UNITED STATES An Act making Provision for the Debt of the Un

Sale 1946 - Lot 380

Price Realized: $ 6,900

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 2,000 - $ 3,000

UNITED STATES. An Act making Provision for the Debt of the United States [caption title]. 4 pages, bifolium sheet; a bit tattered at edges, some soiling. [New York]: Fenno, [1790]

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Among the primary issues facing the First Congress was the repayment of debts accrued in the American Revolution. In his Report on Public Credit, Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton called for the repayment of debts to foreign countries, the funding of domestic debt and the assumption of State debts. Southern states, however, opposed the assumption of State debts (as most of it was owed by Northern states), leaving Congress deadlocked on the entire issue. This prompted Hamilton to broker the Compromise of 1790, which called for the capital of the government to be moved to the Potomac River, in exchange for the recommendations made in his report to be fulfilled. This government document is a draft of the bill organizing the repayment of foreign debt and the funding of domestic debt. This draft contains 12 sections; the eventual bill signed by Washington on 4 August 1790 contained 22 sections and included sections on the assumption of state debts. We could find only one other copy of this printing, located at the Library of Congress. Bristol 7532; Shipton & Mooney 46049. <