University of Virginia Library

MONDAY, 27 JANY. 1783.

A letter from Genl. Washington was recd. notifying the death
of Lord Stirling & inclosing a report of the Officer sent to apprehend
Knowlton and Wells.

The following is an extract from the report: "He (one Israel
Smith) further sd. that Knowlton & Wells had recd. a letter from
Jonathan Arnold, Esqr. at Congress part of which was made public,
which informed them that affairs in Congress were unfavorable
to them & wd. have them to look out for themselves. What
other information this letter contained he cd. not say. I found
in my March thro' the State that the last mentioned Gentleman
was much in favor with all the principal men in that State I had
any conversation with."

Mr. Arnold being present at the reading informed Congress
that he was surprised how such a notion should have prevailed
with respect to him; that he had never held any correspondence
with either Knowlton or Wells, and requested that he might be
furnished with ye. extract above. In this he was indulged without
opposition. But it was generally considered notwithstanding
his denial of the correspondence, that he had at least at second
hand, conveyed ye. intelligence to Vermont.

A long petition was read, signed as alledged by near two thousand
inhabitants (but all in the same handwriting) of the territory
lately in controversy between Pa. & Va., complaining of the grievances
to which their distance from public authority exposed
them & particularly of a late law of Pena. interdicting even consultations
about a new State within its limits; and praying that
Congress wd. give a sanction to their independence & admit them
into the Union. The Petition lay on the table without a single
motion or remark relative to it.

The order of the day was called for, to wit the Resolution of
saturday last in favor of adequate & substantial funds.

The subject was introduced by Mr. Wilson with some judicious
remarks on its importance & the necessity of a thorough &
serious discussion of it. He observed that the U. States had in
the course of the revolution displayed both an unexampled activity
in resisting the enemy, and an unexampled patience under the
losses & calamities occasioned by the war. In one point only he
said they had appeared to be deficient & that was a cheerful
payment of taxes. In other free Govts. it had been seen that
taxation had been carried further & more patiently borne than
in States where the people were excluded from the Govts.. The
people considering themselves as the sovereign as well as the
subject; & as receiving with one hand what they paid with the
other. The peculiar repugnance of the people of the U. S. to
taxes he supposed proceeded first from the odious light in which
they have been under the old Govt., in the habit of regarding
them; 2dly., from the direct manner in wch. taxes in this country
had been laid; whereas in all other countries taxes were paid in
a way that was little felt at the time. That it could not proceed
altogether from inability he said must be obvious: Nay that the

ability of the U. S. was equal to the public burden might be demonstrated.
According to calculations of the best writers the inhabitants
of G. B. paid before the present war at the annual rate
of at least 25s Sterlg. per head. According to like calculations
the inhabitants of the U. S. before the revolution paid indirectly
& insensibly at the rate of at least 10s Sterlg. per head. According
to the computed depreciation of the paper emissions, the
burden insensibly borne by the inhabitants of the U. S. had
amounted during the first three or four years of the war to not
less than twenty Millions of dollars per annum, a burden too
which was the more oppressive as it fell very unequally on the
people. An inability therefore could not be urged as a plea for
the extreme deficiency of the revenue contributed by the States,
which did not amount during the past year, to 1/2 a Million of dollars,
that is to 1/6 of a dollar per head. Some more effectual mode
of drawing forth the resources of the Country was necessary. That
in particular it was necessary that such funds should be established
as would enable Congress to fulfill those engagements which they
had been enabled to enter into. It was essential he contended
that those to whom was delegated the power of making war &
peace should in some way or other have the means of effectuating
these objects; that as Congress had been under the necessity of
contracting a large debt justice required that such funds should
be placed in their hands as would discharge it; that such funds
were also necessary for carrying on the war; and as Congress
found themselves in their present situation destitute both of the
faculty of paying debts already contracted, and of providing
for future exigencies, it was their duty to lay that situation
before their constitutents; and at least to come to an éclaircissement
on the subject,[35] he remarked that the establisht. of certain
funds for payg. wd. set afloat the public paper; adding that a public
debt resting on general funds would operate as a cement to the
confederacy, and might contribute to prolong its existence, after
the foreign danger ceased to counteract its tendency to dissolution.
He concluded with moving that it be Resold..

"That it is the opinion of Congress that complete justice
cannot be done to the Creditors of the United States, nor the
restoration of public credit be effected, nor the future exigencies
of the war provided for, but by the establishment of general funds
to be collected by Congress."

This motion was seconded by Mr. Fitzsimmons. Mr. Bland
desired that Congress wd. before the discussion proceeded farther
receive a communication of sundry papers transmitted to the Virga.

Delegates by the Executive of that State; two of which had relation
to the question before Congress. These were 1st., a Resolution
of the Gen1. Assembly declaring its inability to pay more than
£50.000 Va. currency towards complying with the demands of
Congress. 2dly. the Act repealing the Act granting the impost of 5
Per Ct. These papers were received and read.

Mr. Wolcot expressed some astonishment at the inconsistency
of these two acts of Va.; supposed that they had an unfavorable
aspect on the business before Congress; & proposed that the
latter sd. be postponed for the present. He was not seconded.

Mr. Ghoram favored the general idea of the motion, animadverting
on the refusal of Virga. to contribute the necessary sums &

at the same moment repealing her conCurrence in the only
scheme that promised to supply a deficiency of contributions. He
thought the motion however inaccurately expressed, since the
word "general" might be understood to refer to every possible
object of taxation as well as to the operation of a particular tax
through [out] the States. He observed that the non-payment of
the 1,200,000 Drs. demanded by Congress for paying the interest of
the debts for the year—demonstrated that the constitutional
mode of annual requisitions was defective; he intimated that
lands were already sufficiently taxed [&] that polls & commerce
were the most proper objects. At his instance the latter part of
the motion was so amended as to run "establishment of permanent
& adequate funds to operate generally throughout the U. States."

Mr. Hamilton went extensively into the subject; the sum of it
was as follows he observed that funds considered as permanent
sources of revenue were of two kinds 1st. Such as would extend
generally & uniformly throughout the U. S., & wd. be collected
under the authority of Congs. 2dly., such as might be established
separately within each State, & might consist of any objects which
were chosen by the States, and might be collected either under
the authority of the States or of Congs. Funds of the 1st. kind he
contended were preferable; as being 1st., more simple, the difficulties
attending the mode of fixing the quotas laid down in the
Confederation rendering it extremely complicated & in a manner
insuperable; 2dly., as being more certain: since the States according
to the secd. plan wd. probably retain the collection of the revenue,
and a vicious system of collection prevailed generally
throughout the U. S. a system by which the collectors were chosen
by the people & made their offices more subservient to their popularity
than to the public revenue; 3d., as being more economical
Since the collection would be effected with fewer officers under
the management of Congress than under that of the States.

Mr. Ghoram observed that Mr. Hamilton was mistaken in the
representation he had given of the collection of taxes in several
of the States; particularly in that of Massachusetts; where the
collection was on a footing which rendered it sufficiently certain.
Mr. Wilson having risen to explain some things which had fallen
from him; threw out the suggestion that several branches of the

Revenue if yielded by all the States, would perhaps be more just
& satisfactory than any single one; for example An impost on
trade combined with a land tax.

Mr. Dyer expressed a strong dislike to a Collection by officers
appointed under Congress & supposed the States would never be
brought to consent to it.

Mr. Ramsay was decidedly in favor of the proposition. Justice
he said entitled those who had lent their money & services to the
U. S. to look to them for payment; that if general & certain revenues
were not provided, the consequence wd. be that the army &
public Creditors would have soon to look to their respective
States only for satisfaction; that the burden in this case wd. fall unequally
on the States; that rivalships relative to trade wd. impede
a regular impost & would produce confusion amg. the States; that
some of the States would never make of themselves provision for
half pay and that the army wd. be so far defrauded of the rewards
stipulated to them by Congress; that altho it might be uncertain
whether the States wd. accede to plans founded on ye. proposition
before the house, yet as Congress was convinced of its truth &
importance it was their duty to make the experiment.

Mr. Bland thought that the ideas of the States on the subject
were so averse to a general revenue in the hands of Congs. that if
such a revenue were proper it was unattainable; that as the deficiency
of the contributions from the States proceeded, not from
their complaints of their inability[36] but of the inequality of the apportionments,
it would be a wiser course to pursue the rule of the
Confederation, to-wit to ground the requisition on an actual valuation
of lands; that Congress wd. then stand on firm ground &
try a practicable mode.