. That which was instituted in 1816, under the title of the Bank of the United States, or National Bank, was obliged to pay to the go- vernment a bonus of a million and a half of dollars, although the government took seven millions of the stock, in the name of the United States, upon which it was to receive the dividends. In time of war, or in great publick emergencies. Congress im- poses a direct tax upon all the States, and besides this, if necessity requires it, it imposes a tax upon every article of luxury, and even upon many which are not articles of luxury, as was the case in the late war against Great Britain. They are in the habit also of authorizing the President to create a paper money, or treasury notes, and to solicit loans, appropriating funds for thdr extinction, sti- pulating the time and places of payment, and the annual interest to the lenders, until the debt is redeemed.

Assistance was obtained from all these re- sources during the late war; and although they

�� �