I place economy among the first and most important of republican virtues, and public debt as the greatest of the dangers to be feared…To preserve our independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our election between economy and liberty, or profusion and servitude…The same prudence, which, in private life, would forbid our paying our money for unexplained projects, forbids it in the disposition of the public moneys…We [must endeavor] to reduce the government to the practice of a rigorous economy, to avoid burdening the people, and arming the magistrate with a patronage of money, which might be used to corrupt and undermine the principles of our government…The multiplication of public offices, increase of expense beyond income, growth and entailment of a public debt, are indications soliciting the employment of a pruning knife…It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes.