588. ASSUMPTION OF STATE DEBTS, Payment by States.—
With respect
to the increase of the debt by the Assumption, I
observed to him [Washington] that what was
meant and objected to was, that it increased the
debt of the General Government, and carried it
beyond the possibility of payment; that if the
balances had been settled, and the debtor States
directed to pay their deficiencies to the creditor
States, they would have done it easily, and by
resources of taxation in their power, and acceptable
to the people; by a direct tax in the
South, and an excise in the North.—
The Anas. Washington ed. ix, 118.
Ford ed., i, 200.
(July. 1792)
