Alexander Hamilton Papers

Continental Congress Motion that the Duties Imposed by the United States be Coexistent with the Public Debt, [11 March 1783]

Continental Congress
Motion that the Duties Imposed by the United States
be Coexistent with the Public Debt

[Philadelphia, March 11, 1783]

A motion was made by Mr. Hamilton and Mr. Wilson to strike out the limitation of 25 years and to make the revenue co-existent with the debts.1

“Notes of Debates in the Continental Congress,” MS, James Madison Papers, Library of Congress.

1. On March 6, 1783, Congress took up a committee report on the means of restoring the public credit and securing from the several states adequate funds for funding the debt of the United States. The report recommended that the states give Congress power to levy a five percent duty on imports, the same duty on all prizes condemned in the court of admiralty, and specific duties on various enumerated articles. The duties were to be imposed for no longer than twenty-five years (See JCC description begins Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789 (Washington, 1904–1937). description ends , XXIV, 170–73). H had made the same motion in a committee of the whole on February 19. The motion, according to Madison, was lost.

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    Hamilton Papers
    Title
    Continental Congress Motion that the Duties Imposed by the United States be Coexistent with the Public Debt, [11 March 1783]
    Authors
    Hamilton, Alexander
    Continental Congress
    Date
    11 March 1783

    Reference

    Cite as
    “Continental Congress Motion that the Duties Imposed by the United States be Coexistent with the Public Debt, [11 March 1783],” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/01-03-02-0177. [Original source: The Papers of Alexander Hamilton, vol. 3, 1782–1786, ed. Harold C. Syrett. New York: Columbia University Press, 1962, p. 285.]