The New Hampshire Gazette And General Advertiser

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES.

MONDAY, MAY 24.

The bill for the relief of Thomas Jenkins, was read the third time, and passed the house; as did likewise the bill for giving effect to an act for the establishment of the judiciary of North-Carolina.

The petition of William Hardy and Joseph Bedford, respecting arrears of pay for counting and destroying continental money, was read and referred to the Secretary of the Treasury.

The amendments proposed by the Senate to the resolutions, respecting arrears of pay due to the Virginia and North-Carolina troops, were taken into consideration by the House, and concurred in.

The order of the day was then called for, in committee of the whole on the funding bill: Mr. Seney in the chair.

The 8th, 10th, and 11th clauses being read, several amendments were proposed, but none of them were agreed to.

The 12th section, respecting the commissioners to be appointed in each of the states: Mr. Steele moved that the place of residence of such of those commissioners should be inserted in the bill.

This motion was not agreed to.

Mr. Williamson then moved, that so much of the last clause of the 12th section be struck out, as respects the clerks to be appointed under the commissioners. This was agreed to by a large majority.

Mr. Gerry submitted the following as an amendment to the bill:

"AND whereas a provision for the debts of the respective States, by the United States, would be greatly conducive to an orderly, economical and efficient arrangement of the public finances; would tend to an equal distribution of burdens among the citizens of the several States; would promote more general justice to the different classes of public creditors; and would serve to give additional stability to public credit: And whereas the said debts having been essentially contracted in the prosecution of the late war, it is just that such provision should be made.

"Be it therefore further enacted, That a loan be also proposed to the amount of the said debts, and that subscriptions to the said loan be received at the same times and places, by the same persons, upon the same terms, and with the same options to the subscribers, as in respect to the loan above proposed, concerning the domestic debt of the United States, subject to the exceptions and qualifications hereafter declared.

"And be it further enacted, That the sums which shall be subscribed to the said loan, shall be payable in the principal and interest of the certificates, which, prior to the first day of January last, were issued by the respective States, as acknowledgments or evidences of debts, by them respectively owing; and which shall appear by oath, or in regard to a known Quaker, by affirmation, to have been the property of an individual or individuals, or body politic, other than a State, on the said first day of January last. Provided,

That no greater sum shall be received, in the certificates of any States, than as follows, that is to say;

[Here the States were mentioned, blanks left for the sums.]

"And provided, That no such certificates shall be received, which, from the tenor thereof, or from any public record, act or document, shall appear, or can be ascertained to have been issued for any purpose, other than compensations and expenditures for services or supplies, towards the prosecution of the late war, and the defence of the United States, or of some part thereof, during the same.

"And be it further enacted. That the interest upon the certificates which shall be received in payment of the sums subscribed towards the said loan, shall be computed to the last day of the year one thousand seven hundred and ninety one, inclusively: and that the interest upon the stock which shall be created by virtue of the said loan, shall commence or begin to accrue upon the first day of the year one thousand seven hundred and ninety two, and shall be payable quarter yearly, at the same times, and in like manner, as the interest on the stock to be created by virtue of the said loan, in the domestic debt of the United States. Provided always, That the interest on one third of the respective sums, which may be subscribed according to the last of the three options or alternatives upon which subscriptions may be made as aforesaid, shall not commence or begin to accrue until the first day of the year one thousand seven hundred and ninety nine.

And be it further enacted, That if the whole of the sum allowed to be subscribed, in the debt or certificates of any State as aforesaid, shall not be subscribed within the time for that purpose limited, such State shall be entitled to receive, and shall receive from the United States, at the rate of four per centum per annum, upon so much of the said sum, as shall not have been so subscribed, in trust, for the non subscribing creditors of such State, to be paid in like manner as the interest on the stock, which may be created by virtue of the said loan: and to continue until there shall be a settlement of accounts between the United States and the individual States: and in case a balance shall then appear in favour of such State until provision shall be made for the said balance.

"But as certain States have respectively issued their own certificates, in exchange for those of the United States, whereby it might happen, that interest might be twice payable on the same sums.

Be it therefore further enacted, That the payment of interest, whether to States or to individuals, in respect to the debt of any State, by which such exchange shall have been made, shall be suspended, until it shall appear to the satisfaction of Congress that certificates issued for that purpose, by such State, have been re-exchanged or redeemed, or until those which shall not have been re-exchanged or redeemed, shall be surrendered to the United States.

And be it further enacted, That the faith of the United States, be, and the same is hereby pledged to make provision, before the third of March, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-one for payment of interest on the amount of the stock arising from subscriptions to the said loan, upon the like principles with the provision herein before expressed, touching the loan, to be made in the said domestic debt of the United States; and also for the payment of the said four per cent. per annum, on so much of said debts of the respective States, as shall remain unsubscribed to said loan.

"And be it further enacted, That so much of the debt of each State as shall be subscribed to the said loan, shall be a charge against such State in account with the United States.

And be it further enacted, That the commissioners to be appointed as aforesaid, shall have the like powers and authorities, and shall perform the like services and duties in respect to the said last mentioned loan, as in respect to the one first above proposed, relatively to the said domestic debt of the United States."

A strong opposition was made to the motion, was not decided upon this day.