"The Confederated States have no fixed revenues, nor are such revenues necessary, because all the private property in the country is at the public service. The only restriction imposed by the people is, that it be taken from them with wisdom and justice, or to be more explicit, that the sums required be proportionate to the public exigencies, and assessed on the individuals in proportion to their respective abilities.
"A nation can seldom be destitute of the means of continuing a war, while they remain unsubdued in the field, and cheerfully devote their all to that service. They may indeed experience great distress, but no distress being equal to that of subjection to exasperated oppressors, whose most tender mercies are cruel, the Americans had little difficulty in making their election.
A Statement of the Public Debts.
"This subject your Excellency will find fully discussed in an address of Congress to their constituents, in which they compute their debts, and mention the means they had taken to preserve the public credit. It is also herewith enclosed, and marked No. 7.
A Statement of the Debts of each particular State.
"Although exact accounts of these debts are contained in the public printed acts of each State, yet as I neither have any of those acts or extracts from them with me, and my general knowledge on this hand is very imperfect, I am deterred from giving your Excellency any information respecting it, by the very great risk I should run of misleading you on this point.
The Resources to lessen these Debts.
"Taxes; foreign and domestic loans; sales of confiscated estates, and ungranted lands.
The possibility of their supporting their Credit in all the Operations of Government, in the Commerce of their Inhabitants, and, above all, in the Protection of National Industry.
"As to the possibility of supporting their credit in the cases mentioned, there is no doubt it is very possible. How far it is probable, is a question less easy to answer. If the taxes called for by Congress last fall be duly paid, all will be safe. But whether they have been paid or not I am wholly uninformed, except that I find in a public paper that Virginia had made good her first payment. As I daily expect to receive advices from America on this subject, I shall postpone saying anything further on it at present, but your Excellency may rely on my communicating to you a full state of what intelligence I may have respecting it.