N.Y. Merchant Supports Excise Taxes and Gives Information for Report on Manufactures Complete Transcript Sir I must beg your Patience once more, it shall not be again trespassed, or intruded upon. I addressed you by White Matlack, in a hasty, & of Course improper Letter, as all my hasty; & most of my leisurable ones, generally are. I value your good opinion, because it is not cheaply & indiscriminately bestowed, nor promptly avowed. It once waked up in me, a momentary Hectic of Ambition; which happily for me, was as suddenly extinguished, by my unauthorized Disclaimers, & real Benefactors. I, who had never aspired to be even a Committee Man, should certainly have done myself no Service as an Assemblyman. I am persuaded, that either my Credit, or Conscience, must have suffered in the Course of a single Session. I could not have born, the Crucify of Prejudice, if I had been sure the Hosanna’s of applause; would follow in due Season. As my Letter reads, I told you of something I “wished” to communicate, which obviously implies, my Expectation; that you would require me to make my Communications. I beg you to acquit me of so weak an Idea. I well know that a Person in your situation, even if at perfect Leisure, should neither correspond, nor converse with any but a few influential Characters, or confidential Intimates upon such subjects. I also called your attention in an obscure way, to a Publication in the [American] Museum, upon Excise in September last. 28 I might in as few words, have assigned my sole reason for it, which was, that it contained my Theory or System, & of Course was a proper Preface to my Detail, which I proposed communicating to you & was a Part of the whole. Speaking from the Impulse of the Moment, is my constitutional sin & love To inform, to advise, to censure, or to commend, require the Warrant of Intimacy. The possible suspicion of a possible vanity which station alone could inspire, has I hope on this occasion operated both as a Knife & a Caustic upon me, & wrought a radical Cure. The value of the acquaintance with or Notice of Rank alone, age & Experience will generally ascertain in the vainest & weakest Minds. It was my Fortune to enjoy all that this Distinction could bestow, in early Life. At the age of Twenty two, The Bathursts & Bolingrooks, the Swifts, & the Addisons, of our provincial Augustan Age, were either the Friends, the Companions or the Patrons of my Youth. All who were disting[uished] for Love of Science & Love of Freedom, either associated as Members, or passed the Day as often as they dared, at our weekly Whig Club, 29 of which I was a Member. The provincial Peer, now Chief Justice of Canada, 30 & the Provincial Supreme Judge the Chancellor’s Father, 31 were often with us. All the literary Livingstons, Mr Dougall, Scott & others were of our Corps. That a petty Vanity; the vicious Excess of the humblest grade of ambition, should now at Forty Two seize a man, who has humbly & unambitiously walked this Life, untempted by powerful Patrons, & Independence of Fortune, in the Days of Youth & Prosperity; in the proudest Era of his pigmy Reign, would be a “Falling off” indeed. 28
Columbianus, “Hints and Conjectural Observations on the Subject of an American Excise” appeared in The Daily Advertiser (New York), August 3, 1790, and was reprinted in The American Museum, or, Universal Magazine 7 (September 1790): 136-40. The letter supported excise taxes on luxury items such as liquor and snuff, but opposed as impractical a general excise tax on all consumption. 29 Formed by the Livingston family and their friends in 1752, the Whig Club of New York met weekly at the King’s Arms tavern to toast the memory of Oliver Cromwell and oppose both the established church and the monarchy. Some of its members later became leaders of the Sons of Liberty. 30 William Smith (1728-1793) was a lawyer and served as the Loyalist Chief Justice of the Province of New York from 1780 to 1782. He was the Chief Justice of the Province of Quebec (Lower Canada) from 1786 to his death. 31 Robert R. Livingston (1718-1775) was the justice of the New York provincial supreme court from 1763 to his death. His son Robert Livingston (1746-1813) was the first Chancellor of New York from 1777 to 1801.
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