University of Virginia Library

2057. DEBT (United States), Interest.—

I once thought that in the event of a war
we should be obliged to suspend paying the
interest of the public debt. But a dozen years
more of experience and observation on our
people and government, have satisfied me
it will never be done. The sense of the necessity
of public credit is so universal and so
deeply rooted, that no other necessity will prevail
against it.—
To William Short. Washington ed. vi, 401.
(M. Nov. 1814)