His patriotic zeal in lending money to the National
Government in her hour of need now bade fair to ruin him. The veteran
of the Revolutionary War carried his half-pay certificate to the
money-lender, glad to get even five shillings in the pound for it.
Holders of various forms of State indebtedness besieged their State
authorities for payment, rapidly approaching a point where they would
welcome any agency which would get them their due.
According to Madison, the Continental Congress had chosen such an
unseasonable date as the first Wednesday in March for beginning the
new Government in the hope of levying a duty at once which would catch
the spring importations of goods from Europe. It was this purpose which
brought him to his feet in the House of Representatives on the eighth
day of the first session to introduce a subject which he declared to
be of the first magnitude, and one that required their first attention
and their united exertions. This was the deficiency in the national
treasury. For a remedy, he had chosen an impost on certain imported
goods.
Fortunately, an impost was not a novelty requiring time and instruction
to secure.
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