The Public Debt. 17 



tion (Section 6). The amount apportioned to each state was to be 

 compared with its already ascertained balance and the difference 

 carried to a new account on the debit or credit side as the case 

 might be (Section 5). Oliver Wolcott, the first comptroller of public 

 accounts in Connecticut and afterward secretary of the treasury of 

 the United States, had advised Connecticut to urge such a measure as 

 this. As he had been a member of the committee of the pay table 

 and also one of the commissioners to settle the accounts between 

 Connecticut and the United States, his judgment is of prime interest 

 and importance. In a report to the general assembly at its May 

 session, 1787, he said that from all the information he had been able 

 to get, he had formed the opinion that a settlement of the public 

 accounts would operate to the advantage of Connecticut. He also ex- 

 pressed his belief that it would be expedient for thestate "to urge that 

 the rule of apportioning the public expense be speedily settled." ^ 

 The method of setthng the balance due to any state to which 

 the federal government was a debtor after deducting the appor- 

 tioned quota was as follows: the state was entitled, within a year 

 after being credited with a balance, to a certificate bearing six per 

 cent interest annually, payable quarterly, and subject to redemption 

 at the rate of two per cent of its face value annually, for two-thirds 

 of the amount of the credited balance; for the other third of this 

 balance, the state was entitled to a certificate which, after the year 

 1800, would bear six per cent interest annually, payable quarterly 

 and subject to similar redemption (Section 7). These certificates 

 received in payment of the balances were to be non-transferable, 

 The commissioners appointed by the above described act, having 

 completed their appointed task, made a report in which Connecticut 

 is credited with $619, 121. ^ In an act approved May 31, 1794, con- 

 gress provided that interest at four per cent from January 1, 1790, 

 to January 1, 1795, should be paid on the balances found due to the 

 states by the commissioners.^ This interest was to be paid in certif- 

 icates bearing three per cent interest annually and payable quar- 

 terly. In accordance with these conditions, the following amounts 

 were placed to the credit of Connecticut in the books of the United 

 States commissioner of loans: $412,747.34 of six per cent stock and 

 $206,373.66 of deferred six per cent stock, making a total of $619,121, 

 the balance reported by the commissioner to be due to the state; 



^ Comptroller's Report (Ms.), May 1787. 



2 Compt. Report, May 1794, p. 1. 



^ Acts of Third Congress, first session, chap. 37. 



Trans. Conn. Ac.^d.. Vol. XVII. 2 March, 1912. 



