"On July 4, in his sixth "Continentalist" essay, Hamilton, with a nod to Morris, applauded the appointment of federal customs and tax collectors to "create in the interior of each state a mass of influence in favour of the federal government."12 This essay makes clear that, in the Revolution's waning days, Hamilton had to combat the utopian notion that America could dispense with taxes altogether: "It is of importance to unmask this delusion and open the eyes of the people to the truth. It is paying too great a tribute to the idol of popularity to flatter so injurious and so visionary an expectation."13"