ed in the legislature by a vote of eighty-five to
seventeen, and no more was heard of the matter. In Maryland, after a
very obstinate fight, a rag money bill was carried in the house of
representatives, but the senate threw it out; and the measure was thus
postponed until the discussion over the federal constitution superseded
it in popular interest. Pennsylvania had warily begun in May, 1785, to
issue a million dollars in bills of credit, which were not made a legal
tender for the payment of private debts. They were mainly loaned to
farmers on mortgage, and were received by the state as an equivalent for
specie in the payment of taxes. By August, 1786, even this carefully
guarded paper had fallen some twelve cents below par,--not a bad showing
for such a year as that. New York moved somewhat less cautiously. A
million dollars were issued in bills of credit receivable for the
custom-house duties, which were then paid into the state treasury; and
these bills were made a legal tender for all money received in lawsuits.
At the same time the New Jersey legislature passed a bill for issuing
half a million paper dollars, to be a legal tender in all business
transactions. The bill was vetoed by the governor in council. The aged
Governor Livingston was greatly respected by the people; and so the mob
at Elizabethtown, which had duly planted a stake and dragged his effigy
up to it, refrained from inflicting the last indignities upon the image,
and burned that of one of the members of the council instead. At the
next session the governor yielded, and the rag money was issued. But an
unforeseen difficulty arose. Most of the dealings of New Jersey people
were in the cities of New York and Philadelphia, and in both cities the
merchants refused their paper, so that it speedily became worthless.

The business of exchange was thus fast getting into hopeless confusion.
It has been said of Bradshaw's Railway Guide, the indispensable
companion of the traveller in England, that no man can study it for an
hour without qualifying himself for an insane asylum. But Bradshaw is
pellucid clearness compared with the American tables of exchange in
1786, with their medley of dollars and shillings, moidores and
pistareens. The addition of half a dozen different kinds of paper
created such a labyrinth as no human intellect could explore. No wonder
that men were counted wise who preferred to take whiskey and pork
instead. Nobody who had a yard of cloth