number of the Representatives is yet sufficient for our safety, and will gradually increase; and if we consider their different sources of information, the number will not appear too small.

Sir, that part of the proposed Constitution which gives the general government the power of laying and collecting taxes, is indispensable and essential to the existence of any efficient or well-organized system of government: if we consult reason, and be ruled by its dictates, we shall find its justification there: if we review the experience we have had, or contemplate the history of nations, there too we shall find ample reasons to prove its expediency. It would be preposterous to depend for necessary supplies on a body which is fully possessed of the power of withholding them. If a government depends on other governments for its revenues; if it must depend on the voluntary contributions of its members, its existence must be precarious. A government that relies on thirteen independent sovereignties for the means of its existence, is a solecism in theory, and a mere nullity in practice. Is it consistent with reason, that such a government can promote the happiness of any people? It is subversive of every principle of sound policy, to trust the safety of a community with a government totally destitute of the means of protecting itself or its members. Can Congress, after the repeated unequivocal proofs it has experienced of the utter inutility and inefficacy of requisitions, reasonably expect that they would be hereafter effectual or productive? Will not the same local interests, and other causes, militate against a compliance? Whoever hopes the contrary must forever be disappointed. The effect, sir, cannot be changed without a removal of the cause. Let each county in this commonwealth be supposed

free and independent: let your revenues depend on requisitions of proportionate quotas from them: let application be made to them repeatedly, and then ask yourself, is it to be presumed that they would comply, or that an adequate collection could be made from partial compliances? It is now difficult to collect the taxes from them: how much would that difficulty be enhanced, were you to depend solely on their generosity? I appeal to the reason of every gentleman here, and to his candor, to say whether he is not persuaded that the present confederation is as feeble as the government of Virginia would be in that case; to the same reason I appeal, whether it be compatible with prudence to continue a government of such manifest and palpable weakness and inefficiency.

MONROE

JAMES MONROE was born in 1758 in Westmoreland County, Virginia.

At the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, he was a student at the College of William and Mary, but he left his studies in 1776 to join the Continental Army. He took part as Lieutenant in the New Jersey campaign of that year, and was wounded at the battle of Trenton. The next year he served with the rank of Captain on the staff of General William Alexander. In 1780 he began the study of the law under the direction of Jefferson, then Governor of Virginia. Thereafter, under all vicissitudes, he continued to possess the friendship and support of both Jefferson and Madison. In 1782 Monroe was in the Virginia Legislature, and from 1783 to 1786 he was a member of the Congress of the Confederation. On retiring from Congress he entered upon the practice of the law, and was again elected to the Legislature. In the Virginia Convention of 1788, called for the purpose of ratifying the proposed Federal Constitu. tion, he was among the opponents of that instrument, but his course was approved by the Legislature of his State, which elected him United States Senator in 1790. Although in the Federal Senate he had shown himself opposed to the Federalist administration, he was appointed by Washington in 1794 Minister to France, but was recalled two years later, on the ground that he had failed to represent properly the policy of the government. In justification of his diplomatic conduct, he published in the following year a pamphlet of five hundred pages. In 1799 he became Governor of Virginia and was twice re-elected. When the Republican party came into power with Jefferson as President, Monroe was again called upon to discharge diplomatic functions. Commissioned in 1803 to co-operate with Livingston, then Resident Minister at Paris, he took part in effecting the purchase of the Louisiana Territory. He was next commissioned Minister to England, and subsequently undertook a mission to Madrid. In 1806 he was placed in a commission with William Pinkney to negotiate a treaty with England, but the outcome of his negotiations was rejected. Returning to the United States in 1807, he drew up a defence of his diplomatic conduct in Great Britain. In the following year some disaffected Republicans attempted to put Monroe forward as the candidate for the Presidency, but, as Virginia declared in favor of Madison, he withdrew his name. In 1810 he was again sent to the Legislature of his native State, and the next year became its Governor. In the same twelvemonth he was appointed Secretary of State in