Dr. Douglas says that Massachusetts had at one time "old tenor, middle tenor, new tenor first, new tenor second." Rhode Island had an indefinite number of tenors. All sorts of opprobrious epithets were heaped upon them. They were called invidious statutes, old, worn, torn, tattered, shattered, ragged, mutilated, defaced, obliterated, illegible and "unfit to pass." The depreciation of the Colonial bills varied in the different colonies. In Massachusetts the maximum depreciation was 11 for 1 (the standard being "proclamation money"). In Connecticut it was 8 for 1. In 1763, the value of the New Hampshire shilling was a little less than a half penny; in 1771, it vanished altogether. Rhode Island owed tenor bills in 1770 that were worth 26 to 1. Those of North Carolina were 10 for 1; of South Carolina 7 for 1. Here is Mr. White's graphic description of the times: "The pamphlets and records of the colonial period are filled with accounts of the distress and demoralization caused by depreciated paper made legal tender. As all loans were so payable, the accumulations of age, and the inheritance of orphans dwindled. So, too, did the earnings of the wageworker. In order to avoid the losses from a depreciating standard of value, resort was had by working men to 'store pay,' and here they were generally cheated. Trustees and executors, who had money in their hands which belonged to other people, and who saw how things were going, often postponed the payment on frivolous pretext, since each delay enabled them to settle their accounts with less value, thus devouring widows' houses. Not only was bad blood stirred up by the resistance of the Royal Governors, but a spirit of lawlessness was engendered against the local assemblies, if they showed a disposition to resist the demands of the _green-backers_ of that day. Even after the revolution the legislature of New Hampshire was mobbed because it refused to legal tender bills. One of the demands of Shays' rebellion in Massachusetts was for more paper money. In Rhode Island, after the revolution, a general system of repudiation of debts, public and private, was undertaken, and carried through by means of legal tender paper in spite of the decisions of her courts." However bad these colonial bills of credit proved to be, if it were possible those of the revolutionary period were still worse. Even before the Continental Congress assembled the separate colonies began to issue Bills of Credit. When the Continental Congress met in June, 1775, Franklin urged that the bills should bear interest, in order to prevent depreciation. He even urged that the interests should be payable in "hard dollars," but this was voted impracticable.