te sentiment. An apostate I could
not be, nor yet a hypocrite; and I found myself, for the most part, the
only advocate on the republican side of the question, unless among
the guests there chanced to be some member of that party from the
legislative Houses. Hamilton's financial system had then passed. It
had two objects; 1. as a puzzle, to exclude popular understanding and
inquiry; 2. as a machine for the corruption of the legislature: for he
avowed the opinion, that man could be governed by one of two motives
only, force or interest: force, he observed, in this country, was out of
the question, and the interests, therefore, of the members must be laid
hold of, to keep the legislature in unison with the executive. And with
grief and shame it must be acknowledged that his machine was not without
effect; that even in this, the birth of our government, some members
were found sordid enough to bend their duty, to their interests, and to
look after personal rather than public good.

It is well known that during the war, the greatest difficulty we
encountered, was the want of money or means to pay our soldiers who
fought, or our farmers, manufacturers, and merchants, who furnished the
necessary supplies of food and clothing for them. After the expedient of
paper money had exhausted itself, certificates of debt were given to the
individual creditors, with assurance of payment, so soon as the United
States should be able. But the distresses of these people often obliged
them to part with these for the half, the fifth, and even a tenth of
their value; and speculators had made a trade of cozening them from the
holders, by the most fraudulent practices, and persuasions that they
would never be paid. In the bill for funding and paying these, Hamilton
made no difference between the original holders, and the fraudulent
purchasers of this paper. Great and just repugnance arose at putting
these two classes of creditors on the same footing, and great exertions
were used to pay the former the full value, and to the latter, the price
only which they had paid, with interest. But this would have prevented
the game which was to be played, and for which the minds of greedy
members were already tutored and prepared. When the trial of strength,
on these several efforts, had indicated the form in which the bill would
finally pass, this being known within doors sooner than without, and
especially, than to those who were in distant parts of the Un