The major political controversy during the 1780’s concerned the payment of public and private debts. Even more important was the question as to what taxes should be levied to support the domestic debt of the state. Critics asserted that the mass of the people were being taxed to benefit the few, money was taken from the poor and given to the rich – at a time of economic depression. It is not surprising that the less well-to-do were resentful, and that many demanded some other mode of paying the debt.

The states were having trouble supplying their troops and meeting their financial obligations and were unable to pay Congress’s requisitions. Congress urgently needed money to pay the army and the interest on debt. Americans did not have to be reminded that control over taxation was the key to power, and that it had in the past and might now again result in despotism.

On one side were those counties with a high concentration of property, in which the creditor group was strong, and where the suffrage was unusually restricted. On the other side were areas in which the middle class was more powerful and the debtors more numerous. The merchant-lawyer eastern group, generally creditors, supported all measures to strengthen the Congress; the western farming group, generally debtors and termed Radical, supported few, if any, such measures.

Impost: To determine customs duties on, according to the kind of imports. A tax.

Congress first recommended the impost in the early spring of 1781. The impost was to continue indefinitely until the debt had been paid. Many feared that since Congress would continue to contract debts, the grant would be perpetual.

For the impost was not just an economic, but a political, measure. Congress, for the first time, would be granted the power over taxation. The result might prove fatal to liberty. One observer warned that the money raised by the impost might “pay our debts” but that the power it created “might destroy our liberties.” The fear of what might result from a change of government continued to be important throughout the decade.

The impost failed primarily because it offended those who feared a consolidation of power in the central government. Since the impost would enable Congress to pay its debts, it was certain to have a differential effect upon the interests of individuals and particular groups. Federal creditors were the most obvious beneficiaries. It was rejected by those persons who were to become Antifederalists, and the arguments they developed in opposition to the impost were soon to be employed in a greater debate.