To James Madison from Thomas Leiper, 1 December 1815
From Thomas Leiper
Philada. Decr. 1st. 1815.
Dear Sir
Nothing would be more Popular in Pennsylvania than the Repeal of the Excise Law for you may rely on it the Citizens of this state hate the System and from your opinion in 1795 which I have no doubt are the same now it will be agreeable to yourself to recommend the Repeal.1 From the excessive high price of Tobacco and the Excise I shall be a Loser this year of some Three or Four Thousand, and dollars. I am now and most of our Branch reduced the One Half of our work-men and many have been obliged to Decline business from these circumstances. I hope you will recommend a Repeal.2 I am with esteem and respect Your most obedient Servant
Thomas Leiper
RC (DLC). Docketed by JM.
1. Leiper referred to the June 1794 law imposing “certain duties upon manufactured tobacco and refined sugar,” one of several revenue measures passed during the first session of the Third Congress, which JM opposed. In December 1794 Leiper sent JM a lengthy memorandum also protesting against the “excessively high” duty on tobacco, and JM again questioned the need for such revenue measures in his “Political Observations” of April 1795 (PJM, 15:151, 336, 429, 511,_532–33).
2. JM did not mention exise taxes in his 5 Dec. 1815 message to Congress, but the legislators repealed several of those enacted in the previous session, on items including postage, plated ware, jewelry, furniture, watches, spirits, distillers’ licenses, and wine and spirits retailers’ licenses. Congress retained taxes on bank notes, other types of bank documents, and sugar refined in the United States, while reducing the total direct tax levied ( 3:252–55, 264, 291, 320).