But the opposition was comparatively weak. Jefferson and Madison were hostile to the principle, but there had been a bargain on Assumption to which they were parties. They could not deceive themselves as to the necessity. If Jefferson raised a finger to prevent the passage of the bill, he covered his tracks. Even Giles, soon to become the most vehement leader of the Jeffersonian party, at first looked upon it with some favor. Madison could see no escape.
Among the masses throughout the country, however, the obscure orators were busy in the bar-rooms, on the streets, and at the crossroads. The character of the discussion among the people is indicated in imaginary conversations by a writer in a Baltimore paper. A friend of the excise fares forth into the streets and meets its enemies. ‘An outrage!’ cried one. ‘Had we not gone to war with England on a tax?’ ‘Ah,’ but, says the defender, ‘then we were taxed by another country and without representation, while here we tax ourselves through our chosen representatives.’ ‘Yes,’ but, says Rumor, ‘under the excise act men can break into the people’s houses.’ ‘Wrong,’ says the defender; ‘the law provides no such arbitrary power.’ ‘But,’ persists the enemy, ‘we shall be eaten up by excise officers.’ ‘Silly,’ says the defender; ‘numerically these officials will be unimportant.’ Then the defender encounters one candid enemy of the measure. ‘I hate the excise,’ he cries, ‘because it strengthens the Government by providing effectually for its necessities; and the Government which lays it because it is a Government of vigor.’ Whereupon the defender praises him as an honest man.[284]
The moment the Excise Bill was presented in the House, the ever alert Jackson was ready with a motion to strike out the essential part of the first clause. ‘The mode of taxation was odious, unequal, unpopular, and oppressive, more particularly in the Southern States,’ where under the hot Southern skies spirituous liquors were more than salutary—they were necessary. Why deprive the masses of ‘the only luxury they enjoy’? Why impose upon the American people an excise that had been odious in England from the days of Cromwell, and which had been reprobated by Blackstone?
Yes, added an indignant Virginian,[285] ‘it will convulse the Government; it will let loose a swarm of harpies, who, under the domination of revenue officers, will range through the country, prying into every man’s house and affairs, and like a Macedonian phalanx bear down all before them.’ The mercantile interests were paying their duties with promptitude? He was tired of these encomiums. ‘The increase in the revenue has served to enhance the value of the public securities, of which it is well known they hold a very considerable portion.’[286]
On the second day, Madison went on record as opposed to the principle and in favor of the measure. The only question to be considered was the necessity for the revenue—and that was indisputable. He personally would prefer direct taxes, but the majority of the people were against them. Of all forms of the excise, that on ardent spirits impressed him as the least objectionable.
But, demanded Jackson, disappointed at Madison’s failure to join in the assault, why not other taxes—taxes on salaries, pensions, lawyers? Because, answered Laurance, the Assumption calls for revenue, and this is the best way to raise it. True, added another,[287] and he had ‘not found a single person against it’—and this in Philadelphia where the Legislature was sitting! What! exclaimed Timothy Blood worth of North Carolina, why ‘people to the southward universally condemn the tax.’ Yes, indeed, contributed another, especially in North Carolina, ‘where the consumption of ardent spirits is ten times greater than in Connecticut.’
Up rose Sedgwick in conciliatory mood. He was not impressed with ‘the considerations of morality,’ and could not think that the tax ‘would be attended with any sensible inconvenience.’ There certainly was no thought of using military force in its collection. And then it was that Giles, who, next to Madison, was the most fervent and able of the Jeffersonians, astonished many by giving his hearty approval to the tax as necessary ‘to the honor, peace and security’ of the country.[288]
Thus for days the debate continued with its reiterations, until a new note was struck with a proposed amendment, aimed at Hamilton whose audacious methods and successive successes were causing grave concern in some quarters, to prohibit revenue agents from interfering in elections. These officers in their work, said Samuel Livermore, ‘will acquire such a knowledge of persons and characters as will give them great advantage and enable them to influence elections to a great degree.’ ‘Impolitic in respect to law, repugnant to the Constitution, and degrading to human nature,’ protested Ames. It would prevent self-respecting men from taking the places, added Sedgwick. When the vote was taken, the amendment was defeated with both Madison and Giles voting against it.
It was not until the House took up the duration of the tax that the great battle began, and under the leadership of Giles, who had hitherto given it his support.[289] But Madison was not impressed, and in the vote on placing a limitation on the operation of the bill he was found with the Hamiltonians—and there he stood on the final vote.
Even in the Senate the attempt to defeat the measure was continued, and while Hamilton was strongest in that body, the energetic young Secretary took nothing for granted. It was not enough that the committee considering the bill had been packed with his supporters; he took personal charge. For several days he walked briskly into the room and took his place at the table, after which the doors were closed and locked. The worried Maclay, who was preparing the case against the measure on behalf of the distillers, sensed a conspiracy. When Adams hastened an adjournment of the Senate while the committee was sitting, the victim of the gout put him down as ‘deep in the cabals of the Secretary.’[290] Preparing a list of distillers who would be affected, on which to base an argument, Maclay knocked at the committee room. The door opened and the eager eye of the Senator caught a glimpse of Hamilton at the table before Robert Morris closed it, as he stepped outside. With his suspicions confirmed, the gruff old Democrat left his papers with his colleague and turned away. ‘I suppose no further use was made of it,’ he commented.[291] When the bill passed four days later, he thought ‘war and bloodshed ... the most likely consequence’; and concluded that ‘Congress may go home’ since ‘Mr. Hamilton is all-powerful and fails in nothing he attempts.’[292]