nental engagements; but, on the other, desponded of a unanimous concurrence of the states in such an establishment. He observed, that it was a question of great importance, how far the federal government can or ought to exert coercion against deunquent members of the Confederacy; and that without such coercion, no certainty could attend the constitutional mode which referred every thing to the unanimous punctuality of thirteen different councils. Considering, therefore, a Continental revenne as unattainable, and periodical requisitions from Congress as inadequate, he was inclined to make trial of the middle mode of permanent state funds, to be pro vided at the recommendation of Congress, and appropriated to the discharge of the common debt.

Mr. HAMILTON, in reply to Mr. ELLSWORTH, dwelt long on the inefficacy of state funds. He supposed, too, that greater obstacles would arise to the execution of the plan than to that of a general revenue. As an additional reason for the latter to be collected by officers under the appointment of Congress, he signified, that, as the energy of the federal government was evidently short of the degree necessary for pervading and uniting the states, it was expedient to introduce the influence of officers deriving their emoluments from, and consequently interested in supporting the power of, Congress.*

Mr. WILLIAMSON was of opinion, that Continental funds, although desirable, were unattainable, at least to the full amount of the public exigencies. He thought, if they could be obtained for the foreign debt, it would be as much as could be expected, and that they would also be less essential for the domestic debt.

Mr. MADISON observed, that it was needless to go into proofs of the necessity of paying the public debts; that the idea of erecting our national independence on the ruins of public faith and national honor must be horrid to every mind which retained either honesty or pride; that the motion before Congress contained a simple proposition, with respect to the truth of which every member was called upon to give his opinion; that this opinion must necessarily be in the affirmative, unless the several objects of doing justice to the public creditors, &c. &c., could be compassed by some other plan than the one proposed; that the two last objects depended essentially on the first; since the ding justice to the creditors would alone restore public credit, and the restoration of this would alone provide for the future exigencies of the war. Is, then, a Continental revenue indispensably necessary for doing complete justice, &c.? This is the question. To answer it, the other plans proposed must first be reviewed.

In order to do complete justice to the public creditors, either the principal must be paid off, or the interest paid punctually. The first is admitted to be impossible on any plan. The only plans opposed to the Continental one for the latter purpose are, first, periodical requisitions according to the Federal Articles; secondly, permanent funds established by each state within itself, and the proceeds consigned to the discharge of public debts.

Will the first be adequate to the object? The contrary seems to be maintained by no one. If reason did not sufficiently premonish, experience has sufficiently demonstrated, that a punctual and unfailing compliance, by thirteen separate and independent governments, with periodical demands of money from Congress, can never be reckoned upon with the certainty requisite to satisfy our creditors, or to tempt

others to become our creditors in future.

Secondly. Will funds separately established within each state, and the amount submitted to the appropriation of Congress, be adequate to the object? The only advantage which is thought to recommend this plan is, that the states will be with less difficulty prevailed upon to adopt it. Its imperfections are, first, that it must be preceded by a final and satisfactory adjustment of all accounts between the United States and individual states, and by an apportionment founded on a valuation of all the lands throughout each of the states, in pursuance of the law of the Confederation; for although the states do not as yet insist on these prerequisites in the case of

This remark was imprudent, and injurious to the cause which it was meant to serve. This influence was the very source of jealousy which rendered the states averse to a revenue under collection, as well as appropriation of Congress. All the members of Congress who concurred n any degree, with the states in this jealousy, smiled at the disclosure. Mr. Bland, and still more Mr. Lee, who were of this number, took notice, in private conversation, that Mr. Hag. dton had let out the secret.

annua, deinanɑs on them, with which they very little comply, and that only in tne way of an open account, yet these conditions would certainly be exacted in case of a permanent cession of revenue; and the difficulties and delays, to say the least, incident to these conditions, can escape no one. Secondly, the produce of the funds being always, in the first instance, in the hands and under the control of the states separately, might, at any time, and on various pretences, be diverted to state objects. Thirdly, that jealousy which is as natural to the states as to individuals, and of which so many proofs have appeared, that others will not fulfil their respective portions of the common obligations, will be continually and mutually suspending remittances to the common treasury, until it finally stops them altogether. These imperfections are too radical to be admitted into any plan intended for the purposes in question. It remains to examine the merits of a plan of a general revenue operating throughout the United States, under the superintendence of Congress.

One obvious advantage is suggested by the last objection to separate revenues in the different states; that is, it will exclude all jealousy among them on that head, since each will know, whilst it is submitting to the tax, that all the others are necessarily at the same instant bearing their respective portions of the burden. Again, it will take from the states the opportunity, as well as the temptation, to divert their incomes from the general to internal purposes, since those incomes will pass directly into the treasury of the United States.

Another advantage attending a general revenue is, that, in case of the concurrence of the states in establishing it, it would become soonest productive, and would, con sequently, soonest obtain the objects in view; nay, so assured a prospect would give instantaneous confidence and content to the public creditors at home and abroad, and place our affairs in a most happy train.

The consequences, with respect to the Union, of omitting such a provision for the debts of the Union, also claimed particular attention. The tenor of the memorial from Pennsylvania, and of the information just given on the floor by one of its dele. gates, (Mr. FITZSIMMONS,) renders it extremely probable that that state would, as soon as it should be known that Congress had declined such provision, or the states rejected it, appropriate the revenue required by Congress to the payment of its own citizens and troops, creditors of the United States. The irregular conduct of other states on this subject, enforced by such an example, could not fail to spread the evil throughout the whole continent. What, then, would become of the Confederation? What would be the authority of Congress? What the tie by which the states could be held together? What the source by which the army could be subsisted and clothed? What the mode of dividing and discharging our foreign debts? What the rule of settling the internal accounts? What the tribunal by which controversies among the states could be adjudicated?

It ought to be carefully remembered, that this subject was brought before Congress by a very solemn appeal from the army to the justice and gratitude of their country. Besides immediate pay, they ask for permanent security for arrears. Is not this request a reasonable one? Will it be just or politic to pass over the only adequate security that can be devised, and, instead of fulfilling the stipulations of the United States to them, to leave them to seek their rewards separately from the states to which they respectively belong? The patience of the army has been equal to their bravery; but that patience must have its limits, and the result of despair cannot be foreseen, nor ought to be risked.

It has been objected, against a general revenue, that it contravenes the articles of Confederation. These articles, as has been observed, presupposed the necessity of alterations in the federal system, and have left a door open for them. They, moreover, authorize Congress to borrow money. Now, in order to borrow money, permanent and certain provision is necessary; and if this provision cannot be made in any other way, as has been shown, a general revenue is within the spirit of the Confederation.

It has been objected, that such a revenue is subversive of the sovereignty and liberty of the states. If it were to be assumed, without the free gift of the states, this objection might be of force; but no assumption is proposed. In fact, Congress are already invested by the states with the constitutional authority over the purse as well as the sword. A general revenue would only give this authority a more certain and equal efficacy. They had a right to fix the quantum of money necessary for the common purposes. The right of the states is limited to the mode of supply. A

requisition of Congress on the states for money is as much a law to them as their revenue acts, when passed, are laws to their respective citizens. If, for want of the faculty or means of enforcing a requisition, the law of Congress proves inefficient, does it not follow that, in order to fulfil the views of the Federal Constitution such a change should be made as will render it efficient? Without such efficiency the end of this Constitution, which is to preserve order and justice among the mem bers of the Union, must fail; as without a like efficiency would the end of stat constitutions, which is to preserve like order and justice among their respective members.

It has been objected, that the states have manifested such aversion to the impost on trade, as renders any recommendations of a general revenue hopeless and imprudent. It must be admitted that the conduct of the states on that subject is less encouraging than were to be wished. A review of it, however, does not excite despondence. The imp st was adopted immediately, and in its utmost latitude, by several of the states. Several, also, which complied partially with it at first, have since complied more liberally. One of them, after long refusal, has complied substantially. Two states only have failed altogether; and, as to one of them, it is not known that its failure has proceeded from a decided opposition to it. On the whole, it appears that the necessity and reasonableness of the scheme have been gaining ground among the states. He was aware that one exception ought to be made to this inference; an exception, too, which it peculiarly concerned him to advert to. The state of Virginia, as appears by an act yesterday laid before Congress, has withdrawn its assent once given to the scheme. This circumstance could not but produce some embarrassment in a representative of that state advocating the scheme one, too, whose principles were extremely unfavorable to a disregard of the sense of constituents. But it ought not to deter him from listening to considerations which, in the present case, ought to prevail over it. One of these considerations was, that, although the delegates who compose Congress more immediately represented, and were amenable to, the states from which they respectively come, yet, in another view, they owed a fidelity to the collective interests of the whole: secondly, although not only the express instructions, but even the declared sense of constituents, as in the present case, were to be a law in general to their representatives, still there were occasions on which the latter ought to hazard personal consequences, from a respect to what his clear conviction determines to be the true interest of the former; and the present he conceived to fall under this exception: lastly, the part he took on the present occasion was the more fully justified to his own mind, by his thorough persuasion that, with the same knowledge of public affairs which his station commanded, the legislature of Virginia would not have repealed the law in favor of the impost, and would even now rescind the appeal.

The result of these observations was, that it was the duty of Congress, under whose authority the public debts had been contracted, to aim at a general revenue, as the only means of discharging them; and that the dictate of justice and gratitude was enforced by a regard to the preservation of the Confederacy, to our reputation abroad, and to our internal tranquillity.

Mr. RUTLEDGE complained that those who so strenuously urged the necessity und competency of a general revenue,* operating throughout all the United States at the same time, declined specifying any general objects from which such a revenue could be drawn. He was thought to insinuate that these objects were kept back intentionally, until the general principle could be irrevocably fixed, when Congress would be bound, at all events, to go on with the project; whereupon

Mr. FITZSIMMONS expressed some concern at the turn which the discussion seemed to be taking. He said, that, unless mutual confidence prevailed, no progress could be made towards the attainment of those ends which all, in some way or other, aimed at. It was a mistake to suppose that any specific plan had been preconcerted among the patrons of a general revenue.

Mr. WILSON, with whom the motion originated, gave his assurances that it was neither the effect of preconcert with others, nor of any determinate plan matured by himself; that he had been led into it by the declaration, on Saturday last, by Con gress, that substantial funds ought to be provided; by the memorial of the army from

He was apprehensive that a tax on land according to its quantity, not value, as had heen ecommended by Mr. Morris, was in contemplation.

which that declaration had resulted; by the memorial from the state of Pennsylvania, holding out the idea of separate appropriations of her revenue unless provision were made for the public creditors; by the deplorable and dishonorable situation of public affairs, which had compelled Congress to draw bills on the unpromised and contingent bounty of their ally, and which was likely to banish the superintendent of finance, whose place could not be supplied, from his department. He observed, that he had not introduced details into the debate, because he thought them premature, until a general principle should be fixed; and that, as soon as the principle should be fixed, he would, although not furnished with any digested plan, contribute all in his power to the forming such a one.

Mr. RUTLEDGE moved, that the proposition might be committed, in order that some practicable plan might be reported before Congress should declare that it ought to be adopted.

Mr. IZARD seconded the motion, from a conciliatory view.

Mr. MADISON thought the commitment unnecessary, and would have the appearance of delay; that too much delay had already taken place; that the deputation of the army had a right to expect an answer to their memorial as soon as it could be decided by Congress. He differed from Mr. Wilson in thinking that a specification of the objects of a general revenue would be improper, and thought that those who doubted its practicability had a right to expect proof of it from details, before they could be expected to assent to the general principle; but he differed also from Mr. Rutledge, who thought a commitment necessary for the purpose; since his views would be answered by leaving the motion before the House, and giving the debate a greater latitude. He suggested, as practicable objects of a general revenue, first, an impost on trade; secondly, a poll-tax under certain qualifications; thirdly, a land-tax under ditto.*

Mr. HAMILTON suggested a house and window tax. He was in favor of the mode of conducting the business urged by Mr. Madison.

On the motion for the commitment, six states were in favor of it, and five against it; so it was lost. In this vote, the merits of the main proposition very little entered. Mr. LEE said, that it was a waste of time to be forming resolutions and settling principles on this subject. He asked whether these would ever bring any money into the public treasury. His opinion was, that Congress ought, in order to guard against the inconvenience of meetings of the different legislatures at different and even distant periods, to call upon the executives to convoke them all at one period, and to lay before them a full state of our public affairs. He said, the states would never agree to those plans which tended to aggrandize Congress; that they were jealous of the power of Congress, and that he acknowledged himself to be one of those who thought this jealousy not an unreasonable one; that no one who had ever opened a page, or read a line, on the subject of liberty, could be insensible to the danger of surrendering the purse into the same hands which held the sword. The debate was suspended by an adjournment.

WEDNESDAY, January 29.

Mr. FITZSIMMONS reminded Congress of the numerous inaccuracies and errors in the American column of the treaty with Holland, and proposed that a revision of it, as ratified, should take place, in order that some steps might be taken for redressing the evil. He added, that an accurate comparison of it with the treaty with France ought also to be made, for the purpose of seeing whether it consisted in all its parts with the latter. He desired the committee who had prepared the ratifica tion to give some explanation on the subject to Congress.

* A poll-tax to be qualified by rating blacks somewhat lower than whites; a land-tax, by con sidering the value of land in each state to be in an inverse proportion of its quantity to the number of people; and apportioning on the aggregate quantity in each state accordingly, leaving the state at liberty to make a distributive apportionment on its several districts on a like or any other equalizing principle.

Mr. Hamilton told Mr. Madison, privately, that M. de Marbois, speaking of the treaty, asked him emphatically whether there were not some articles which required animadversion. Mr. H. did not, at the time, know what was alluded to. He now supposed the allusion to be to some article supposed to be inconsistent with the treaty with France; particularly the articl referring to the select articles of the latter, instead of the whole; which article, Mr. Adams in formed Congress, had been satisfactory to the Duke de la Vauguyon.

Mr. MADISON, as first on that committee, informed Congress, that the inaccuracies and errors, consisting of misspelling, foreign idioms, and foreign words, obscurity of the sense, &c., were attended to by the committee, and verbally noted to Congress when their report was under consideration; that the committee did not report in writing, as the task was disagreeable, and the faults were not conceived to be of sufficient weight to affect the ratification. He thought it would be improper to reconsider the act, as had been suggested, for the purpose of suspending it on that account or any other; but had no objection, if Congress were disposed, to instruct Mr. Adams to substitute, with the consent of the other party, a more correct counterpart in the American language. The subject was dropped, nobody seeming inclined to urge it.

On the motion of Mr. RUTLEDGE, and for the purpose of extending the discussion to particular objects of general revenue, Congress resolved itself into a committee of the whole, to consider of the most effectual means of restoring public credit; and the proposition relative to general revenue was referred to the committee. Mr Carroll was elected into the chair, and the proposition taken up.

Mr. BLAND proposed to alter the words of the proposition, so as to make it read establishment of funds "on taxes or duties, to operate generally," &c. This was agreed to as a more correct phraseology. Mr. HAMILTON objected to it at first, supposing, through mistake, that it might exclude the back lands, which was a fund in contemplation of some gentlemen.

Mr. MADISON, having adverted to the jealousy of Mr. RUTLEDGE, of a latent scheme to fix a tax on land according to its quantity, moved that between the words "generally" and "to operate" might be inserted the words " and in just proportion." Mr. WILSON said he had no objection to this amendment, but that it might be referred to the taxes individually, and unnecessarily fetter Congress; since, if the taxes collectively should operate in just proportion, it would be sufficient. He instanced a land-tax and an impost on trade, the former of which might press hardest on the southern, and the latter on the eastern, but both together might distribute the burden pretty uniformly. From this consideration he moved that the words "on the whole" might be prefixed to the words "in just proportion." This amendment to the amendment of Mr. MADISON was seconded by Mr. BOUDINOT, and agreed to without opposition, as was afterwards the whole amendment.

Mr. WILSON, in order to leave the scheme open for the back lands as a fund for paying the public debts, moved that the proposition might be further altered s› as to read, "indispensably necessary towards doing complete justice," &c. The motion was seconded by Mr. BOUDINOT, and passed without opposition.

The main proposition by Mr. WILSON, as thus amended, then passed without opposition, in the words following:

"That it is the opinion of Congress that the establishment of permanent and adequate funds on taxes or duties, which shall operate generally, and, on the whole, in just proportion, throughout the United States, is indispensably necessary towards doing complete justice to the public creditors, for restoring public credit, and for providing for the future exigencies of the war."

Mr. BLAND proposed, as the only expedient that could produce immediate reliet to the public creditors, that Congress should, by a fixed resolution, appropriate to the payment of interest all the moneys which should arise from the requisitions on the states. He thought this would not only give relief to the public creditors, but, by throwing into circulation the stagnant securities, enliven the whole business of taxation. This proposition was not seconded.

Mr. WILSON proceeded to detail to Congress his ideas on the subject of a Continental revenue. He stated the internal debt, liquidated and unliquidated, at 21,000,000 dollars; the foreign debt at 8,000,000 dollars; the actual deficiency of 1762, at 4,000,000 dollars; the probable deficiency of 1783 at 4,000,000 dollars; making, in the whole, 37,000,000 dollars; which, in round numbers, and probably without exceeding the relity, may be called 40,000,000 dollars. The interest of this debt, at six per cent., 18 2,400,000 dollars; to which it will be prudent to add 600,000 dollars, which, if the war continues, will be needed, and in case of peace may be applied to a navy. An annual revenue of 3,000,000 of dollars, then, is the sum to be aimed at, and which ought to be under the management of Congress. One of the objects already mentioned, from which this revenue was to be sought, was a poll-tax. This, he thought, was a very proper one, but, unfortunately, the Constitution of Maryland, which forbids this tax, is an insuperable obstacle. Salt he thought a fit article to be taxed, as it is con