That the class of separate and unsettled debts contracted before the war, forms now but a small proportion of the original amount:
That the integrity and independence of the courts of justice in the United States, are liable to no reproach:
Nor have popular tumults furnished any ground for suggesting, that either courts or creditors are overawed by them in their proceedings.
III. Proceeding to the article of interest, I have observed:
That the decision, whether it shall or shall not be allowed during the war, rests, by our constitution, with the courts altogether.
That if these have generally decided against the allowance, the reasons of their decisions appear so weighty, as to clear them from the charge of that palpable degree of wrong, which may authorize national complaint, or give a right of refusing execution of the treaty, by way of reprisal.
To vindicate them, I have stated shortly, some of the reasons which support their opinion.
That interest during the war, was not expressly given by the treaty:
That the revival of debts did not, ex vi termini, give interest on them:
That interest is not a part of the debt, but damages for the detention of the debt: