STATE OF DELAWARE 389 



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gress any particular advantage or rank beyond their 

 fellow-citizens ; nor can such posts be said to be very 

 lucrative, the allowances granted by the state, exclusive 

 of travelling costs, amounting scarcely to I Pd. ster- 

 ling a day. However, an election to the Congress is 

 always honorable in itself, and after retirement re- 

 mains a glorious memory, proof of the regard and con- 

 fidence which one's fellow-citizens have for his capac- 

 ities and zeal of service. The Deputies to the Con- 

 gress are chosen from the Provincial Assemblies, the 

 number from each state being proportioned to its size, 

 the extent of its business and influence, but this may 

 not be less than two, nor more than seven. Whatever 

 the number of the Deputies from a state, they have to- 

 gether but one vote in the Congress, where the smallest 

 deciding vote is seven against six ; they must decide 

 among themselves, by a majority of votes, regarding 

 the affairs of their state in relation to the Congress and 

 as regards the party in the Congress they think it salu- 

 tary to support, provided they have not received defi- 

 nite orders as to their conduct, but this is generally the 

 case. 



Nothing has so much damaged faith in the Congress, 

 or so diminished regard for it, even among its friends 

 and constituents, and nothing has caused more general 

 and bitter indignation against it, than the debts heaped 

 by it upon the states, and especially the woful after- 

 pains left by the paper-money issued under its war- 

 rant, which (with the hard regulations adopted in 

 support of its continually lessening credit) has sorrily 

 been the occasion of the loss of a great part or all of 

 the property of so many once prosperous families and 

 individuals. In vain the Congress offers in excuse that 



