350 TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION 



be the payment of debts owed British merchants. The 

 current opinions in this regard are as different as dif- 

 ferent interests, and disposition or aversion to Eng- 

 land, can make them. There were those who plausibly 

 sought to show that the payment of debts contracted 

 under the old government cannot justly be demanded 

 now under the new, and that all debts except those 

 made for the Revolution are to be regarded as ex- 

 tinguished. For by the Revolution the old form of 

 government, and everything dependent on it, has been 

 co ipso annulled, done away with, and made of no 

 effect ; the political constitution is transformed, and 

 the people have therefore ceased to be what they 

 formerly were ; the obligations of debtors to their 

 creditors, existent under the old government, must 

 therefore cease to be valid and lawfully binding. But 

 under the new constitution of the state there arise 

 new social rights, under which each debtor is con- 

 firmed in the exemption become effective through the 

 abolishment of the old constitution. The senseless 

 and conscienceless nature of these propositions needs 

 neither explanation nor contradiction, but much pains 

 have been taken to establish their validity and to 

 spread them abroad for acceptance through news- 

 papers and special pamphlets. It is always unpleasant 

 to pay old debts, and it is plainly enough to be ob- 

 served that all the reasons are being diligently sought 

 out why the obligation should be set aside. The only 

 members of the next Assembly, of whom it is to be ex- 

 pected that they will vote for the payment of the 

 British debts, are the members for the city of Balti- 

 more ; it will certainly be incumbent upon them to 

 press the settlement of the old debts, because otherwise 



