y with the soldiers of the Revolution, and
the gain fall chiefly to those who were shrewd enough, or had the means
to speculate in the public funds, was a lamentable fact; but to
discriminate between them was not within the right of the government.
That he would have had it discriminate was creditable to Madison's
heart; it was rather less creditable to his head.

Of course, underneath all this debate there lay other considerations
than those merely of debtor and creditor, of moral and legal obligation,
of pity for the soldiers, and of strict regard for the letter of a
contract. Mr. Hamilton and his friends, it was said, were anxious to
establish the public credit, not so much because they wished to keep
faith with creditors as because they wished to strengthen the government
and build up their own party. The reply to these accusations was, that
the other side, under pretense of consideration for the soldiers and
others on whom the burden of the war had borne most heavily, concealed
hostility to the Constitution and a consolidated government. These were
not reflections to be spoken of in debate, but they were not the less
cherished, and gave to it piquancy and spirit. There was truth on both
sides without doubt.

Though defeated in this measure, Madison was not less determined in his
opposition to the assumption of the debts of the States. Of these debts
some States had discharged more than others; and he complained, not
without reason, of the injustice of compelling those which had borne
their own burdens unaided to share in the obligations which others had
neglected. He was unfortunate, however, in assuming a superiority for
Virginia over some of the Eastern States, and especially over
Massachusetts, in services rendered in the struggle for independence.
The comparison provoked a call for official inquiry; and that proved
that Massachusetts alone had sent more men into the field during the war
than all the Southern States together. It was not much to be wondered
at, when this fact was considered, that the debt of Massachusetts should
be larger than that of Virginia by $800,000. The difference between
Virginia and South Carolina was the same, the truth being that the war
had cost Massachusetts more money to pay her soldiers for the general
service, and South Carolina more to repel the enemy upon her own soil,
than it had cost Virginia for either purpose. Massachusetts and South
Carolina were again found acting togethe