e incipient depreciation of the bills of
credit, the rising prices of goods and provisions, and the incessant
calls upon every purse for public and private purposes, the lottery
failed to commend itself either to speculators or to the bulk of the
people. Some good Whigs bought tickets from principle, and, like many of
the good Whigs who took the bills of credit for the same reason, lost
their money.

In the same November the Treasury was ordered to make every preparation
for a new issue; and to meet the wants of the retail trade, it was
resolved at the same time to issue five hundred thousand dollars in
bills of two-thirds, one-third, one-sixth, and one-ninth of a dollar.
Evident as it ought now to have been that nothing but taxation could
relieve them, they still shrank from it. "Do you think, Gentlemen," said
a member, "that I will consent to load my constituents with taxes, when
we can send to our printer and get a wagon-load of money, one quire of
which will pay for the whole?" It was so easy a way of making money that
men seemed to be getting into the humor of it.

The campaign of '77, like the campaign of '76, was fought upon
paper-money without any material depreciation. The bills could never be
signed as fast as they were called for. But this could not last. The
public mind was growing anxious. Extensive interests, in some cases
whole fortunes, were becoming involved in the question of ultimate
payment. The alarm gained upon Congress. Burgoyne, indeed, was
conquered; but a more powerful, more insidious enemy, one to whom they
themselves had opened the gate, was already within their works and fast
making his way to the heart of the citadel. The depreciation had reached
four for one, and there was but one way to prevent it from going lower.
Congress deliberated anxiously. Thus far the public faith had supported
the war. But, they reasoned, the quantity of the money for which this
faith stood pledged already exceeded the demands of commerce, and hence
its value was proportionably reduced. Add to this the arts of open and
secret enemies, the avidity of professed friends, and the scarcity of
foreign commodities, and it is easy to account for the depreciation.
"The consequences were equally obvious and alarming,"--"depravity of
morals, decay of public virtue, a precarious supply for the war,
debasement of the public faith, injustice to individuals, and the
destruction of the safety, honor, and independence of the Uni