You will observe, Sir, that it is earnestly recommended to the several Legislatures, duly to empower and authorise the United States, in Congress assembled, to make a final settlement of the proportions to be borne by each respective State, of the general expenses of the war, from the commencement thereof, until the 1st day of January, 1782. An immediate compliance with this recommendation is of infinite importance to the Union, as it is also to each of the States. No determination of quotas, which Congress can at this time possibly make, will create a difference for or against any State equal to the expense, which will arise either by disputing its quota, or by delaying to have it fixed. If Congress are now empowered, they must be determined by general principles, and if the decision is delayed ever so long, general principles must at last be resorted to, and that after large sums shall have been expended by each of the Governments, in attempting to ascertain their respective numbers of inhabitants, value of property, quantity of lands, annual income, &c. The returns on these points severally, cannot be made with certainty and exactitude _as to the time past_, and therefore they will only afford more ample field for disputation; disputes, which if the cause be not removed by a compliance with the present requisition, may probably deprive us of the blessings of peace after the war with Great Britain shall cease. I do not think it necessary to detail the reasons, which induced Congress to adopt this measure, but I cannot help observing, that it is to the want of a decision on this point, that the languor and want of exertion of the several States are to be attributed. That fatal assertion that each has done most, which each has made and repeated, until it has gained but too much credit, would never have obtained a place in the minds of men, who really love their country and cause, had the requisitions of Congress been made annually for money, and the quotas fixed finally at the date of the demand. The compliances of each would in that case have determined their respective merits or demerits; we should then have seen a competition the very reverse of that which has for some time past prevailed; and it is not yet too late. Let us settle the accounts of the past expenditures, adjust the shares which each State has to pay, but let the settlement be final, or we do nothing. And if on the requisition of men and money for this, and for future years, the quotas be finally fixed, and the compliances be made publicly known, we shall banish that distrust, which I am sorry to say now exists between the States, and in place thereof excite the noble ardor, which animated our conduct in the commencement of the contest. The strife will then be which shall be foremost in contributing their share to the support of that war, on the success of which depends the political existence of all.