Christmas greetings from 1783....a little early, but I'm celebrating anyway.

[johnny9fingers]

Oh and for my America chums I have this from Benjamin Franklin.

16

Property

CHAPTER 16|Document 12
Benjamin Franklin to Robert Morris
25 Dec. 1783Writings 9:138 The Remissness of our People in Paying Taxes is highly blameable; the Unwillingness to pay them is still more so. I see, in some Resolutions of Town Meetings, a Remonstrance against giving Congress a Power to take, as they call it, the People's Money out of their Pockets, tho' only to pay the Interest and Principal of Debts duly contracted. They seem to mistake the Point. Money, justly due from the People, is their Creditors' Money, and no longer the Money of the People, who, if they withold it, should be compell'd to pay by some Law.
All Property, indeed, except the Savage's temporary Cabin, his Bow, his Matchcoat, and other little Acquisitions, absolutely necessary for his Subsistence, seems to me to be the Creature of public Convention. Hence the Public has the Right of Regulating Descents, and all other Conveyances of Property, and even of limiting the Quantity and the Uses of it. All the Property that is necessary to a Man, for the Conservation of the Individual and the Propagation of the Species, is his natural Right, which none can justly deprive him of: But all Property superfluous to such purposes is the Property of the Publick, who, by their Laws, have created it, and who may therefore by other Laws dispose of it, whenever the Welfare of the Publick shall demand such Disposition. He that does not like civil Society on these Terms, let him retire and live among Savages. He can have no right to the benefits of Society, who will not pay his Club towards the Support of it.

The Founders' Constitution
Volume 1, Chapter 16, Document 12
http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/v1ch16s12.html
The University of Chicago Press

The Writings of Benjamin Franklin. Edited by Albert Henry Smyth. 10 vols. New York: Macmillan Co., 1905--7.
Easy to print version.

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© 1987 by The University of Chicago
All rights reserved. Published 2000
http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/

Thanks to
 

dwer
who put me onto this on politicartoons.

Comments

[vlion.livejournal.com]

Hunh.

[johnny9fingers.livejournal.com]

A bit of a turnup?

I must admit, I imagine that, given the date, this was something about paying for the War of Independence, and the reluctance of some Brit-Loyalists to contribute to the costs of the war; but still the sentiment remains, and, if consistent in the modern age, and with modern needs and abilities....the corollories come thick and fast, really.

It comes down to whether we are our brother's keeper or not. Collectively our society can always choose to re-enact the story of Cain and Abel. Well, only, I suppose, if one believes that inaction can sometimes lead to the same sin as action. It's all about intent. (I'm sure this opinion ain't theologically sound, by the way; but it does for me.)

[pastorlenny.livejournal.com]

:)

[tripinthehead33.livejournal.com]

I wonder when the rest of the population here will stop paying taxes en-masse until the government worries about what goes on inside of this countries borders rather than outside. Seems like if I pay taxes for services rendered in order to assist in my country, the money should be used for such. Not sent to rebuild schools blown up by missiles my taxes bought 5 years ago in some other country.