In the bill for funding and paying these, Hamilton
made no difference between the original holders, and the fraudulent
purchasers of this paper. Great and just repugnance arose at putting
these two classes of creditors on the same footing, and great exertions
were used to pay the former the full value, and to the latter, the price
only which they had paid, with interest. But this would have prevented
the game which was to be played, and for which the minds of greedy
members were already tutored and prepared. When the trial of strength,
on these several efforts, had indicated the form in which the bill would
finally pass, this being known within doors sooner than without, and
especially, than to those who were in distant parts of the Union,
the base scramble began. Couriers and relay-horses by land, and
swift-sailing pilot-boats by sea, were flying in all directions. Active
partners and agents were associated and employed in every State,
town, and country neighborhood, and this paper was bought up at five
shillings, and even as low as two shillings in the pound, before the
holder knew that Congress had already provided for its redemption at
par. Immense sums were thus filched from the poor and ignorant, and
fortunes accumulated by those who had themselves been poor enough
before. Men thus enriched by the dexterity of a leader, would follow of
course the chief who was leading them to fortune, and become the zealous
instruments of all his enterprises.
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