refore recommended only by considerations, the operation of which
can never be very extensive. Against it were arranged all who had made
purchases, and a great majority of those who conceived that sound
policy and honest dealing require a literal observance of public
contracts.

Although the decision of congress against a discrimination in favour
of the original creditor produced no considerable sensation, the
determination on that part of the secretary's report which was the
succeeding subject of deliberation, affecting political interests and
powers which are never to be approached without danger, seemed to
unchain all those fierce passions which a high respect for the
government and for those who administered it, had in a great measure
restrained.

The manner in which the several states entered into and conducted the
war of the revolution, will be recollected. Acting in some respects
separately, and in others conjointly, for the attainment of a common
object, their resources were exerted, sometimes under the authority of
congress, sometimes under the authority of the local government, to
repel the enemy wherever he appeared. The debt incurred in support of
the war was therefore, in the first instance, contracted partly by the
continent, and partly by the states. When the system of requisitions
was adopted, the transactions of the union were carried on, almost
entirely, through the agency of the states; and when the measure of
compensating the army for the depreciation of their pay became
necessary, this burden, under the recommendation of congress, was
assumed by the respective states. Some had funded this debt, and paid
the interest upon it. Others had made no provision for the interest;
but all, by taxes, paper money, or purchase, had, in some measure,
reduced the principal. In their exertions some degree of inequality
had obtained; and they looked anxiously to a settlement of accounts,
for the ascertainment of claims which each supposed itself to have
upon the union. Measures to effect this object had been taken by the
former government; but they were slow in their progress, and intrinsic
difficulties were found in the thing itself, not easily to be
overcome.

The secretary of the treasury proposed to assume these debts, and to
fund them in common with that which continued to be the proper debt of
the union.

The resolution which comprehended this principle of the report, was
vigorously opposed.

It was co