349
1 . the army debt ; 2. the loan office debt ; 3. the liquidated debt ; and 4. the unliquidated debt. The first term includes debts to the officers and soldiers for pay, bounty and subsistence. The second term means monies put into the loan office of the United Slates. The third comprehends all debts contracted by quarter masters, commissaries, and others duly authorised to pro cure supplies for the army, and which have been liquidated (that is, settled) by commissioners appointed under the resolution of Congress, of June the 12th, 1780, or by the officer who made the contract. The fourth comprehends the whole mass of debts, de scribed in the preceding article, which have not yet been liqui dated. These are in a course of liquidation, and are passing over daily into the third class. The debts of this third class, that is, the liquidated debt, is the object of your inquiry. No time is fixed for the payment of it, no fund as yet determined, nor any firm provision for the interest in the mean time. The consequence is* that the certificates of these debts sell greatly below par. When I left America, they could be bought for, from two shillings and sixpence to fifteen shillings, in the pound : this difference pro ceeding from the circumstance, of some States having provided for paying the interest on those due in their own State, which others had not. Hence, an opinion had arisen with some, and proposi tions had even been made in the legislatures, for paying off the principal of these debts with what they had cost the holder, and interest on that. This opinion is far from being general, and I think will not prevail. But it is among possible events.
I have been thus particular, that you might be able to judge, not only in the present case, but also in others, should any attempts be made to speculate in your city, on these papers. It is a business, in which foreigners will be in great danger of being duped. It is a science which bids defiance to the powers of reason. To un derstand it, a man must not only be on the spot, and be perfectly possessed of all the circumstances relative to every species of these papers, but he must have that dexterity which the habit of buying and selling them, alone gives. The brokers of these certificates are few in number, and any other person venturing to deal with them, engages in a very unequal contest.
I have the honor to be, with the highest respect, gentlemen, your most obedient humble servant,
TH: JEFFERSON.
