The analogy between the two cases is
established, by taking account of the one point in which they resemble
one another, and leaving out of view that in which they differ.
This circumstance, however,--that is to say, non-reimbursement
in the one case, and reimbursement freely agreed upon in the
other--establishes such a difference between them, that it is not
possible to class them under the same title. To deliver a hundred
dollars _by compulsion_ to him who says "Stand and deliver," or
_voluntarily_ to pay the same sum to him who sells you the object of
your wishes--truly, these are things which cannot be made to
assimilate. As well might you say, it is a matter of indifference
whether you throw bread into the river or eat it, because in either
case it is bread _destroyed_. The fault of this reasoning, as in that
which the word _tribute_ is made to imply, consists in founding an
exact similitude between two cases on their points of resemblance, and
omitting those of difference.
CHAPTER XXIII.
CONCLUSION.
All the sophisms we have hitherto combated are connected with one
single question: the restrictive system; and, out of pity for the
reader, we pass by acquired rights, untimeliness, misuse of the
currency, etc.
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