74 INTRODUCTION. 
the constitution. It did not merely set forth the actual condition of the finances, 
but was interspersed with much clear and forcible reasoning in relation to the 
wisdom of particular features of the revenue system, as it then existed. The 
subjects of taxation and public debt and their effects, the different species of 
revenue, and the expenditures of the government, were discussed by Mr. Gallatin 
with a degree of ability and acuteness, which indicated a familiar acquaintance 
with financial questions, and strong powers of reasoning. The work contained 
pointed objections to some of the early measures of the federal government, 
which were recommended by general Hamilton, and particularly the assumption 
of the debts of the states by the general government; but its tone throughout was 
calm, dignified and elevated. 
From its bearing upon one of the great questions of the day, viz. the extent to 
which protection to the manufacturing industry of the United States was neces¬ 
sary — the following position assumed by Mr. Gallatin is deemed worthy of 
notice: “ As every further increase of population in many of the states dimi¬ 
nishes the relative quantity of land and of produce raised, and promotes the 
establishment of manufactures; our exports of raw materials, our importations of 
those articles we can manufacture, and the revenue raised upon such articles, 
although all of them gradually augmenting, will, unless favored by accidental 
causes, increase in a ratio less than our population.” He, however, maintained 
that for the purposes of revenue the impost should be the principal reliance of the 
country; and that when this was carried as far as prudence would dictate, the 
great source of taxes upon consumption must be considered as nearly exhausted, 
and that the other great branch of revenue, lands, must be made to contribute 
by direct taxation. On the subject of public debt, and its effects, Mr. Gallatin’s 
observations are able and philosophical. 
In the year 1826 , a discourse was delivered at Schenectady, before the lite¬ 
rary societies of Union College, by Samuel Young, Esq. on the subject of political 
economy. It traced the rise and progress of the science through its various 
phases, from the commercial or mercantile theory, to the more orderly and ra- 
