The report is as follows:
The committee appointed to inquire into the expediency of extinguishing the claims of the United States for certain balances which, by the Commissioners appointed to settle the accounts between the United States and the several States, were reported to be due from several of the States to the United States, report—
That the Commissioners aforesaid, on the liquidation of the accounts, reported that there were due from several of the States certain balances, that is to say:
| New York | $2,074,846 |
| Pennsylvania | 76,709 |
| Delaware | 612,428 |
| Maryland | 151,430 |
| Virginia | 100,879 |
| North Carolina | 501,082 |
That Congress by an act passed the 15th February, 1799, engaged that any State so reported against might discharge itself from the claim, by an engagement in the form of a legislative act, to be passed before the first of April, 1800, to pay at the Treasury of the United States, within five years, the amount of the sum assumed by the United States in the debt of such State; or by expending moneys to the like amount within the time aforesaid in the erection of fortifications. And the said act of Congress provides further, that any payment or expenditure aforesaid shall be credited at the Treasury to the amount of stock which said payment or expenditure is equal to the purchase of at the market prices of stock. That the State of New York passed, within the time limited, the Legislative act required by the act of Congress aforesaid, and has already received credit at the Treasury for the sum of $222,810 06, for having previously expended in fortifications the sum of $136,533 82. That no other State has acceded to the terms offered by the said act of Congress.
The committee further report, that, by the immediate operation of the said act of Congress, and of the Legislature of the State of New York, that State was exonerated and released from a very considerable part of the balance reported, to wit, the sum of $891,129 31, the balance reported against the State being to that amount more than the sum subscribed on the assumption of the United States in the debt of that State, the sum so subscribed amounts to $1,183,716 69; that the sum of $891,129 31, exceeds the whole amount of the balance reported to be due from any one of the States, and the aggregate amount of the whole of the balances, with the exception of the balance reported to be due from the State of Delaware.
The committee, without entering into a discussion of the principles whereon the settlement of the accounts by the Commissioners was founded, remark, that as none of the States but the State of New York have manifested any disposition to pay the balances reported against them, whether the terms offered by the said act of Congress operate favorably or not, and none of them have assented to the justice or equity of the claim of the United States, and no means exist of exacting payment, it seems unwise to keep alive a claim which cannot be enforced, and may have the effect of producing irritation and exciting discontent; and as the act of Congress has already released the State of New York from so large an amount and enabled that State, with ease and advantage, to discharge the residue of the balance reported to be due from that State, the committee are of opinion that a release of the balances due from the other States is expedient, and for this purpose report a bill, which is submitted.
Saturday, February 21.
President Elect.
Mr. Pinckney, from the committee instructed on the eighteenth instant to wait on the President elect, to notify him of his election, reported that the committee had performed that service, and addressed the President elect in the following words, to wit: