ystem, which,
though unequal to what their wishes would have prepared, or their
judgments have approved, was believed to be the best that was
attainable. The great object in view was, "to restore and support
public credit," to effect which it was necessary, "to obtain from the
states substantial funds for funding the whole debt of the United
States."

The committee[26] to whom this interesting subject was referred,
reported sundry resolutions, recommending it to the several states, to
vest in congress permanent and productive funds adequate to the
immediate payment of the interest on the national debt, and to the
gradual extinction of the principal. A change in the rule by which the
proportions of the different states were to be ascertained, was also
recommended. In lieu of that article of the confederation which
apportions on them the sums required for the public treasury,
according to the value of their located lands with the improvements
thereon, it was proposed to substitute another more capable of
execution, which should make the population of each state the measure
of its contribution.[27]

[Footnote 26: Mr. Fitzsimmons, and Mr. Rutledge.]

[Footnote 27: On a subsequent occasion, an attempt was made
to obtain a resolution of congress, recommending as an
additional amendment to the eighth article of the
confederation, that the taxes for the use of the continent
should be laid and levied separate from any other tax, and
should be paid directly into the national treasury; and that
the collectors respectively should be liable to an execution
to be issued by the treasurer, or his deputy, under the
direction of congress, for any arrears of taxes by him to be
collected, which should not be paid into the treasury in
conformity with the requisitions of congress.

Such was the prevalence of state policy, even in the
government of the union, or such the conviction of the
inutility of recommending such an amendment, that a vote of
congress could not be obtained for asking this salutary
regulation as a security for the revenue only for eight
years.]

To the application which congress had made during the war for power to
levy an impost of five per cent on imported and prize goods, one state
had never assented, and another had withdrawn the assent it had
previously given.

It was impossible to yield to some of the objections which