Indeed, we believe they are only delaying an open avowal of the system till they can assure themselves that the people will tolerate it.  Let us, then, briefly compare the two systems.  The tariff is the cheaper system, because the duties, being collected in large parcels at a few commercial points, will require comparatively few officers in their collection; while by the direct-tax system the land must be literally covered with assessors and collectors, going forth like swarms of Egyptian locusts, devouring every blade of grass and other green thing.  And, again, by the tariff system the whole revenue is paid by the consumers of foreign goods, and those chiefly the luxuries, and not the necessaries, of life.  By this system the man who contents himself to live upon the products of his own country pays nothing at all.  And surely that country is extensive enough, and its products abundant and varied enough, to answer all the real wants of its people.  In short, by this system the burthen of revenue falls almost entirely on the wealthy and luxurious few, while the substantial and laboring many who live at home, and upon home products, go entirely free.  By the direct-tax system none can escape.  However strictly the citizen may exclude from his premises all foreign luxuries,—­fine cloths, fine silks, rich wines, golden chains, and diamond rings,—­still, for the possession of his house, his barn, and his homespun, he is to be perpetually haunted and harassed by the tax-gatherer.  With these views we leave it to be determined whether we or our opponents are the more truly democratic on the subject.

The third resolution declares the necessity and propriety of a national bank.  During the last fifty years so much has been said and written both as to the constitutionality and expediency of such an institution, that we could not hope to improve in the least on former discussions of the subject, were we to undertake it.  We, therefore, upon the question of constitutionality content ourselves with remarking the facts that the first national bank was established chiefly by the same men who formed the Constitution, at a time when that instrument was but two years old, and receiving the sanction, as President, of the immortal Washington; that the second received the sanction, as President, of Mr. Madison, to whom common consent has awarded the proud title of “Father of the Constitution”; and subsequently the sanction of the Supreme Court, the most enlightened judicial tribunal in the world.  Upon the question of expediency, we only ask you to examine the history of the times during the existence of the two banks, and compare those times with the miserable present.