ng given a full
equivalent for the debt, had only parted with the evidence of it, under
the compulsion of his own poverty, and the inability of the government
at that time to meet its obligations? Was not this specially true in
the case of the soldiers of the late war, to whose devotion and
sacrifices the nation owed its existence?

Mr. Madison thought that an affirmative reply to the last two queries
would present the true view of the case, and he proposed, therefore, to
pay both classes of creditors,--those who now held the evidence of
indebtedness, acquired by purchase at no matter what price; and those
who had parted with that evidence without receiving the amount which the
government had promised to pay for services rendered. It was not,
however, to be expected that the entire debt should be paid in full to
both classes. That was beyond the ability of the government. But it
would be an equitable settlement, he contended, to pay the present
holders the highest price the certificates had ever reached, and to
award the remainder to those who were the original creditors.

This proposition received only thirteen votes out of forty-nine. Many of
those opposed to it were quite ready to grant that it was hard upon the
veterans of the war that they, who had received so little and who had
borne so much, should not now be recognized as creditors when at last
the government was able to pay its debts. But the House could not
indulge in sentimental legislation. That would be to launch the ship of
state upon another sea of bankruptcy. There were in the hands of the
people tens of millions of paper money not worth at the current rate a
cent on the dollar. If everybody who had lost was to be paid, the point
would soon be reached where nobody would be paid at all. A limit must be
fixed somewhere; let it be at these certificates of debt which were the
evidence of a contract made between the government and its creditors.
These could be paid, and they should be paid, to those who were in
lawful possession of them. The law, if not the equity, of the case was
clearly against Madison. That the government should be absolutely just
to everybody who had ever trusted to it, and lost by it, was impossible.
It was a bankrupt compelled to name its preferred creditors, and it
named those whom it was in honor and law bound to take care of, and over
whose claims there was, on the whole, the least shadow of doubt. That
the loss should remain chiefl