Constitutional history -- United States -- Sources; Constitutional law -- United States
Nothing remains but the landed interest; and this, in a political view,
and particularly in relation to taxes, I take to be perfectly united,
from the wealthiest landlord down to the poorest tenant. No tax can be
laid on land which will not affect the proprietor of millions of acres
as well as the proprietor of a single acre. Every landholder will
therefore have a common interest to keep the taxes on land as low as
possible; and common interest may always be reckoned upon as the surest
bond of sympathy. But if we even could suppose a distinction of
interest between the opulent landholder and the middling farmer, what
reason is there to conclude, that the first would stand a better chance
of being deputed to the national legislature than the last? If we take
fact as our guide, and look into our own senate and assembly, we shall
find that moderate proprietors of land prevail in both; nor is this
less the case in the senate, which consists of a smaller number, than
in the assembly, which is composed of a greater number. Where the
qualifications of the electors are the same, whether they have to
choose a small or a large number, their votes will fall upon those in
whom they have most confidence; whether these happen to be men of large
fortunes, or of moderate property, or of no property at all.
It is said to be necessary, that all classes of citizens should have
some of their own number in the representative body, in order that
their feelings and interests may be the better understood and attended
to. But we have seen that this will never happen under any arrangement
that leaves the votes of the people free. Where this is the case, the
representative body, with too few exceptions to have any influence on
the spirit of the government, will be composed of landholders,
merchants, and men of the learned professions. But where is the danger
that the interests and feelings of the different classes of citizens
will not be understood or attended to by these three descriptions of
men? Will not the landholder know and feel whatever will promote or
insure the interest of landed property? And will he not, from his own
interest in that species of property, be sufficiently prone to resist
every attempt to prejudice or encumber it? Will not the merchant
understand and be disposed to cultivate, as far as may be proper, the
interests of the mechanic and manufacturing arts, to which his commerce
is so nearly allied? Will not the man of the learned profession, who
will feel a neutrality to the rivalships between the different branches
of industry, be likely to prove an impartial arbiter between them,
ready to promote either, so far as it shall appear to him conducive to
the general interests of the society?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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