1795. · Philadelphia
by [Callender, James T.]
Philadelphia: Printed for the Booksellers, 1795.. 116pp. Modern half morocco and cloth boards, spine gilt lettered. Remnant of contemporary marbled wrapper affixed to gutter of titlepage. Toning and foxing. Good. An early Callender pamphlet on taxation. The author is famous for his scandal mongering, two of his favorite targets being Hamilton and Jefferson. Callender's unscrupulous behavior was halted one day when, in a drunken stupor, he drowned in three feet of water in the James River. In this volume he opposes recently passed Congressional taxes on sugar and snuff as "ruinous to manufacture, and of consequence, unproductive to the revenue." He reviews the history of British and American excise laws, and sees only harm to American manufacturers, large and small: "The nation that, for eight years, bled in every vein to buy its freedom, will gaze on with criminal apathy while the brewer, the tanner, the tallow chandler, the soapboiler, the paper maker, the nailer, the hatter, and the newsprinter ascend in succession the scaffold of excise....A standing army will soon become requisite for supporting a system universally detested." A powerful anti-tax statement, rather scarce in the market. SABIN 10071. EVANS 28383. ESTC W29417. KRESS B2899.
(Inventory #: WRCAM53802)