the reasoning ran,--how each had arguments and examples from his own
Colony: how confidently Pennsylvanians would speak of the security which
they had given to their paper; how confidently Virginians would assert
that even the greatest straits might be passed without having recourse
to so dangerous a medium; how all the facts in the history of
paper-money would be brought forward to prove both sides of the
question, but how the underlying principle, subtile, impalpable, might
still elude them all, as for thirty-five years longer it still continued
to elude wise statesmen and thoughtful economists; how, at last, some
impatient spirit, breaking through the untimely delay, sternly asked
them what else they proposed to do. By what alchemy would they create
gold and silver? By what magic would they fill the coffers which their
non-exportation resolutions had kept empty, or bring in the supplies
which their non-importation resolutions had cut off? What arguments of
their devising would induce a people in arms against taxation to submit
to tenfold heavier taxes than those which they had indignantly repelled?
Necessity, inexorable necessity, was now their lawgiver; they had
adopted an army, they must support it; they had voted pay to their
officers, they must devise the means of giving their vote effect; arms,
ammunition, camp-equipage, everything was to be provided for. The people
were full of ardor, glowing with fiery zeal; your promise to pay will be
received like payment; your commands will be instantly obeyed. Every
hour's delay imperils the sacred cause, chills the holy enthusiasm;
action, prompt, energetic, resolute action, is what the crisis calls
for. Men must see that we are in earnest; the enemy must see it; nothing
else will bring them to terms; nothing else will give us a lasting
peace: and in such a peace how easily, how cheerfully, shall we all
unite in paying the debt which won for us so inestimable a blessing!

It would have been difficult to deny the force of such an appeal. There
were doubtless men there who believed firmly in the virtue of the
people,--who thought, that, after the proof which the people had given
of their readiness to sacrifice the interests of the present moment to
the interests of a day and a posterity that they might not live to see,
it would be worse than skepticism to call it in question. But even these
men might hesitate about the form of the sacrifice they called for, for
they knew how