e of finance in
the Pennsylvania legislature. An extract from his memorandum of his
three years' service gives the best account of this incident. In it
appear the carefully matured convictions which he inflexibly maintained.

"The report of the Committee of Ways and Means of the session
1790-1791 (presented by Gurney, chairman) was entirely prepared by
me, known to be so, and laid the foundation of my reputation. I was
quite astonished at the general encomiums bestowed upon it, and was
not at all aware that I had done so well. It was perspicuous and
comprehensive; but I am confident that its true merit, and that
which gained me the general confidence, was its being founded in
strict justice without the slightest regard to party feelings or
popular prejudices. The principles assumed, and which were carried
into effect, were the immediate reimbursement and extinction of the
state paper money, the immediate payment in specie of all the
current expenses or warrants on the Treasury (the postponement and
uncertainty of which had given rise to shameful and corrupt
speculations), and provision for discharging, without defalcation,
every debt and engagement previously recognized by the State. In
conformity with this, the State paid to its creditors the
difference between the nominal amount of the state debt assumed by
the United States and the rate at which it was funded by the act of
Congress.

"The proceeds of the public lands, together with the arrears, were
the fund which not only discharged all the public debts, but left a
large surplus. The apprehension that this would be squandered by
the Legislature was the principal inducement for chartering the
Bank of Pennsylvania with a capital of two millions of dollars, of
which the State subscribed one half. This and similar subsequent
investments enabled Pennsylvania to defray out of the dividends all
the expenses of government without any direct tax during the forty
ensuing years, and till the adoption of the system of internal
improvement, which required new resources."

This report was printed in the Journal of the House, February 8, 1791.
The next year he made a report on the same subject which was printed
February 22, 1792.

But his equal grasp of larger subjects was shown in his sketch of the
finances of the United States, whic