spective States, that $612 000 were reported to be due by her; this with interest from the year 1793. amounts to about $1,000,000. This is a very serious subject to the State of Delaware; one which she severely feels; which depreciates the price of her land and paralyzes the industry of her citizens. I beg leave to say it is not my object to touch the settlement of the Commissioners, so far as it regards the creditor States; like the ark of the covenant, I deem it too sacred to be touched by impure hands. I am likewise far from imputing to them any improper or unjust motives whatever. Whilst I subscribe to this doctrine, and that the creditor States receive the balances reported in their favor, permit me to take a retrospective view of the business, to show, so far as can be proved from the nature of the case, that there may have been, nay, must have been, some important mistake in the settlement, the Commissioners having no standard to resort to, by which to determine with mathematical or arithmetical certainty what was due by the States. If the Committee shall be of opinion that some mistake may have occurred, when they consider that so far as relates to the claims of the creditor States, they have been provided for, I trust they will view with indulgence the claims now made by the debtor States.

H. OF H.

ery case substantial justice. It will be recollected what was the nature and extent of the accounts which they had to adjust. Rudis indigesta que moles. They were not accounts kept with the regularity of those of a merchant's countinghouse, they were not confined to the transactions of a single voyage, nor to the business of one company, but comprehended the complicated transactions of independent States, the multiplied and intricate accounts of entire sovereignties, and those too, not in time of peace, but during the stormy period of a Revolution, in which we were contending against one of the most powerful nations in Europe for our liberties and independence. I believe them to have done the best they could, and to have attempted faithfully to bring about a settlement so important to be effected, and which Congress, as early as 1787, attempted to make. Congress in that year passed a resolution by which the States were districted, and Commissioners appointed to go through the several States to receive accounts; but all those accounts were warranted by acts of Congress themselves; at the same time they constituted a Board to audit accounts for particular defence, and such as were not authorized by the resolutions of Congress, considering what a State did for herself she did for the Union.

Thus the business rested when the Federal Constitution was brought about; that Constitution the State of Delaware had the honor first to adopt, and was, I believe, the only State whose Legislature adopted it unanimously. When Congress met under the Constitution, the general principle on which the settlement of the accounts of the several States should take place was not much disputed. No man pretended to say, when South Carolina was overrun with internal foes and subject to civil war, the United States were not benefitted in proportion to the efforts she made to crush those enemies; everything she did was for the general good, and every man acquiesced in the justness of the principle, that she should bring forward her accounts for particular as well as general defence, and it was seen that the United States would fall in debt from this circumstance to every State in the Union: every State had to contend with the external enemy, or with the internal foe in the shape of insurrections.

When in consequence of the acts of a flagitious Ministry, who attempted to forge chains for our free country, America rose as one man to assert her rights and destroy the tyranny of that Government which wished to enslave her, she was understood as one nation engaged in a common cause; certain articles of Union were proposed, one of which stipulated that the proportion in which each State should contribute to the gen. eral defence, should be according to the value of lands in the respective States. It will be recollected that the Articles of Confederation were not agreed to until the war had nearly terminated, and that this ratio was not uniformly acted upon by Congress as the basis on which requisitions were made. It was not relied on in all cases and on all occasions; if it had been agreed upon, Congress would have still been at a loss how to proceed. Every apportionment must therefore have necessarily been arbitrary. In this embarrassing situation, with a view to relieve themselves from the difficulties which surrounded them, Congress, It may be proper at this place, to advert to the in the month of April, in the year 1783, recom-report of the Secretary of the Treasury, which mended to the several States the adoption of that laid the foundation for the assumption of the rule of apportionment which is to be found in the State debts. I am not about to inquire into the Federal Constitution. This rule. however, was policy of the measure, or whether it was best to not adopted by the States, until it was incorpo- be effected in this way, in that, or the other; I rated in that instrument. I mention these facts take it as I find it; when examined, it will be to show that there was no permanent, universal, found that the then Secretary thought the ratio and unerring foundation on which the ratio of or rule of apportionment adopted by the Commistaxation rested. If each member of the Board sioners under the act of Congress, passed in the of Commissioners, had possessed the fiscal talents year 1790, would not be the correct one, as will and financial knowledge of the present Secretary appear from the report and supposititious statement of the Treasury, and instead of the comparatively made by him of the relative situation of the difshort time they were occupied in the settlement, ferent States, as debtor, and creditor. Delaware, had consumed a series of years, it is scarcely with- so far from being considered at that time as a in the confines of possibility, and much less of debtor State, was contemplated in the light of a probability, that they should have attained in ev-| creditor State, and in proportion to her ability

"Let each State be charged with all the money ad-quested a hearing, gentlemen may account for the vanced to it out of the Treasury of the United States, liquidated according to the specie value at the time of such advance, with interest at six per cent.

State Balances.

sioners, which book ought now to be returned to this A General Statement of Charges exhibited against the State. These included all charges for general defence, depreciating certificates, recruiting accounts, supplies to the army, and every other expense which could be supported against the Union under the ordinance of May 7, 1787.

SCHEDULE A.

Supposititious Statement of Accounts between the United States and individual States.

H. OF R.

State Balances.

JANUARY 1804.

In some laws found in our volume, particularly in a law of 1787, it will be found that the State of Delaware was compelled to pay requisitions whose proportion was greater than they ought to have been according to any known federal rule. Still, even when she considered the imposition made upon her more than it ought to be, when her representatives in the Legislature in the act of 1787 declared, "that her proportion was greater than it ought to be on any known or acknowledged principle of federal taxation," she cheerfully acquiesced and paid the money required from her. It has been, I believe, on a former occasion when this subject was before the House, ably and eloquently observed by my friend from Virginia (Mr. J. RANDOLPH) that if the State of Delaware had been asleep during the whole Revolutionary conflict, and had not contributed a cent or soldier to the common cause, the balance charged against her could not amount to the enormous sum of one million of dollars. When, on the contrary, we take into consideration the great sums which she actually paid, and the gallant soldiers furnished in her regiment and from her militia, ought not gentlemen to listen to the reasons now urged, and ought they not to have great weight on the minds of liberal and candid men? As I said before, I do not mean to impeach the original settlement; but if such an inexplicable result has occurred in the case of Delaware, what may not have occurred in the settlement of the accounts of the other States? With their cases I am unac

he decided correctly; because he acted against the first maxim of justice, and because his decision, though right, was the effect of accident. If this statement be correct, will not gentlemen advert to the fact and suffer it to make a proper impression on their minds? It appears, from the account of Mr. McComb, that $3,261,044 was furnished by Delaware in paper money, and $380,228 in specie. Much of the first description of money was paid before it had undergone any considerable depreciation by the scale established in that State. Owing to fortuitous circumstances the paper medium was better, and the State had to pay more, of consequence, than any other State in the Union. By the laws of Delaware it will also appear that Congress no sooner made a requisition than the Legislature of that State passed an act to comply with it-no sooner was the call made than the people were compelled to pay their taxes to meet it. Every requisition Congress made till the year 1787, was promptly complied with, and on some occasions we raised more than sixty thousand dollars a year to enable us to comply with the requisitions of the United States; and it will be found from the report of the Auditor of the State, (Thomas Montgomery,) a man every way qualified for that situation, for the year 1794, that, prior to the year 1784, there was not a single tax levied that was not paid, nor a single county behindhand a single dollar. Afterwards there was a small balance remaining unpaid by the county of Sussex, a smaller from the county of Kent, and a still smaller perhaps from the county of New-quainted. I will not, therefore, trespass on the castle. I mention these circumstances to show that more must have been paid by that State than is allowed in the settlement, for all this money was certainly levied and collected from the pockets of the people of that State; and to prove that the account rendered by our Commissioner (Mr. McComb) against the United States, was accurate and just. An account supported by such plain, unequivocal testimony as the solemn acts of our Legislature, and the report of that officer to whom the State confided the superintendence of her finances, for sums of such magnitude, in specie as well as in paper currency, ought to make a favorable impression on the members of this Committee. It proves most manifestly that our State contributed the sum of in Continental money and in gold or silver coin towards the exigencies of the war, besides the services of her soldiers, than whom none were braver, especially those who composed her intrepid regiment. One charge of the United States against the several States referred to a certain species of certificates, known by the name of depreciation certificates, given to the officers and soldiers in consequence of the depreciation of their pay. At this moment there lie in her chest sixty or eighty thousand dollars of these certificates, and, if she had been disposed to act unfairly, she might at the proper time have loaned them, and that amount might have gone into the coffers of the State, but she would not descend to this act, she was disposed to do as she would be done by, and I trust this will be considered as a meritorious act on her part.

patience of the Committee further on this score, but considering the subject in this favorable point of right as to Delaware, I will advance to the strongest ground which presents itself.

How are the United States by any competent authority to obtain payment of these balances? Are they to put any State to the ban of the empire? Are they to make war upon any State by means of an army on land or a navy at sea? This is a position for which, I presume, no gentleman will contend. Are they to fund the balances due in the proportion of the creditor States? If it is the wish of gentlemen to add to our debt millions, I know not how many, the object may, perhaps, be accomplished in this way; but such a measure, I presume will not be adopted. Will gentlemen then preserve this bone of contention with the States? For a bone it literally is; it contains not an atom of nutrition to the United States. Will they preserve it when it will not bring one shilling into their pockets? will they keep alive this coal which may hereafter be fanned into a flame, and which may, at some future day, become a subject of compromise, not to say bargain, and may be made an instrument of much greater injury even to the creditor States than the nominal balances can possibly be of benefit to them? Remember that two of the principal debtor States are, from their wealth and numbers, among the most respectable in the Union. If you will keep these balances suspended over them, what may not be apprehended? If the subject be considered in this point of view, it will appear that it is for

the interest of the whole United States that these States, in conformity with the Constitution, and balances should be done away. It is for the inter- upon the most correct principles that could be esest of the creditor States that no subject of dispute tablished. No other method could have produced may remain that the hatchet may be buried. a settlement at all. And, further, it was well calTheir balances are already funded; and if the culated to insure an equitable settlement at least, debtor balances be extinguished these will be con- a more equitable one than could be obtained in sidered as sacred. And need I say that it is for any other way. Several of the States which were the interest of the debtor States? They, year found debtor were then increasing rapidly in after year, have called for the extinguishment. wealth and population, and are still increasing, far With regard to the State of Delaware, the con- beyond the creditor States, or any former calcutinuance of these balances is of the most serious lations. Can it then be pretended, with the least injury to her. I know an honorable Senator from color of propriety, that, under these circumstances, Maryland, who owns lands on both sides of the line it was either unfair or unequitable to apportion which separates Delaware from Maryland, who the expenses of the Revolution according to the cannot get as much by one-third for his land in enumeration of the inhabitants of each State? In Delaware, as for that within the borders of Mary-my judgment, the measure was correct and legitland, although the land in Maryland is part of the same tract, and of precisely the same quality as In order to show that the State of Delaware that in Delaware. Is not this of some importance could not be justly charged with all the balance to the State of Delaware? is it not enough to dis- found against her, the gentleman has produced a tress, and essentially to check, the progress of her supposititious statement, made by the Secretary citizens in every laudable pursuit? must it not ne- of the Treasury in his report to Congress, on the cessarily tend essentially to retard the improve-subject of funding the State debts. This statement of her land, to depress trade and to paralyze industry, and all this without one scintilla of use to the United States or to any State in the Union? I hope the Committee, considering the subject in this view, will agree to the resolution, impressed with the opinion that it would be equally for the welfare of the United States, for those States which are debtor, and for those which are creditor, to adopt it.

imate.

table adjustment of all the accounts.

ment however was, as far as appears, wholly supposititious, not bottomed on a single data, and very probably introduced into the report with no other view than to induce Congress to pursue those measures with relation to the public debt which he was then intent upon. It cannot with any shadow of reason be brought in competition, or in the least degree to invalidate a settlement made by men specially appointed for that purpose, acting Mr. ELMER. I agree in opinion with the gen- under the solemnity of an oath, and who spent tleman from Delaware, who introduced the reso-much time and pains to make a correct and equilution on your table, that it involves in it an important and interesting question. And I am, with him, fully persuaded that every member of this Committee will weigh the consequence of it with that seriousness and candor which it demands, and decide upon it, after the most mature deliberation, according to his sense of justice and propriety, notwithstanding any prejudices or preconceived opinions which he may have formed. But I can by no means agree in sentiment with him, that some mistake must have taken place in the settlement of the accounts between the United States and the individual States, nor that any such mistake ought to be presumed of so serious a nature as to induce the Supreme Legislature of the land to extinguish the balances found due from the debtor States, by the strong arm of sovereign authority. Upon what foundation, sir, does this resolution rest? What are the facts or reasons which have or can be adduced to prove the settlement erroneous in point of principle or equity, or to justify Congress to abolish an important part of it? The gentleman alleges, that in apportioning the expenses of the Revolution, which proved so glorious, and happily relieved us from the tyranny of a foreign Power, among the several States, the Commissioners deviated from the rule prescribed by the Articles of Confederation, upon which the requisitions of the old Congress were founded, in a point which materially affected some of the debtor States. But it should be observed, that this line of conduct was authorized by the laws of the United 8th CON.-29

The honorable gentleman has further urged, as an objection to the settlement, that the agent for the State of Delaware complained, at the time, of the conduct of the Commissioners in refusing to hear him in support of the claims which he exhibited. But this, like most other objections, will vanish in empty air when fairly examined. I always understood that none of the State agents were heard any further than to explain or elucidate their accounts. The agent for New Jersey, I, know, was as fully debarred of a hearing before the Commissioners as the agent of Delaware. It is perfectly clear to me, that it would have been highly improper to have heard the agents; and I very much doubt whether all the eloquence of the honorable gentleman, aided by all the learned councils of the nation, would have altered the opinion of the Commissioners, or produced a different result. Besides, it has not been shown that any of his accounts were rejected; and, if not, it would have been perfectly idle to have spent time in advocating them. No partialities for or against particular States have been made to appear against the Commissioners, and none can, with any propriety, be imputed to them. The settlement, therefore, has the appearance of being as correct as the nature of the business and other circumstances rendered practicable, and ought to be maintained by the nation.

Mr. Chairman, could I be impressed with the propriety and justice of the measure, and could