and their labor unhesitatingly for a
slip of paper which derived all its value from the resolves of a body of
men who might, upon a reverse, be thrown down as rapidly as they had
been set up. And then whom were they to look to for indemnification? But
now began a sensible depreciation,--slight, indeed, at first, but
ominous. Congress took the alarm, and resolved upon a loan,--resolved to
borrow directly what they had hitherto borrowed indirectly, the goods
and the labor of their constituents. Accordingly, on the third of
October, a resolve was passed for raising five millions of dollars at
four per cent; and in order to make it convenient to lenders,
loan-offices were established in every Colony with a commissioner for
each.

Money came in slowly, but ran out so fast that in November Congress
ordered weekly returns from the Treasury, not, of sums on hand, but of
what parts of the last emission remained unexpended. The campaign of '77
was at hand; how the campaign of '76 would close was yet uncertain. The
same impenetrable veil that hid Trenton and Princeton from their eyes
concealed the disasters of Fort Washington and the Jerseys. They still
looked hopefully to the lower line of the Hudson. They resolved,
therefore, to make an immediate effort to supply the Treasury by a
lottery to be drawn at Philadelphia.

A lottery,--does not the word carry one back, a great many years back,
to other times and other manners? The Articles of War were now on the
table of Congress for revision, and in the second and third of those
articles officers and soldiers had been earnestly recommended to attend
divine service diligently, and to refrain, under grave penalties, from
profane cursing or swearing. And here legislators deliberately set
themselves to raise money by means which we have deliberately condemned
as gambling. But years were yet to pass before statesmen, or the people
rather, were brought to feel that the lottery-office and gaming-table
stand side by side on the same broad highway.

No such thoughts troubled the minds of our forefathers, well stored as
those minds were with human and divine lore; but, going to work without
a scruple, they prepared an elaborate scheme and fixed the first of
March for the day of drawing,--"or sooner, if sooner full." It was not
full, however, nor was it full when the subject next came up. Tickets
were sold; committees sat; Congress returned to the subject from time
to time: but what with th