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By Root 2035 0

to the additional Force they derive from divine Revelation. But our own Experience will Shew, that from a Defect of justice this Nation is not established; and that her Want of Honesty is severely punished by the Want of Credit. To this Want of Credit must be attributed the Weight of Taxation for Support of the War, and the Continuance of that Weight by Continuance of the War. It is therefore with the greatest Propriety your Petitioners already mentioned have stated in their Memorial, that both Policy and Justice require a solid Provision for funding the public Debts. It is with Pleasure Sir that I see this numerous, meritorious and oppressed Body of Men, who are Creditors of the public, begining to exert themselves for the obtaining of Justice. I hope they may succeed, not only because I wish well to a righteous Pursuit, but because this Success will be the great Ground work of a Credit which will carry us safely thro the present just, important and necessary War, which will combine us closely together on the Conclusion of a Peace, which will always give to the Supreme Representative of America a Means of acting for the general Defence on Sudden Emergencies, and which will, of consequence, procure the Third of those great Objects for which we contend, Peace, Liberty, and Safety.

Such Sir are the cogent Principles by which we are called on to provide solid Funds for the national Debt. Already Congress have adopted a Plan for liquidating all past Accounts; and if the States shall make the necessary Grants of Revenue, what remains will be a simple executive Operation which will presently be explained. But however powerful the Reasons in favor of such Grants, over and above those Principles of moral Justice which none, however exalted, can part from with Impunity, still there are Men who (influenced by penurious selfishness) will grumble at the Expence, and who will assert the impossibility of sustaining it. On this Occasion the Sensations with Respect to borrowing are reversed. All would be content to relieve themselves, by Loan, from the Weight of Taxes, but many are unwilling to take up, as they ought, the Weight of Debt. Yet this must be done, before the other can happen, and it is not so great but that we Should find immediate Releif by assuming it, even if it were a foreign Debt. I say if it were a foreign Debt, because I shall attempt to shew, first that being a domestic Debt, to fund it will cost the Community Nothing and secondly that it will produce (on the Contrary) a considerable Advantage. And as to the first Point, one Observation will Suffice. The Expenditure, has been made, and a Part of the Community have sustained it. If the Debt were to be paid, by a single Effort of Taxation; it could only create a Transfer of Property from one Individual to another, and the agregate Wealth of the Whole Community would be precisely the same. But since Nothing more is attempted than merely to fund the Debt by providing for the Interest (at six per Cent) The Question of Ability is resolved to this single Point, whether it is easier for a Part of the people to pay one hundred Dollars, than for the whole People to pay six Dollars. It is equally clear, tho’ not equally evident, that a considerable Advantage would be produced, by funding our Debts, over and above what has been already mentioned, as the Consequence of National Credit. This Advantage is threefold. First, many Persons by being Creditors of the Public, are deprived of those Funds which are necessary to the full Exercise of their Skill and Industry. Consequently the Community are deprived of the Benefits which would result from that Exercise, whereas if these Debts which are in a manner dead, were brought back to existence, monied men would purchase them up (tho perhaps at a considerable Discount) and thereby restore to the Public many useful Members who are now entirely lost; and extend the Operations of many more to considerable Advantage. For altho not one additional Shilling would be, by this Means, brought in; yet by distributing Property into those Hands which