20 The Financial History of Connecticut. 



icates had been made in the hmitation acts of October, 1798, and 

 May, 1799, and that consequently none had been presented for 

 registration. He suggested that the legislature might pass an act 

 exempting Imlay's certificates from the operation of the last precluding 

 act, which suggestion was followed. As a result of these three acts, 

 the amount of debt written off from the accounts was $21,461.70. 

 There was no injustice in this action. In the first place, ample time 

 had been given for the state creditors to register their debt ; sec- 

 ondly, it is probable that nearly all of the above amount had been 

 lost or destroyed^; and lastly, the general assembly, by special acts, 

 afterward allowed certain claims to be added to the registered debt, 

 even though by the limitation acts they had been precluded. The 

 amounts so allowed were small and this fact strengthens the prob- 

 ability that most of the debt precluded was non-existent. Thus 

 within a period of eleven years, without the levying of a tax or the 

 payment of cash from the treasury, the state debt had been dimin- 

 ished from over two and a quarter million dollars to about sixteen 

 thousand dollars. This was accomplished, as has been already shown, 

 in three ways; (1) through collection of old taxes; (2) by assumption 

 by federal government of $1,600,000; and (3) by the transfer of 

 $374,519.53 of United States stock credited to the state on the books 

 of the treasurer of the United States. 



6. Specie Payment. 

 In the May session of 1800 the general assembly made provision 

 for paying this debt in specie. ^ In conformity with this act $5,647 

 was thus paid in the first year ; and during the next four years $6,453 

 more was paid, leaving only $5,326.93 unpaid April 30, 1805. During 

 the next six years additional payments still further reduced the debt 

 to $3,266.99. For all practical purposes this discharged the debt, 

 as will be seen when the subject of the public debt in the second 

 period is treated. From 1811 until 1818 the amount paid on the 

 debt was only three hundred twenty-two dollars, a sum insufficient 

 to cover the interest, and accordingly on April 10, 1818, the comp- 

 troller's account showed that the debt had increased to $3,312,90. 



Compt. Report (Ms.), Oct. 1800. 



Compt. Report (Ms.), Oct. 1800, Account No. 1. 



