The supposition of a want of proper knowledge seems
to be entirely destitute of foundation. If any question is depending in
a State legislature respecting one of the counties, which demands a
knowledge of local details, how is it acquired? No doubt from the
information of the members of the county. Cannot the like knowledge be
obtained in the national legislature from the representatives of each
State? And is it not to be presumed that the men who will generally be
sent there will be possessed of the necessary degree of intelligence to
be able to communicate that information? Is the knowledge of local
circumstances, as applied to taxation, a minute topographical
acquaintance with all the mountains, rivers, streams, highways, and
bypaths in each State; or is it a general acquaintance with its
situation and resources, with the state of its agriculture, commerce,
manufactures, with the nature of its products and consumptions, with the
different degrees and kinds of its wealth, property, and industry?
Nations in general, even under governments of the more popular kind,
usually commit the administration of their finances to single men or to
boards composed of a few individuals, who digest and prepare, in the
first instance, the plans of taxation, which are afterwards passed into
laws by the authority of the sovereign or legislature.
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