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1790.

CHAP. IV. between the representative and his constituents, the influence of the state legislatures over the members of one branch of the national legislature, the nature of the powers exercised by the state governments, which perpetually presented them to the people in a point of view calculated to lay hold of the public affections, were guarantees that the states would retain their due weight in the political system, and that a debt was not necessary to the solidity or duration of their power.

But the argument it was said proved too much. If a debt was now essential to the preservation of state authority, it would always be so. It must therefore never be extinguished, but must be perpetuated in order to secure the existence of the state governments. If, for this purpose, it was indispensable that the expenses of the revolutionary war should be borne by the states, it would not be less indispensable that the expenses of future wars should be borne in the same manner. Either the argument was unfounded, or the constitution was wrong; and the powers of the sword and the purse ought not to have been conferred on the government of the union. Whatever specu

lative opinions might be entertained on this point, they were to administer the government according to the principles of the constitution as it was framed. But, it was added, if so much power follows the assumption as the objection implies, is it not time to ask...is it safe to forbear assuming? if the power is so dangerous, it will be so when exercised by the states. If assuming tends to

1790.

consolidation, is the reverse, tending to dis- CHAP. IV. union, a less weighty objection? if it is answered that the non assumption will not necessarily tend to disunion; neither, it may be replied, does the assumption necessarily tend to consolidation.

To the objection that the amount of debt was unascertained, it was answered, that whatever might be its amount, it was justly due, and therefore ought to be paid. If the resources of the nation were really inadequate to a provision for the whole, it was more just to proportion them among the creditors generally, than to pay them to one class, to the entire exclusion of others whose claims were equally meritorious. But although the amount could not be precisely ascertained, yet there was a reasonable certainty that it would not far exceed the calculations of the report; and upon the same authority, it might safely be assumed that provision for it might be made without having recourse to direct taxes.

It was not admitted that the assumption would tend to perpetuate the debt. It could not be presumed that the general government would be less willing than the local governments to discharge it; nor could it be presumed that the means were less attainable by the former than the latter.

It was not contended that a public debt was a public blessing. Whether a debt was to be preferred to no debt was not the question. The debt was already contracted; and the question, so far as policy might be consulted, was whether it was more for the public advantage to give it such a form as would render it applicable to the pur

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CHAP. IV. poses of a circulating medium, or to leave it a mere subject of speculation, incapable of being employed to any useful purpose. The debt was admitted to be an evil; but it was an evil from which, if wisely modified, some benefit might be extracted; and which in its present state, could have only a mischievous operation.

If the debt should be placed on adequate funds, its operation on public credit could not be pernicious in its present precarious condition, there was much more to be apprehended in that respect.

To the objection that it would accumulate in large cities, it was answered, that it would be a monied capital, and would be held by those who chose to place money at interest; but by funding the debt, the present possessors would be enabled to part with it at its nominal value, instead of selling it at its present current rate. If it should centre in the hands of foreigners, the sooner it was appreciated to its proper standard, the greater quantity of specie would its transfer bring into the United States.

If the measure was recommended both by justice and policy, its execution presented no difficulty which ought to deter the government from embracing it. Whether the funds appropriated to the object were paid immediately to the holder of a public security as creditor of the continent, or of a state, was unimportant; and in adapting the provisions to either circumstance, there could be no insurmountable embarrassment.

To the injustice of charging those states which CHAP. IV. had made great exertions for the payment of their 1790. debts with the burden properly belonging to those which had made no such exertions, it was answered, that every state must be considered as having exerted itself to the utmost of its resources; and that if it could not, or would not make provision for creditors to whom the union was equitably bound, the argument in favour of an assumption was the stronger.

The arguments drawn from local interests were repelled, and retorted, and a great degree of irritation was excited on both sides.

After a very animated discussion of several days, the question was taken, and the resolution was carried by a small majority. Soon after this decision, while the subject was pending before the house, the delegates from North Carolina took their seats, and changed the strength of parties. By a majority of two voices the resolution was recommitted, and after a long and ardent debate, in which the former arguments were reurged with a great variety of observations founded on local circumstances, it was negatived by the same majority which had voted for its recommitment.

This proposition continued to be supported with a degree of earnestness which its opponents termed pertinacious, but not a single opinion was changed. It was brought forward in the new and less exceptionable form of assuming specific sums from each state. Under this modification of the principle, the extraordinary contributions of particular states during the war, and their exerL 1.

VOL. V.

CHAP. IV. tions since the peace, might be regarded; and the 1790. objections to the measure drawn from the uncertainty of the sum to be assumed would be removed. But these alterations produced no change of sentiment, and the bill was sent up to the senate with a provision for those creditors only whose certificates of debt purported to be payable by the union.

Bill for fixing the permanent

seat of gov

ernment.

In this state of things, the measure is understood to have derived aid from another which was of a nature strongly to interest particular parts of the union.

From the month of June 1783, when congress was driven from Philadelphia by the mutiny of a part of the Pennsylvania line, the necessity of selecting for a permanent residence, some place in which the government of the union might exercise sufficient authority to protect itself from violence and insult, had been generally acknowledged. Scarcely any subject had occupied more time, or had more agitated the members of the national legislature, than this had done. From a comparison of the population with the territory of the United States, arguments were drawn in favour of a more northern and eastern, or of a more southern and western situation, which appeared equally plausible to those who advanced them, and were supported with equal obstinacy. In December 1784, an ordinance had passed for appointing commissioners to purchase land on the Delaware, in the neighbourhood of its falls, and to erect thereon the necessary public buildings for the reception of congress, and the officers of

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