With respect to the increase of the debt by the
Assumption, I observed to him, that what was meant and objected to was,
that it increased the debt of the General Government, and carried
it beyond the possibility of payment. That if the balances had been
settled, and the debtor States directed to pay their deficiencies to
the creditor States, they would have done it easily, and by resources of
taxation in their power, and acceptable to the people; by a direct tax
in the south, and an excise in the north. Still, he said, it would
be paid by the people. Finding him decided, I avoided entering into
argument with him on those points.
Bladensburg, October the 1st, 1792. This morning, at Mount Vernon, I
had the following conversation with the President. He opened it by
expressing his regret at the resolution in which I appeared so fixed, in
the letter I had written him, of retiring from public affairs. He said,
that he should be extremely sorry that I should do it, as long as he
was in office, and that he could not see where he should find another
character to fill my office. That as yet, he was quite undecided whether
to retire in March or not. His inclinations led him strongly to do it.
Nobody disliked more the ceremonies of his office, and he had not the
least taste or gratification in the execution of its functions. That he
was happy at home alone, and that his presence there was now peculiarly
called for by the situation of Major Washington, whom he thought
irrecoverable, and should he get well, he would remove into another
part of the country, which might better agree with him.
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