NEW HAVEN, DECEMBER, 1786.

ADVICE to CONNECTICUT FOLKS.

my friends,

Times are hard; money is scarce; taxes are high, and private debts push us. What shall we do? Why, hear a few facts, stubborn facts, and then take a bit of advice.

In the year 1637, our good forefathers declared an offensiv war against the Pequot Indians. Their troops were ninety men. Weathersfield was ordered to furnish a hog for this army, Windsor a ram goat, and Hartford a hogshead of beer, and four or five gallons of strong water.[41]

This was ancient simplicity! Let us make a little estimation of the expenses annually incurred in Connecticut. (I say incurred, for we can contract debts, though we cannot pay them.)

I will just make a distinction between necessary and unnecessary expenses.

		Necessary.	Unnecessary.
	£.	£.	£.
Governor's Salary,	300	300
Lieutenant governor's,	100	100
Upper house, attendance and travel, 60 days a year, at 10l. a day,	600	600
Lower house, attendance and travel, 170 members, at 6s. a day, 60 days,	3,060	1,530	1,530
Five judges of the Superior Court, at 24s. a day, suppose 150 days,	900	900
Forty judges of Inferior Courts, at 9s. a day, suppose 40 days,	720	720
Six thousand actions in the year, the legal expense of each, suppose 3l.	18,000	1,000	17,000
Gratuities to 120 lawyers, suppose 50l. each,	6,000	1,000	5,000
Two hundred clergymen, at 100l. each,	20,000	20,000
Five hundred schools, at 20l. a year,	10,000	10,000
Support of poor,	10,000	10,000
Bridges and other town expenses,	10,000	10,000
Contingencies and articles not enumerated,	10,000	10,000
	£.89,680	£.66,150	£.23,530

Now comes RUM, my friends.

	£.
400,000 gallons of rum, at 4s. a gallon,	80,000
Allow for rum drank, on which excise is not paid, 50,000 gallons, at 4s.	10,000
	£.90,000

Ninety nine hundredths unnecessary.

This is a fact: Deny it if you can, good folks. Now, say not a word about taxes, judges, lawyers, courts, and women's extravagance. Your government, your courts, your lawyers, your clergymen, your schools, and your poor, do not all cost you so much as one paltry article, which does you little or no good, but is as destructiv of your lives as fire and brimstone.

But let us proceed.

	£.
A million of pounds of sugar, estimated by the returns of excise masters, at 8d.	33,333
(This is double the quantity we want; but as it is pernicious neither to health nor morals, I let it pass.)
200,000lb. of tea, at 3s. 6d.	35,000
2,000 ditto hyson, at 14s. (Most of these unnecessary.)	1,400
Coffee, molasses, spices, &c.	10,000
Dry goods,	250,000
	£.329,733

The whole settlement will stand thus:

	£.
Necessary expenses,	66,150
Unnecessary, ditto,	23,530
Rum, and other distilled spirits,	90,000
Other foreign articles,	329,733
	£.510,413
Interest of the federal and State debts,	£.130,000

Now, good people, I have a word of advice for you. I will tell you how to pay your taxes and debts, without feeling them.

1st. Fee no lawyers.

You say lawyers have too high fees. I say they have not. They cost me not one farthing. Do as I have always done, and lawyers' fees will be no trouble at all. If I want a new coat, or my wife wants a new gown, we have agreed to wear the old ones until we have got cash or produce to pay for them. When we buy, we pay in hand; we get things cheaper than our neighbors; merchants never dun us, and we have no lawyers' fees to pay. When we see sheriffs and duns knocking at the doors of our neighbors, we laugh at their folly. Besides, I keep a little drawer in my desk, with money enough in it to pay the next tax; and I never touch a farthing until the collector calls. Now, good folks, if you will take the same method, you will save out of lawyers' fees and court charges, on the most moderate calculations, 20,000l. a year.

2dly. I allow my family but two gallons of rum a year. This is enough for any family, and too much for most of them. I drink cyder and beer of my own manufacture; and my wife makes excellent beer, I assure you. I advise you all to do the same. I am astonished at you, good folks. Not a mechanic or a laborer goes to work for a merchant, but he carries home a bottle of rum. Not a load of wood comes to town, but a gallon bottle is tied to the cart stake to be filled with rum. Scarcely a woman comes to town with tow cloth, but she has a wooden gallon bottle in one side of her saddle bags, to fill with rum. A stranger would think you to be a nation of Indians by your thirst for this paltry liquor. Take a bit of advice from a good friend of yours. Get two gallons of rum in a year; have two or three frolics of innocent mirth; keep a little spirit for a medicine, and let your common drink be the produce or manufacture of this country. This will make a saving of almost 400,000 gallons of rum, or 80,000l. a year.

3dly. Never buy any useless clothing.

Keep a good suit for Sundays and other public days; but let your common wearing apparel be good substantial cloths, and linens of your own manufacture. Let your wives and daughters lay aside their plumes. Feathers and fripperies suit the Cherokees or the wench in your kitchen; but they little become the fair daughters of America.[42] Out of the dry goods imported, you may save 50,000l. a year. These savings amount to 150,000l. a year. This is more than enough to pay the interest of all our public debts.

My countrymen, I am not trifling with you: I am serious. You feel the facts I state; you know you are poor, and ought to know, the fault is all your own. Are you not satisfied with the food and drink which this country affords? The beef, the pork, the wheat, the corn, the butter, the cheese, the cyder, the beer, those luxuries which are heaped in profusion upon your tables? If not, you must expect to be poor. In vain do you wish for mines of gold and silver. A mine would be the greatest curse that could befal this country. There is gold and silver enough in the world, and if you have not enough of it, it is because you consume all you earn in useless food and drink. In vain do you wish to increase the quantity of cash by a mint, or by paper emissions. Should it rain millions of joes into your chimnies, on your present system of expenses, you would still have no money. It would leave the country in streams. Trifle not with serious subjects, nor spend your breath in empty wishes. Reform; economize. This is the whole of your political duty. You may reason, speculate, complain, raise mobs, spend life in railing at Congress and your rulers; but unless you import less than you export, unless you spend less than you earn, you will eternally be poor.

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