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CHARGE TO GRAND JURY. 479 The Constitution, the statutes of Congress, the laws of nations, and treaties constitutionally made compose the laws of the United States. You will perceive that the object is twofold : To regulate the conduct of the citizens relative to our own nation and people, and relative to foreign nations and their subjects. To the first class belong those statutes which respect trades, navigation, and finance, and those against forgery and counterfeiting and the other offences enumerated in what is generally called the penal statute ; to particularize and explain each of those would require details which on this occasion would be unnecessary. Among the most important are those which respect the revenue. Their object is to provide for the payment of debts already accrued, and to provide for the current and for the contingent expenses of the government and nation. Justice and policy unite in declaring that debts fairly contracted should be honestly paid. On this basis only can public credit be erected and supported; and they either want wisdom or virtue, or both, who regard fraud and chicane as a justifiable or useful instrument of policy. The man or the nation who eludes the payment of debts ceases to be worthy of further credit, and generally meets with deserts in the entire loss of it, and in the evils resulting from that loss. The current or ordinary expenses of our government are less than those of any other nation. What our extraordinary expenses may be cannot be foreseen and consequently cannot be calculated.
Title | The correspondence and public papers of John Jay - 3 |
Creator | Jay, John |
Publisher | G.P. Putnam's Sons |
Place of Publication | New York, London |
Date | [1890-93] |
Language | eng |
Type | Books/Pamphlets |
Title | 00000514 |
Type | Books/Pamphlets |
Transcript | CHARGE TO GRAND JURY. 479 The Constitution, the statutes of Congress, the laws of nations, and treaties constitutionally made compose the laws of the United States. You will perceive that the object is twofold : To regulate the conduct of the citizens relative to our own nation and people, and relative to foreign nations and their subjects. To the first class belong those statutes which respect trades, navigation, and finance, and those against forgery and counterfeiting and the other offences enumerated in what is generally called the penal statute ; to particularize and explain each of those would require details which on this occasion would be unnecessary. Among the most important are those which respect the revenue. Their object is to provide for the payment of debts already accrued, and to provide for the current and for the contingent expenses of the government and nation. Justice and policy unite in declaring that debts fairly contracted should be honestly paid. On this basis only can public credit be erected and supported; and they either want wisdom or virtue, or both, who regard fraud and chicane as a justifiable or useful instrument of policy. The man or the nation who eludes the payment of debts ceases to be worthy of further credit, and generally meets with deserts in the entire loss of it, and in the evils resulting from that loss. The current or ordinary expenses of our government are less than those of any other nation. What our extraordinary expenses may be cannot be foreseen and consequently cannot be calculated. |
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