764 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



It is furlher said, fhat salaries ought to be gra- 

 duated by a reference to the computed value of 

 the acceptor's time, and tluit high salaries obtain 

 the most merit and talents. Under the first idea, 

 every member of a legislature ought to have a 

 diiierent salary, each man's time being of distinct 

 value ; or if the salaries arc to be alike, however 

 different each member's time may be in value lo 

 himselt", then to do justice to a lew whose time 

 may be of great value, a maniliist injustice must 

 be done to ihe public, by giving equal salaries to 

 a multitude, lar beyond this value. And therefore 

 if this idea should regulate salaries, it is not im- 

 probable that those who pay themselves may 

 highly respect the motive of compensating a Jew 

 great men for their time, whilst it will also amply 

 appreciate their own, Eut this rule for compen- 

 sations can never be observed. The public 

 service most detrimental to the personal and 

 private affairs of individuals, is that of the militia. 

 Compare the rick of life and health, and the loss 

 of time often necessary for the subsistence of a 

 helpless family, with the sacrifice made even by 

 the most eminent member of congress ; or com- 

 pare Ihe mass of suffering in both these lines of 

 public service. Is it not obvious that this rule 

 for compensations, neither has nor can be fairly 

 carried into execution. 



Whether high salaries invite talenfs and open 

 the door to merit, is a fact depending upon his- 

 tory. From this, truth seems to me to lie in the 

 reverse of the propositions. They appear rather 

 to have excited rapacity, and opened the door to 

 arts lor gratifying ambition and selfishness. The 

 case of the British parliament is, I think, unfor- 

 tunately cited to prove the affirmative of the pro- 

 position. And to make it answer this purpose, an 

 assertion that its members receive no compensa- 

 tion, is coupled with the citation. But the truth 

 is, that these members do receive, by pensions 

 and offices, compensations so enormous, aa to 

 have produced a disregard for the direct moderate 

 compensation, and yet to have awakened all the 

 energies and frauds of avarice and ambition to 

 carry elections, and to acquire the fruits of success. 

 Has tlie great profit arising from a seat in the 

 house of commons, carried into that body merit 

 and talents, or artifice and corruption? If the 

 English parliament should now endow themselves 

 with a high direct compensation, retaining the 

 indirect compensations of executive patronage, 

 would it be purged of corruption, and regenerated 

 into patriotism? This would place it nearly in 

 the state of our congress. At home it is such, 

 whether more merit or talents have appeared in 

 legislatures, as they have been more amply re- 

 plenished with wages and patronage, the chance 

 of drawing a prize from which, is often valued 

 even here more highly than the direct wages. 

 As to the argument that high wages open to the 

 poor the door of dignity, it is only the plausible 

 pretext of those pleading (or an increase of their 

 own income, at the expense of the poor whom 

 ihey pretend to favor. 



Another argument remains of itself sufficient to 

 destroy the policy of high vvasres, and its effect, 

 heavy taxation, if all those liitherto urged were 

 feeble. They beget inveterate parties and factions 

 which successively resort to every plausible pre- 

 text for increasing their income and power ; trans- 

 mit to their successors precedents which operate 



as salves for conscience, and poisons for patriot- 

 ism, and universally terminate in the subversion of 

 a fi'ce and moderate government. 



Some princi|)le, by which to settle the important 

 question of wages, is still wanting, capable of 

 guarding the people against temporary pretext, 

 and intlividual selfishness; and it seems to me to 

 reside in the (bilowing ideas. Public servants are 

 either public property or mere hirelings. In the 

 first character they owe something to society be- 

 yond the services purchased by wages. This 

 debt is due for the multitude of benefits derived 

 from society, and ought therefore to constitute a 

 greater portion of their compensation, as the go- 

 vernment is li-eer. To the militia it constitutes the 

 chief compensation for their services. What can 

 be more manifestly unjust, than to make social 

 tluty the chief compensation for the hard sufferings 

 of militia services, and yet to bestow on civil 

 services a compensation capable of exciting faction, 

 avarice and ambition, and of gradually destroying 

 those blessings purchased by the great body of 

 the people by the, greatest sacrifices, almost 

 gratuitous 1 If public servants are to be consider- 

 ed as mere hirelings, then the principle ought to 

 be extended to military services, and in both 

 cases, the public and its servants ought to be con- 

 sidered as free contracting parties, and in both the 

 price of the commodity ought to be settled by the 

 rate of the market, by a mutual agreerpent. But 

 as the militia are coerced, and as civil public ser- 

 vants possess the valuable and exclusive privilege 

 of refusing lo serve, is it not highly unjust to the 

 nation, to give a price fjr the commodity, not only 

 higher than the same thing, of a quality as good 

 and even belter can be bought at, lor the end of 

 killing its free and easy government by a poison- 

 ous plethora of expense and taxation. In my opi- 

 nion, high salaries, by awakening avarice, liiclion 

 and intrigue, have a tendency to destroy a sense 

 of duty, virtue, honor and patriotism ; and that 

 low salaries have universally produced the best 

 public servants. I conclude that salaries ought 

 to be graduated by the public good, and not for 

 the benefit of individuals. 



Taxation ought to be governed by some princi- 

 ple, and when understood, this principle ought to 

 be enforced by the people, to shield themselves 

 against those frauds of hiction, avarice and ambi- 

 tion, used in modern times to steal the liberties of 

 nations, in lieu of liie braver modes resorted to by 

 the tyrants of antiquity. 



What, it may be asked, have these remarks to 

 do with agricuiiure'? The answer must depend 

 upon the opinion of the reader. Should he think 

 with me, that the burdens heaped upon it consti- 

 tute a chief cause of its decay, nothing can restore 

 to it health and prosperity but its own knowledge 

 of this fact, by which it may be induced to remove 

 some of the pressures under which it is lan- 

 guishing; and therefore none of the subjects of 

 this book, can be more instrumentally connected 

 with the prosperity of agriculture. In England, 

 the pressure upon agriculture and manufactures is 

 defended by armies and the ditficullies of emigra- 

 tion, yet it is sorely felt ; here, where the inferiority 

 of soil renders it much less capable of bearing 

 this pressure, the same arts of taxation and paper 

 frauds will, I fear, produce still more calamitous 

 consequences. 



