The House resolved itself into a Committee of the Whole on the bill to extinguish the claims of the United States for balances reported against certain States by Commissioners appointed to settle the accounts between the United States and the individual States.
Mr. Thomas.—Mr. Chairman, I rise, with a great deal of diffidence, to deliver my sentiments on this floor, as I have not been accustomed to public speaking; however, a sense of my duty as a Representative of the United States, as well as the immediate Representative from the State of New York, impels me, on this occasion, to ask the indulgence of the Committee while I make a few remarks on the subject of the bill now under consideration.
Sir, a number of the debtor States, and particularly the one which I have the honor to represent, have always believed that they were prodigiously injured in the settlement that was made; they have always believed that there was something radically wrong, grossly unequal, in the accounts exhibited by the individual States, and allowed by the Board of Commissioners; in this belief, they have frequently called for information on the subject, for a re-examination of that settlement, and have as often been denied it.
Much might be said to prove that the very economical system adopted and adhered to by the State of New York in limiting the prices of produce, and in liquidating the accounts of her citizens for supplies furnished during the Revolutionary war, operated particularly prejudicial to that State in the settlement. I shall, however, waive any remarks on this for the present, and confine myself principally to the rule which was adopted for apportioning the expenses of the war among the several States. Sir, the committee will recollect that by an act of Congress passed in the year 1789, the enumeration of inhabitants made in the year 1791 was adopted as the rule for apportioning this debt among the thirteen States.
I shall in the first place examine the original contract entered into by these States, and under which these expenses were incurred, and then endeavor to show the effect which, adopting an enumeration made seven or eight years after the close of the war, had upon the several States different from what the same rule would have produced had the apportionment been made according to the numbers in each State at that period, say 1784.
In the year 1778, the people of these States entered into a confederation for various purposes, one of which was, to prosecute the war against Great Britain. In the eighth article of this compact it was expressly agreed that—
"All charges of the war, and all other expenses that should be incurred for the common defence, and general welfare, and allowed by the United States in Congress assembled, should be defrayed out of a common treasury, which should be supplied by the several States in proportion to the value of all lands within each State granted to or surveyed for any person as such lands and the building and improvements thereon should be estimated, according to such mode as the United States in Congress assembled, should from time to time direct and appoint."
This, Mr. Chairman, was the agreement under which this debt was incurred; and here allow me to ask the honorable gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Bacon) whether he was correct when he told us the other day that this settlement had been made agreeably to the articles of Confederation; and, further, whether, agreeably to that compact, the State which he represents would have been allowed for her losses in the Penobscot expedition, which has enabled her to become a creditor State of upwards of one million two hundred thousand dollars, and more than one-third of the whole amount of the balances. Sir, had the original agreement under which these expenses were incurred been adhered to in the settlement, no one ought now to complain; but, in order to comply with it, the expenses of the war ought to have been apportioned among the several States according to the value of the lands and buildings at the time these expenses were incurred, and I do contend that the period immediately after the termination of the war was the only proper one for carrying into effect this stipulation. I am persuaded that no gentleman on this floor will deny that the existing circumstances of the several States at that period were the most proper to determine the just proportion which each State ought to pay of these expenses, by whatever rule might be adopted. Admitting, then, that Congress had the power, and it was judged expedient to deviate from the original contract, and adopt as the rule of apportionment the enumeration of inhabitants as a more practicable one, ought it not to have had reference to the numbers in each State at the close of the war? Most unquestionably, Mr. Chairman, no gentleman will deny this, and that the year 1784 was the proper time. It may, however, be said that no enumeration was made till the year 1791, seven years afterwards. I grant it. But will this alter the justness of my position? Not at all. It must be obvious in the mind of every gentleman who has reflected on the subject, that the relative numbers in each State had changed materially between the year 1784, when this settlement ought to have been made, and the year 1791, when it was made. In order to establish this fact, I have adopted this method; I have admitted what I believe every gentleman who hears me will, without hesitation: that there has been no material variation in the increase of population in the several States since the year 1784; that the increase was nearly, if not correctly, in the same ratio between the years 1784 and 1791, with the increase between the years 1791 and 1801; that is, that the relative increase of population in the several States was nearly, if not correctly, in the same proportion for the seven years previous to the year 1791 that it was for the ten years subsequent to that period.
This I have established as my data, by which I have ascertained the numbers in each State in the year 1784, and having apportioned the whole debt among the several States, according to the enumeration, I find the following to be the result: