I lay before you the result of the census lately taken of our
inhabitants, to a conformity with which we are to reduce the ensuing
rates of representation and taxation. You will perceive that the
increase of numbers during the last ten years, proceeding in
geometrical ratio, promises a duplication in little more than
twenty-two years. We contemplate this rapid growth, and the prospect
it holds up to us, not with a view to the injuries it may enable us
to do to others in some future day, but to the settlement of the
extensive country still remaining vacant within our limits, to the
multiplications of men susceptible of happiness, educated in the love
of order, habituated to self-government, and value its blessings
above all price.
Other circumstances, combined with the increase of numbers,
have produced an augmentation of revenue arising from consumption, in
a ratio far beyond that of population alone, and though the changes
of foreign relations now taking place so desirably for the world, may
for a season affect this branch of revenue, yet, weighing all
probabilities of expense, as well as of income, there is reasonable
ground of confidence that we may now safely dispense with all the
internal taxes, comprehending excises, stamps, auctions, licenses,
carriages, and refined sugars, to which the postage on newspapers may
be added, to facilitate the progress of information, and that the
remaining sources of revenue will be sufficient to provide for the
support of government to pay the interest on the public debts, and to
discharge the principals in shorter periods than the laws or the
general expectations had contemplated.
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