priated to the payment of the interest on, and the gradual discharge of, the DOMESTIC Debt, was considered.

A motion was made, which was defeated by a large majority, that the Committee should rise, preceded by an avowed hostility to funding systems; by a declaration, that the amount of the debt should be first ascertained; and, by a denial of their right to assume the State debts, as leading to enormous taxes.

To an inquiry, as to the precise purport of the Resolution before the House, one member, asking whether it contemplated a permanent Funding system, it was replied, that the object of the Resolution was, to bring before the House the plan of the Secretary of the Treasury; that the Foreign creditors were not here to make a contract with the people of the United States; but, that the Domestic Creditors were; and, that a modification of the debt might be held out to them, to be accepted with their consent. A discursive debate followed.

Livermore was against paying the amounts on the face of the certificates, they having been given for depreciated paper, for services rendered at exorbitant rates, or for supplies furnished, at more than their real worth— seeming to consider a liquidation, at half their nominal value, a compliance with justice. Scott regarded Congress in the light of arbiters. They were not bound to pay the certificates at the value they expressed. He moved, that provision should be made for the Debt, as soon as the same is ascertained and duly liquidated." This motion, which would have indefinitely postponed the subject, was regarded as evidence of a design to avoid all provision for the Domestic debt, and was powerfully resisted by several leading members. The House was reminded by Boudinot, that they were not arbiters, but parties to contracts, by which the public faith was

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