d at; they have secured their liberties and their laws; they will be
satisfied that this House has pledged itself to pay foreigners the
generous loans they advanced to us in the day of distress." In the course
of the debate the power to do was so often mentioned as implying the right
to do that Ames was moved to remark: "I have heard that in the East Indies
the stock of the labor and the property of the empire is the property of
the Prince; that it is held at his will and pleasure; but this is a
slavish doctrine, which I hope we are not prepared to adopt here." As a
matter of fact, there had already been extensive scaling of the debt, and
the note emissions had been pretty nearly wiped out. To save the public
credit from complete collapse, the Continental Congress had entered into
definite contracts under the most solemn pledges, and it was upon this
select class of securities that it was now proposed to start anew the
process of repudiation. But public opinion displayed itself so hostile to
such perfidy that the party of repudiation in Congress soon dwindled to
insignificance and the struggle finally settled upon two issues,
discrimination and assumption.

Weeks of debate ensued, and the deepest impression made by a careful
perusal of the record is the inability of members to appreciate the
importance of the issues. Much of the tedious and pointless character of
their speeches may be ascribed to the lack of the personal presence of the
Secretary. There being nothing to focus the debate and exclude the
fictitious and irrelevant, it rambled in any direction a speaker's
fancy might suggest. Moreover, its quality was impaired because any
consideration of motive was of the nature of talking about a man behind
his back and this, everyone knows, is very different from saying things to
his face. Assertions and innuendos which would hardly have been hazarded
had Hamilton been present, or which, had they been made, would have been
forthwith met and refuted, were indulged in without restraint. Although
one of the reasons given for requiring a written report was that the House
would be the better informed, the debate does not indicate that the
arguments by which Hamilton had vindicated his proposals had really been
apprehended.

The question whether or not any discrimination could be made between
original holders of the public securities and those who had acquired them
by purchase was considered at length by Hamilton in his report