,_2nd_president_of_the_United_States,_by_Asher_B._Durand_(1767-1845)-crop.jpg/220px-US_Navy_031029-N-6236G-001_A_painting_of_President_John_Adams_(1735-1826),_2nd_president_of_the_United_States,_by_Asher_B._Durand_(1767-1845)-crop.jpg)
President John Adams, painted by Asher B. Durand; U.S. Navy image, via Wikipedia
Our second President, the author of the Constitution and Bill of Rights of Massachusetts, John Adams was quite pragmatic about debt — use it when you have to, don’t use it too much. In his first Annual Message to Congress, on November 22, 1797, Adams said:
Since the decay of the feudal system, by which the public defense was provided for chiefly at the expense of individuals, the system of loans has been introduced, and as no nation can raise within the year by taxes sufficient sums for its defense and military operations in time of war the sums loaned and debts contracted have necessarily become the subjects of what have been called funding systems. The consequences arising from the continual accumulation of public debts in other countries ought to admonish us to be careful to prevent their growth in our own. The national defense must be provided for as well as the support of Government; but both should be accomplished as much as possible by immediate taxes, and as little as possible by loans.
Taxes over loans. Who would have guessed that?
In contrast to some of the things circulating around the internet today attributed to John Adams, he actually wrote this in his message to Congress.
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 
[…] Quote of the moment: John Adams, on government debt […]
LikeLike
[…] Quote of the moment: John Adams, on government debt […]
LikeLike