[229] Delaware and North Carolina.
[230] Rhode Island, New York, Maryland, and Georgia.
[231] The report on this occasion (February 15, 1786), drawn by Rufus King, declared, "that the requisitions of Congress for eight years past have been so irregular in their operation, so uncertain in their collection, and so evidently unproductive, that a reliance on them in future as a source from whence moneys are to be drawn to discharge the engagements of the Confederacy, definite as they are in time and amount, would be not less dishonorable to the understandings of those who entertain such confidence, than it would be dangerous to the welfare and peace of the Union. The committee are therefore seriously impressed with the indispensable obligation that Congress are under, of representing in the immediate and impartial consideration of the several States the utter impossibility of maintaining and preserving the faith of the federal government by temporary requisitions on the States, and the consequent necessity of an early and complete accession of all the States to the revenue system of the 18th of April, 1783."
[232] May 4, 1786.
[233] Life of Hamilton, II. 385.
[234] August 11, 1786.
[235] The ground of his refusal was, "that he had not the power to convene the legislature before the time fixed by law for their stated meeting, except upon 'extraordinary occasions,' and as the present business had already been particularly laid before them, and so recently as at their last session received their determination, it cannot come within that description." Life of Hamilton, II. 389.
[236] August 23, 1786.
[237] Secret Journals of Congress, IV. 186, 187.
[238] Article IV.