n of Congress and the several States. The relation of coin
to paper in this motley currency appears in the appendix to the "Journal
of Congress" for the year 1778, when the government paid out in fourteen
issues of paper currency, $62,154,842; in specie, $78,666; in French
livres, $28,525.[10] The power of taxation was jealously withheld by the
States, and Congress could not go beyond recommending to them to levy
taxes for the withdrawal of the bills emitted by it for their quotas,
_pari passu_ with their issue. When the entire scheme of paper money
failed, the necessary supplies for the army were levied in kind. In the
spring of 1781 the affairs of the Treasury Department were investigated
by a committee of Congress, and an attempt was made to ascertain the
precise condition of the public debt. The amount of foreign debt was
approximately reached, but the record of the domestic debt was
inextricably involved, and never definitely discovered. Morris soon
brought order out of this chaos. His plan was to liquidate the public
indebtedness in specie, and fund it in interest-bearing bonds. The Bank
of North America was established, the notes of which were soon preferred
to specie as a medium of exchange. Silver, then in general use as the
measure of value, was adopted as the single standard. The weight and
pureness of the dollar were fixed by law. The dollar was made the unit
of account and payment, and subdivisions were made in a decimal ratio.
This was the dollar of our fathers. Gouverneur Morris, the assistant of
the Financier, suggested the decimal computation, and Jefferson the
dollar as the unit of account and payment. The board of treasury, which
for five years had administered the finances in a bungling way, was
dissolved by Congress in the fall of 1781, and Morris was left in sole
control. Semi-annual statements of the public indebtedness were now
begun. The expenses of the government were steadily and inflexibly cut
down to meet the diminishing income. A loan was negotiated in Holland,
and, with the aid of Franklin, the amount of indebtedness to France was
established.

The public debt on January 1, 1783, was $42,000,375, of which $7,885,088
was foreign, bearing four and five per cent. interest; and $34,115,290
was held at home at six per cent. The total amount of interest was
$2,415,956. No means were provided for the payment of either principal
or interest. In July of the previous year Morris urged the wisdom of