THE CONSTRUCTIVE STATESMAN 193 



and at home the government could not raise nearly 

 enough money to defray its current expenses. To 

 remedy the evil, a tariff of five per cent upon sundry 

 imports, with a specific duty upon others, was pro- 

 posed in Congress and offered to the several states 

 for approval. To weaken as much as possible the 

 objections to such a law, its operation was limited 

 to twenty-five years. Even in this mild form, how- 

 ever, it was impossible to persuade the several states 

 to submit to federal taxation. Virginia at first 

 assented to the impost law, but afterward revoked 

 her action. On this occasion Mr. Madison, feeling 

 that the very existence of the nation was at stake, 

 refused to be controlled by the action of his constitu- 

 ents. He persisted in urging the necessity of such 

 an impost law, and eventually had the satisfaction of 

 seeing Virginia adopt his view of the matter. 



The discussion of the impost law in Congress re- 

 vealed the antagonism between the slave states and 

 those states which had emancipated their slaves. In 

 endeavouring to apportion the quotas of revenue to 

 be required of the several states, it was observed that, 

 if taxation were to be distributed according to popu- 

 lation, it made a great difference whether slaves were 

 to be counted as population or not. If slaves were 

 to be counted, the Southern states would have to pay 

 more than their equitable share into the federal 

 treasury ; if slaves were not to be counted, it was 

 argued at the North that they would be paying less 

 than their equitable share. Consequently at that 

 time the North was inclined to maintain that the 

 slaves were population, while the South preferred to 

 regard them as chattels. The question was settled 



