V.

Ames hastened to renew the declaration of his opinion, CHAPTER expressed in the debate two years before, that Congress could take no steps as to the matter to which the me- 1792. morial related. Having been requested to present it, he had done so on the general principle that every citizen had a right to petition the Legislature, and to apply to any member as the véhicle to convey his petition to the House.

In seconding Steele's motion, Smith of South Carolina "admitted, to its full extent, the right of every citizen to petition for redress of grievances, and the duty of the House to consider such petitions. But the paper in question was not of that description. It was a mere rant and rhapsody of a meddling fanatic, interlarded with texts of Scripture, and without any specific prayer. The citizens of the Southern States, finding that a paper of this sort had been received by the House, and formally entered on their journals, might justly be alarmed, and led to believe that doctrines were countenanced destructive of their interests. The gentleman who presented it, and who, he observed with regret, had not on this occa sion displayed his usual regard for the Southern States, had stated its contents to relate only to the slave trade. Had he stated its real objects, namely, to create disunion among the states, and to excite the most horrible insurrections, the House would undoubtedly have refused its reception. After the proceedings at New York, his constituents had a right to expect that the subject would never be stirred again. These applications were not cal culated to meliorate the condition of those who were their objects, and who were at present happy and contented. On the contrary, by alienating their affections from their masters, and exciting a spirit of restlessness, they tended to make greater severities necessary. He

CHAPTER therefore earnestly called upon the House, by agreeing to the present motion, to convince this troublesome en1792. thusiast, and others who might be disposed to communicate their ravings and wild effusions, that they would meet the treatment they justly deserved. As the present application was disrespectful to the House, insulting to the Southern members, and a libel on their constituents, it ought no longer to remain on the table, but should be returned to its author with marked disapprobation." That part of the motion relating to the return of the petition was agreed to; the part respecting the erasure of the journal was withdrawn by the mover. Dec. 3. The report of the Secretary of the Treasury on the payment of the public debt suggested a very ingenious scheme. It appeared by this report that up to 1801, when payments on the deferred debt might first commence, the amount of the six per cent. debt annually redeemable by the terms of the loans rose by annual increase from $550,000 to $1,126,000. To meet these successive installments, besides appropriating to that purpose the surplus bank dividends over and above the interest payable on the loan from the bank, the secretary proposed to borrow successive sums of money on the pledge of taxes to be annually imposed, sufficient, with the other funds above mentioned, not only to secure the interest on the sums thus borrowed, but to pay off the principal also, within periods of from five years to one year; these taxes to be made permanent, and, after paying off the temporary loans for which in the first place they were pledged, to be applied to the discharge of other installments of the public debt.

To carry this scheme into effect, it would be necessary to lay in the first year new taxes to the amount of $43,000, and in each of the succeeding six years, other

V.

taxes something above $100,000, amounting in the CHAPTER whole to $691,530. The application of these taxes and other funds in the way proposed would pay off by the 1792. first of January, 1802, $6,570,223 of the public debt, the interest on which, together with the above-mentioned amount of taxes and the surplus bank dividends, would constitute an annual amount of $1,210,747, sufficient to pay off the whole remainder of the six per cent, stock as fast as, according to the terms of the Funding Act, it became redeemable.

All the surplus of the existing revenue-which, after the termination of the Indian war, might be expected to be very considerable-would thus remain as a fund to meet any emergencies which the government might encounter ; and any part of it not needed for current expenses might be applied, with the proceeds of the present sinking fund, as a further aid toward the extinction of the debt.

This same report suggested the immediate payment of the loan from the bank in the way already pointed out. Hamilton's scheme for paying off the public debt proved a very bitter pill to the opposition, not only as it went to give the lie to all the clamor they had raised, that he regarded the public debt as a public blessing, and meant to saddle it forever on the country, but also because the tax he proposed for the ensuing year, toward the carrying out of his scheme, was a tax on pleasure-horses or pleasure-carriages, as Congress might elect, either of which taxes would give to those Southern gentlemen who had been so anxious to extinguish the debt an opportunity to contribute their fair share toward it.

The proposition for paying up the debt to the bank, even though it promised an annual saving to the country of a considerable sum, was strongly suspected by the op

CHAPTER position to be no better than a piece of favoritism toward V. that institution on the part of the Secretary of the Treas1792. ury at a time when the bank was pressed for money. News, also, had lately arrived that the French Convention had met, and the meeting of that body was insisted upon as a sufficient reorganization of the French government to justify the resumption of the payments to France. In fact, the opposition had resolved to prevent, if possible, any action at all in any matter of consequence at the present session, in the confident hope of securing a majority in the new Congress sufficient to give them the control of affairs.

The gradual redemption of the six per cents. and the payment of the loan to the bank were referred to two separate committees, and the committee on paying the bank presently reported a bill based on the secretary's Dec. 24. plan. When this bill came up in Committee of the Whole, Giles, in accordance with the settled tactics of the opposition, asked for delay, suggesting also the idea of paying the debt by selling the bank stock. Fitzsimmons replied that such an amount of stock thrown suddenly on the market would sink the shares below par. Clark was opposed to borrowing from foreigners; he would rather pay seven or eight per cent. to citizens than five to them. The bill having been reported to the House, Steele moved to strike out the enacting clause, being resolved, as he said, to test the question if the country was to go on in this pernicious practice of loans. It was insisted by others that no new loan was necessary, as there were already mean's on hand to pay the bank. But to this Fitzsimmons and Gerry replied that the money in the treasury was already pledged to a specific purpose, and could not be applied to any other till means had first been provided for replacing it. Williamson thought it

1

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would be unjust to the private stockholders for the gov. CHAPTER ernment to depreciate the value of the bank stock by throwing all theirs into the market; to which Madison 1792. replied that this was the first time he had ever heard it intimated that the property of the United States in the bank was unalienable. "With respect to the money appropriated, and now lying useless, he was of opinion that it ought to be immediately applied to the original purpose, to pay our debt to France. Now was the time to discharge our obligations to that country; and so far from considering the present posture of affairs in France as a reason for withholding payment, he would rather wish that the sum was wafted to them on the wings of the wind." The news just received of the repulse of the Duke of Brunswick in his march upon Paris seems to have elevated Madison a little above his usual placid level. Venable, Giles, and others doubted if the United States could save any thing by borrowing at five per cent. to pay a debt at six per cent., "taking the charges and douceurs into account;" but Fitzsimmons replied that the five per cent. included every thing. Steele's motion having been lost by a large majority, Madison moved to reduce the payment to $200,000, the sum actually due by the terms of the charter. This motion was only lost by the casting vote of the speaker; Dec. 26.

and, as the strength of the opposition was but too appar

ent, the bill was no longer pressed. It passed later in

the session in the form proposed by Madison.

In the midst of the rejoicings of the opposition at this triumph over Hamilton, Steele made a violent onslaught Dec. 28. upon the War Department. In an elaborate speech in support of a motion for reducing the army, he dwelt with great emphasis on the increase of military outlays, not without dark insinuations that the Indian war was pur