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DECLINE AND FALL
[BOOK II.
value of the domestic debt sunk down to about one tenth of its nominal amount.[1]
§ 258. In February, 1786, congress determined to make another and last appeal to the states upon the subject. The report adopted upon that occasion contains a melancholy picture of the state of the nation. "In the course of this inquiry (said the report) it most clearly appeared, that the requisitions of congress for eight years past have been so irregular in their operation, so uncertain in their collection, and so evidently unproductive, that a reliance on them in future, as a source, from whence monies are to be drawn to discharge the engagements of the confederation, definite as they are in time and amount, would be no less dishonourable to the understandings of those, who entertained such confidence, than it would be dangerous to the welfare and peace of the Union." "It has become the duty of congress to declare most explicitly, that the crisis has arrived, when the the people of these United States, by whose will and for whose benefit the federal government was instituted, must decide, whether they will support their rank, as a nation, by maintaining the public faith at home or abroad; or whether, for want of a timely exertion in establishing a general revenue, and thereby giving strength to the confederacy, they will hazard, not only the existence of the Union, but of those great and invaluable privileges, for which they have so arduously and so honourably contended."[2] After the adoption of this report, three states, which had hitherto stood aloof, came into the measure. New-York alone
