tion on so large a scale as to endanger the independence of the states. It was alleged that the constitution did not authorize this exercise of fiscal power, and that no occasion existed for it, inasmuch as the several states were competent to the discharge of their own engagements. The difficulty of distinguishing between the liabilities they had incurred for their own local defence, and those which had arisen from their exertions in the common cause, was relied on, as was the injustice of confounding in a common operation engagements dissimilar in character and unequal in magnitude. This indefinite increase of the debt, (for the amount of the state debts was not yet ascertained,) it was urged would have a bad effect on the public credit, by creating an apprehension that the national resources would not be adequate to its punctual liquidation—a circumstance which could not fail to depreciate the paper representing it, nor to perpetuate that greatest of national evils, a public debt.

In support of the assumption it was replied that the whole debt, both that contracted by the continental congress, and that for which the several states were answerable, had been incurred in a cause common to the Union-that in no case had the ordinary expenses, or civil list, of the states, exceeded their ordinary revenues; and that their debts consequently represented the amount of service they had severally contributed to the general defence that in these operations the states were virtually the agents of the general government, which, upon principles of obvious justice, was liable to the state creditors-that the assumption was not, as it had been described, the prodigal creation of a new debt, but the honest acknowledgment of an old one-that if it could not be denied that congress had the right to create a debt in the prosecution of a second war, it could not well be disputed that they were authorized to discharge the debt contracted in the first; that the question was one not of quantity, but of principle; and consequently was not affected by the circumstance of the state debts having not yet been accurately computed.

A multitude of tax-masters would, it was said, lead to waste in the collection, as a variety of paymasters would, to waste in the distribution of funds out of which these debts were to be satisfied, and which in either mode must be drawn ultimately from the people. Inequality would exist and unfairness be suspected both in their collection and disbursement; circumstances which while they would not alleviate the general pressure on the people, would leave many of the public creditors dissatisfied. It was said to be absurd to impute to the supporters of this measure, a desire to perpetuate the public debt, as the proposition was not to contract a debt, but to pay one, and that moreover as the express object of the assumption was to discharge the debt, it was inconsistent with common sense to attach to it the opposite purpose of perpetuating it. It was urged that the apprehension of its giving undue influence to the general government was at variance with the objection that it would give

perpetuity to the debt-for this influence must be the result of credit, which could not exist unless the debt was regularly liquidated. And it was contended that the assumption, while it would quiet a large body of citizens, would put an end to that speculation which was so anxiously deprecated.

These were the principal arguments advanced in the debate, as it was reported in the journals of the day and is condensed in the History of Marshall; and they are here recapitulated in order that you may judge whether on the part of the supporters of the assumption, there appears any thing like a design to convert our republic into a monarchy. No such design was imputed to them in the discussion; and the accusation seems to have been first propagated, as it was last repeated by Mr. Jefferson, the vilifier general of the friends and measures of Washington; predicting of these, the most pernicious consequences; and ascribing to those, the worst conceivable motives. Two features in the measure alluded to-one that no discrimination was made between the first and last holder of the public paper-the other, that the debts incurred by the several states, in a war undertaken by common consent and prosecuted in common defence, were put on the same footing with those contracted by the general government-were made the occasion of his charge upon Hamilton especially, and the political supporters of Washington generally, of a design to subvert our republican institutions, and to establish a monarchy on their ruins.

This calumny which he specifies (Vol. IV. p. 145, et passim.) as, "a longing for a King, and an English King, rather than any other" he invented in 1791, when the wounds received by these valiant patriots in liberating us from an English King, were yet fresh and bleeding-and maintained until the day of his death in 1826, with an evergreen vivacity of slander, which drew rancour from the frosts of age, and spread forth its poisonous branches, as the graves of its victims thickened around. To every age, and through every state, it was distributed by his correspondence. The credulity of the young, the prejudices of the old, and the interests of both, were enlisted in its circulation; and not content with defaming the ornaments of his country at home, he industriously proclaimed this calumny abroad. Lafayette and Kosciusko were assured that their chosen friends in the United States had been defeated in an attempt to undermine the liberties of their country; and Mazzei, an Italian adventurer, was made the instrument as you will see of diffusing the falsehood throughout Europe.

LETTER V.

Or a charge so extensively circulated and so long maintained, as that alluded to in the close of my last letter, it is worth while to examine the foundation, especially as the station of its author and the character of its objects, both tend to give it importance; and as on its truth or falsehood, the moral colouring of our national history must greatly depend.

By reference to the Anas, at the end of his fourth volume, it appears that in the year 1818, Mr. Jefferson revised all the imputations he had made or collected against this illustrious body of his countrymen, and therein it will be found he repeats, in the most imposing form he could give it, this particular slander. (447, 8, 9.) In regard to the former branch of it, the making no discrimination between the first and last holders of government stock, he affirms that it was a stratagem devised by Hamilton to gratify speculators, and to attach to himself a band of mercenary supporters who were to be his instruments in overturning the republic. In proof of this affirmation he proceeds as follows-"When the trial of strength on these several efforts had indicated the form in which the bill would finally pass, this being known within doors sooner than without, and especially than to those who were in distant parts of the Union, the base scramble began. Couriers and relay horses by land, and swift-sailing pilot boats by sea, were flying in all directions. Active partners and agents were associated and employed in every state, town and country neighbourhood, and this paper was bought up at five shillings, and even as low as two shillings in the pound, before the holder knew that congress had already provided for its redemption at par. Immense sums were filched from the poor and ignorant, and fortunes accumulated by those who had themselves been poor enough before. Men thus enriched by the dexterity of a leader, would follow of course, the chief who was leading them to fortune, and become the zealous instruments of all his enterprises.

Let it be remembered that among the principal objects of reconstructing the form of the federal government was that of enabling the people of the United States to discharge the debt they had contracted in the war of Independence;* that the initiation of a plan for the accomplishment of this object was imposed, both by the nature of his office and a resolution of Congress, on the Secretary of the Treasury; and does it seem consistent with common justice,

See Gen. Washington's letter to the governors of the several States. (Marshall, Vol. V. p. 48.)

to impute to corrupt motives, to motives that would have made a Catiline or an Arnold blush, any speculative ill consequences that might be predicated of a system thus exacted, which was original in its theory, and complex in its effects? Can any man of sense, who, with the greatest possible admiration for Mr. Jefferson, retains the smallest respect for justice, approve the illiberal construction he puts on the labours of a colleague, whose patriotism had been long and meritoriously displayed; or upon the character of those able men, who concurred in his views, or were convinced by his arguments? Was it not natural, nay almost inevitable, that some errors should either be discovered or suspected, in any plan that could have been proposed; and was it the part of a wise or an honest man, to ascribe them, not to the imperfection of reason, but to treasonable intentions; to lay in wait, while Hamilton was tasking the powers of his creative mind, in order to discharge an important duty, that he might denounce the appearances of error, as evidences of guilt.

As it is morally impossible to look upon such a proceeding without that indignation which the foulest injustice excites, so it is beyond the compass of human credulity to believe that a man of Mr. Jefferson's understanding, really entertained the suspicions he expressed on this subject. Besides their incongruity with the characters of the men on whom they bear, the chain of inference by which they are attempted to be upheld, is too lax and absurd to be conscientiously relied on by any reflecting mind. The mere fact of rejecting the discrimination is made proof of corruption, in the enlightened statesman who carried that rejection. But were there not on the very surface of that proposition fair and forcible objections it? Would it not have interfered violently with private contracts, placed the government despotically between the buyer and the seller, been in the nature of an ex-post-facto law, and converted the transaction, arbitrarily, from a purchase into a loan; wresting from the purchaser the result of his risk, the degree of which was represented by the depreciation of the paper? Would not such a plan, independently of its repugnance to our system of laws, and habits of dealing; its inconvenience and almost impracticability, have been in the teeth of a maxim of trade that was admitted before Mr. Jefferson's time?

"The real value of a thing,

Is just as much as it will bring."

Again. The facts by which he attempts to corroborate this odious inference, if admitted, really destroy it; rendering his argument as vicious as his calumny. If we believe him, when the supporters of Hamilton's system discovered that the bill would pass without the discriminating clause they despatched couriers, expresses, and swift-sailing packets, to every State, town, and county in the Union; devoured the roads, and vexed the seas; associated

partners and employed agents in every neighbourhood, in order to buy up this paper at a great discount. This operation must have created instantaneously, a general and pressing demand for it, and have raised its price to the level of that demand. In the nature of things, the speculation, consequently, must either have been inconsiderable in extent, or inconsiderable in profit; so that if it be possible to sympathise with his Irish outcry against those cruel and ingenious federalists, who discovered the mode of "filching immense fortunes from the poor," it will be difficult not to perceive the injustice of his accusation through the fallacy of his reasoning. Besides he and his friends in Congress had a newspaper at their command; through its columns, and by private letters, they could have apprised the public of the progress and probable event of the bill. That they did not do so, places Mr. Jefferson at least in the dilemma, of having either perceived no ground for his imputation, or of being subject to the suspicion which he erects upon it.

To reinforce this charge of a design in Hamilton to establish a monarchy upon the ruins of the Constitution, and of a corrupt instrumentality in it, on the part of the other leading friends of Gen. Washington, he adduces with equal confidence, the assumption of the State debts. It being unnecessary to discuss an obvious absurdity, I beg to remind you that I confine my remarks to the object of proving the impossibility of Mr. Jefferson's believing his own accusations. In this case, he knew that it had been demonstrated, and was at all times and places demonstrable, that the debts of the States had been contracted for national purposes; that the greater the debt of any particular State, the greater had been its exertion, and exposure in the common cause; and that the principles of agency, applied in favour of the States. This reasoning was not only conclusive to his judgment, but the equity of it was familiar to his memory, as appears from the following letter, of the 15th December, 1780; which, when governor of Virginia, he wrote to Gen. Washington, (Vol. I. pp. 198, 199.)

"From intelligence received, we have reason to expect that a confederacy of British and Indians, to the amount of two thousand men, is formed, for the purpose of spreading destruction and dismay through the whole extent of our frontier, in the ensuing spring. Should this take place, we shall certainly lose in the south all the aids of militia from beyond the Blue Ridge, besides the inhabitants who must fall a sacrifice in the course of the savage irruptions. There seems to be but one method of preventing this, which is, to give the western enemy employment in their own country. The regular force Col. Clarke already has, with a proper draft from the militia beyond the Alleghany, and that of three or four of our most northern counties, will be adequate to the reduction of Fort Detroit, in the opinion of Col. Clarke; and he assigns the most probable reasons for that opinion. We have, therefore, determined to undertake it, and commit it to his direc