delay of national justice, the paper which represented these
outstanding claims, had sunk to less than a sixth of its nominal
value, and the larger portion of it had been parted with at that
depreciated rate, either in the course of trade, or to speculative
purchasers.

The debt, when thus transferred, lost its commanding appeal to
patriotic sympathy, but remained as obligatory in the eye of justice.
In public newspapers, however, and in private circles, the propriety
of a discrimination between the assignees and the original holders of
the public securities, was freely discussed. Beside the foreign and
domestic debt of the federal government, the States, individually,
were involved in liabilities contracted for the common cause, to an
aggregate amount of about twenty-five millions of dollars; of which,
more than one-half was due from three of them; Massachusetts and South
Carolina each owing more than five millions, and Virginia more than
three and a half. The reputation and the well-being of the government
were, therefore, at stake upon the issue of some plan to retrieve the
national credit, and establish it upon a firm and secure foundation.

The Secretary of the Treasury (Mr. Hamilton), it will be remembered,
had been directed by Congress to prepare such a plan during its
recess. In the one thus prepared, he asserted, what none were disposed
to question, the propriety of paying the foreign debt according to its
terms. He asserted, also, the equal validity of the original claims of
the American creditors of the government; whether those creditors were
the original holders of its certificates or subsequent purchasers of
them at a depreciated value. The idea of any distinction between them,
which some were inclined to advance, he repudiated as alike unjust,
impolitic, and impracticable. He urged, moreover, the assumption, by
the general government, of the separate debts of the States,
contracted for the common cause, and that a like provision should be
made for their payment as for the payment of those of the Union. They
were all contracted in the struggle for national independence, not for
the independence of any particular part. No more money would be
required for their discharge as federal, than as State debts. He
recommended, therefore, that the entire mass of debt be funded; the
Union made responsible for it, and taxes imposed for its liquidation.

The plan was reported to the House by Mr. Hamilton, the 14th of