I will not presume, Sir, to criticise upon this operation, because I have no right to examine or comment upon the internal arrangements, which Congress may consider as just and profitable; and moreover I readily agree, that there may be some situations so critical as to force the best regulated and best established governments to adopt extraordinary measures to repair their finances, and put them in a condition to answer the public expenses; and this I am persuaded has been the principal reason, that induced Congress to depreciate the money, which they themselves have emitted. But while I admit, Sir, that that Assembly might have recourse to the expedient abovementioned in order to remove their load of debt, I am far from agreeing, that it is just, or agreeable to the ordinary course of things to extend the effect to strangers, as well as to citizens of the United States. On the contrary, I think it ought to be confined to Americans, and that an exception ought to be made in favor of strangers, or at least, that some means ought to be devised to indemnify them, for the losses they may suffer by the general laws. In order to make you sensible of the truth of this observation, I will only remark, Sir, that the Americans alone ought to support the expense, which is occasioned by the defence of their liberty, and that they ought to consider the depreciation of their paper money, only as an impost which ought to fall upon themselves, as the paper money was at first established only to relieve them from the necessity of paying taxes. I will only add, that the French, if they are obliged to submit to the reduction proposed by Congress, will find themselves victims of their zeal, and I may say of the rashness, with which they exposed themselves in furnishing the Americans with arms, ammunition, and clothing; and in a word, with all things of the first necessity, of which the Americans at the time stood in need. You will agree with me, Sir, that this is not what the subjects of the King ought to expect, and that after escaping the dangers of the sea, the vigilance of the English, instead of dreading to see themselves plundered in America, they ought on the contrary, to expect the thanks of Congress, and of all the Americans, and believe, that their property will be as secure and sacred in America as in France itself. It was with this persuasion, and in a reliance on public faith, that they received paper money in exchange for their merchandise, and kept that paper with a view to employ it in new speculations of commerce. The unexpected reduction of this paper overturns all their calculations at the same time that it ruins their fortune. I ask, Sir, if these consequences can induce you to believe, that this act of Congress is proper to advance the credit of the United States, to inspire a confidence in their promises, to invite the European nations to run the same risks, to which the subjects of his Majesty have exposed themselves?