| dollars. | ninetieths. | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| January 1st, 1778, 1,250,000 dollars, equal to | 857,222 | 20 | |
| April 1st, 1778, 1,250,000 dollars, equal to | 621,423 | 55 | |
| July 1st, 1778, 1,250,000 | 412,864 | 52 | 4 |
| October 1st, 1778, 1,250,000 | 268,472 | 2 | |
| By the resolutions of January 2d, 1779, and May 21st, 1779, there is payable by January 1st, 1780, 60,000,000 dollars, equal to | 2,042,500 | ||
| By the resolution of October 6th, 1779, payable by February 1st, 1780, 15,000,000, equal to | 451,041 | 60 | |
| March 1st, 1780, 15,000,000, equal to | 401,450 | 30 | |
| 5,054,982 | 39 | 4 | |
Thus the whole demand made on the States, from the beginning of the war to the 1st of March, 1780, is but little more than five millions of dollars. And yet this demand, moderate as it is, has not been complied with.
By the various resolutions of Congress on the subject of requisitions it is provided, that interest at six per cent shall be charged on the sums due, and allowed on the sums paid. The sums paid do, in no instances, amount to the value of the demand, but each State has an account against the Union for advances, by supplies furnished of various kinds, and by payments made to militia. As no taxes were laid by the States, the sums they expended were procured partly from the continental treasury and partly by the emission of State currency, which tended to depreciate the continental paper, and impede its circulation. A consideration of the mischiefs arising from this circumstance will much diminish the merit, which is assumed from those advances. If the State paper had not been issued, the same services might have been performed by an equal sum of continental money, and the general torrent of depreciation would then have swept away those expenditures, which now exist as State charges. From hence it might in strictness be inferred, that the continent should not be charged for the amount of State paper advanced, and that amount be estimated at its value when redeemed by the State, especially as Congress have not only urged the States not to emit money, but even to call in what they had already emitted. But this inference would perhaps be rather too strong. No such idea has been formerly advanced by Congress, and therefore the States, not having had due notice, might conceive the determination at this late period to be inequitable.
On the whole, therefore, it may be proper to estimate the sums paid by them according to the rule already noticed, especially as the method of redeeming the old continental money formerly adopted, will, if pursued, work some degree of equality. For it will create a demand for the old money in those States, which, by the amount of their own emissions, have expelled it from themselves and forced it upon their neighbors. There must, however, be a distinction made in the advances of the several States; much of them has been for the pay and support of the militia, and much of that for the private defence of particular States, and of that again a part has frequently been unnecessary. To go, at this late period, into a close investigation of the subject, is impracticable, and perhaps dangerous. Neither would it answer any valuable purpose. Some general rule, therefore, must be adopted, and propriety seems to require, that credit should be given only for those expenditures on militia, which were previously authorised and required by express resolutions of Congress. With respect to all other articles, there is also to be noted a distinction between those which were furnished by the several States previously to the 22d of November, 1777, when the first demand of money was made, and those made subsequently to that period. I would propose that the former, as also the militia expenses not expressly authorised as above mentioned, should be taken together into one account, and the specie value of the whole estimated. That the amount of both, throughout America, should be apportioned by the same standard with the other expenses. And that the several actual expenditures of each State should be settled and liquidated with its proportional part of the whole, and the several balances carried to their respective debits and credits in the general accounts. These balances should bear interest at six per cent to the 18th of March, 1780. Thus, suppose the whole of those expenses should amount to one million of dollars, and that the State A be held to pay nine, and the State B ten parts out of every hundred; the State A would be accountable for ninety thousand dollars, and the State B for one hundred thousand dollars. And if it should appear, that the former had paid one hundred thousand, and the latter only ninety thousand, the former would be credited, and the latter debited ten thousand dollars, with six per cent interest.
I would propose, that the advances made by the several States, subsequent to the 22d of November, and prior to the 18th of March, 1780, excepting those to militia not authorised, should be estimated as aforesaid, and carried to account regularly upon the advances of money made to each from the Continental treasury, and the apportionment of the several demands made by Congress, in like manner with the moneys paid to their order. And that interest, at six per cent, should be charged or credited upon the several balances, until the 18th of March, 1780.
I would further propose, that on this day these balances, and those before mentioned, should be liquidated together, and the final capitals be considered as principal sums, bearing interest at six per cent. Thus, supposing the State A, in one account, to be credited ten thousand dollars, amounting, with interest, to eleven thousand, and debited in the other account five thousand, amounting, with interest, to six; in that case, the final balance, on the 18th of March, would be a credit of five thousand dollars.
On the 18th of March, we come to a new and more enlightened era of public accounts. The appointment formerly mentioned as preliminary to a settlement, will determine the quota due by each State for the two hundred millions of old Continental money, valued at forty for one. These resolutions of the 18th of March, 1780, not having been fully complied with, there appears to be a propriety in the following plan.
1st. To charge the several States with their proportions of it at that rate.
2dly. To fix some future day for the full compliance with the resolution.
3dly. To receive old paper at the rate of forty for one, in discharge of those proportions, until that day; and,