On the 30th of April, 1784, Congress recommended to the States, to invest them with a power, for fifteen years, to exclude from their ports the vessels of all nations, not having a treaty of commerce with them; and to pass, as to all nations, an act on the principles of the British navigation act. Not that they were disposed to carry these powers into execution, with such as would meet them in fair and equal arrangements of commerce; but that they might be able to do it against those who should not. On the 4th of January, 1786, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina, had done it. It remained for New Jersey, Delaware, South Carolina, and Georgia, to do the same.
In the meantime, the general idea has advanced before the demands of Congress, and several States have passed acts, for vesting Congress with the whole regulation of their commerce, reserving the revenue arising from these regulations, to the disposal of the State in which it is levied. The States which, according to the public papers, have passed such acts, are New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Delaware, and Virginia; but the Assembly of Virginia, apprehensive that this disjointed method of proceeding may fail in its effect, or be much retarded, passed a resolution on the 21st of January, 1786, appointing commissioners to meet others from the other States, whom they invite into the same measure, to digest the form of an act, for investing Congress with such powers over their commerce, as shall be thought expedient, which act is to be reported to their several Assemblies, for their adoption. This was the state of the several propositions relative to the impost, and regulation of commerce, at the date of our latest advices from America.
Page 125. The General Assembly of Virginia, at their session in 1785, passed an act, declaring that the district, called Kentucky, shall be a separate and independent State, on these conditions. 1. That the people of that district shall consent to it. 2. That Congress shall consent to it, and shall receive them into the federal Union. 3. That they shall take on themselves a proportionable part of the public debt of Virginia. 4. That they shall confirm all titles to lands within their district, made by the State of Virginia, before their separation.
Page 139. It was in 1783, and not in 1781, that Congress quitted Philadelphia.
Page 140. "Le Congres qui se trouvoit à la portée des rebelles fut effrayé." I was not present on this occasion, but I have had relations of the transaction from several who were. The conduct of Congress was marked with indignation and firmness. They received no propositions from the mutineers. They came to the resolutions, which may be seen in the journals of June the 21st, 1783, then adjourned regularly, and went through the body of the mutineers to their respective lodgings. The measures taken by Dickinson, the President of Pennsylvania, for punishing this insult, not being satisfactory to Congress, they assembled, nine days after, at Princeton, in Jersey. The people of Pennsylvania sent petitions declaring their indignation at what had passed, their devotion to the federal head, and their dispositions to protect it, and praying them to return; the legislature, as soon as assembled, did the same thing; the Executive, whose irresolution had been so exceptionable, made apologies. But Congress were now removed; and, to the opinion that this example was proper, other causes were now added, sufficient to prevent their return to Philadelphia.
Page 155. l. 2. Omit "La detta actuelle," &c.
And also, "Les details," &c., &c., to the end of the paragraph, "celles des Etats Unis;" page 156. The reason is, that these passages seem to suppose, that the several sums emitted by Congress, at different times, amounting nominally to two hundred millions of dollars, had been actually worth that at the time of emission, and, of course, that the soldiers and others had received that sum from Congress. But nothing is further from the truth. The soldier, victualler, or other persons who received forty dollars for a service, at the close of the year 1779, received, in fact, no more than he who received one dollar for the same service, in the year 1775, or 1776; because, in those years, the paper money was at par with silver; whereas, by the close of 1779, forty paper dollars were worth but one of silver, and would buy no more of the necessaries of life. To know what the monies emitted by Congress were worth to the people, at the time they received them, we will state the date and amount of every several emission, the depreciation of paper money at the time, and the real worth of the emission in silver or gold.
| Emission. | Sum Emitted. | Depreciation. | Worth of the sum emitted, in silver dollars. |
| 1775. June 23 | 2,000,000 | .... | 2,000,000 |
| " November 29 | 3,000,000 | .... | 3,000,000 |
| 1776. Feb. 17 | 4,000,000 | .... | 4,000,000 |
| " August 13 | 5,000,000 | .... | 5,000,000 |
| 1777. May 20 | 5,000,000 | 2⅔ | 1,877,273 |
| " August 15 | 1,000,000 | 3 | 333,333⅓ |
| " Nov. 7 | 1,000,000 | 4 | 250,000 |
| " Dec. 3 | 1,000,000 | 4 | 250,000 |
| 1778. January 8 | 1,000,000 | 4 | 250,000 |
| " January 22 | 2,000,000 | 4 | 500,000 |
| " February 16 | 2,000,000 | 5 | 400,000 |
| " March 5 | 2,000,000 | 5 | 400,000 |
| " April 4 | 1,000,000 | 6 | 166,666⅔ |
| " April 10 | 5,000,000 | 6 | 833,333⅓ |
| " April 18 | 500,000 | 6 | 83,333⅓ |
| " May 22 | 5,000,000 | 5 | 1,000,000 |
| " June 20 | 5,000,000 | 4 | 1,250,000 |
| " July 30 | 5,000,000 | 4⅓ | 1,111,111 |
| " September 5 | 5,000,000 | 5 | 1,000,000 |
| " September 26 | 10,000,100 | 5 | 2,000,020 |
| " November 4 | 10,000,100 | 6 | 1,666,683⅓ |
| " December 14 | 10,000,100 | 6 | 1,666,683⅓ |
| 1779. January 14 | [15]24,447,620 | 8 | 3,055,952½ |
| " February 3 | 5,000,160 | 10 | 500,016 |
| " February 12 | 5,000,160 | 10 | 500,016 |
| " April 2 | 5,000,160 | 17 | 294,127 |
| " May 5 | 10,000,100 | 21 | 416,670⅚ |
| " June 4 | 10,000,100 | 20 | 500,005 |
| " July 17 | 15,000,280 | 20 | 750,014 |
| " September 17 | 15,000,260 | 24 | 625,610⅚ |
| " October 14 | 5,000,180 | 30 | 166,672⅔ |
| " November 17 | 10,050,340 | 38½ | 261,053 |
| " November 29 | 10,000,140 | 38½ | 259,743 |
| 200,000,000 | 36,367,719⅚ |
Thus, it appears, that the two hundred millions of dollars, emitted by Congress, were worth, to those who received them, but about thirty-six millions of silver dollars. If we estimate at the same value, the like sum of two hundred millions, supposed to have been emitted by the States, and reckon the Federal debt, foreign and domestic, at about forty-three millions, and the State debts, at about twenty-five millions, it will form an amount of one hundred and forty millions of dollars, or seven hundred and thirty-five millions of livres, Tournois, the total sum which the war has cost the inhabitants of the United States. It continued eight years, from the battle of Lexington to the cessation of hostilities in America. The annual expense, then, was about seventeen millions and five hundred thousand dollars, while that of our enemies was a greater number of guineas.
It will be asked, how will the two masses of Continental and of State money have cost the people of the United States seventy-two millions of dollars, when they are to be redeemed, now, with about six millions? I answer, that the difference, being sixty-six millions, has been lost on the paper bills, separately, by the successive holders of them. Every one, through whose hands a bill passed, lost on that bill what it lost in value, during the time it was in his hands. This was a real tax on him; and, in this way, the people of the United States actually contributed those sixty-six millions of dollars, during the war, and by a mode of taxation the most oppressive of all, because the most unequal of all.