‘I made a copy of it,’ she said.
She reached down for her purse and took out several sheets of folded paper.
‘It’s from the report of the proceedings. God only knows how accurate any of this is,’ she added. ‘They didn’t have recording devices then, and it sounds as though it was going on at quite a pace. But this is what they wrote down.’
She unfolded the sheets, and moved her chair next to mine, so that we could read together.
House of Representatives
The 9th Day of February, 1790
Debate on the Public Credit
THE SPEAKER: Order! I will have order, Gentlemen!
VARIOUS MEMBERS: We will not pay! No gold for the Leeches! etc. etc.
THE SPEAKER: Order, I say! If there is no order, I will suspend the sitting and clear the House. Order! You will come to order, Gentlemen. Mr Secretary, you may continue, if you please, but on your request, I will adjourn the debate.
THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY (MR HAMILTON): No, Mr Speaker. We have weighty matters to resolve. Let us continue. Gentlemen, you have been provided with my report on the public credit. If you have questions, I will do my best to answer them. I ask only the courtesy that you do so one at a time.
Laughter.
THE SPEAKER: The Gentleman from South Carolina, Mr Butler, is recognised.
MR BUTLER: Thank you, Mr Speaker. Mr Secretary, I understand from your report that you propose to pay in full every loan certificate presented to the Treasury. I would be interested to know how you propose to do so in the light of our present circumstances.
Laughter, shouts.
THE SPEAKER: Order!
MR BUTLER: I would further ask, sir, how you dare to pay those speculators who purchased loan certificates at a discount from the poor after the war, and who now demand payment on terms equal to those afforded to the original lenders. They are leeches, sir, parasites. I say they shall have nothing.
VARIOUS MEMBERS: Hear, hear!
MR HAMILTON: The Honourable Gentleman has raised questions of the utmost importance.
VARIOUS MEMBERS: He has indeed! Answer! etc. etc.
MR HAMILTON: If I am afforded the opportunity, I will answer to the best of my ability. As to how we shall pay, I confess that I know not. We have too little gold to pay in full the debts owed to every man who has presented his certificate to the Treasury. But I have this faith: that these United States will not forever be in penury. We will be strong, and as and when we can, we will pay our debt in full. As to the Honourable Gentleman’s second question, I am of opinion that we must pay in full even those whom he has rightly described as leeches and parasites.
VARIOUS MEMBERS: Never! He must resign! They shall have nothing!
MR HAMILTON: I will be heard…
VARIOUS MEMBERS: Resign, sir.
THE SPEAKER: Order! Enough! I will clear the House.
MR HAMILTON: No, Mr Speaker. I will account for myself. I will be heard, Gentlemen. I share the feelings of the House about these men. When Congress appealed for the means to fight against our enemies, many patriots gave their all. We all agree that these patriots must be repaid on presentation of their certificates. What, then, of those base men who bought certificates speculatively, thinking to live off the blood of the patriots? Gentlemen, this is no easy question.
A MEMBER: I find it to be easy enough, sir.
MR HAMILTON: Then, sir, you are mistaken. Firstly, I say this: I say that our hope of future credit requires that all be repaid in full. If it be seen abroad that we cannot, or will not, repay our debts, I doubt that any nation will long trade with us or furnish us with credit.
But there is another consideration I esteem as far more important. The repayment of this debt is guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States. By this standard, we are allowed to make no distinction, since the Constitution applies to all alike.
Gentlemen, this opinion gains further strength from the nature of our debt. The faith of America has been repeatedly pledged for it. This debt was not contracted as the price of bread or wine or arms. It was the price of liberty.
We looked at each other.
‘What do you think?’ she asked.
I looked down at the page again, and felt tears welling up in my eyes.
‘I think Alexander Hamilton wrote the third section of my brief,’ I replied.
‘I’m not getting it yet,’ Sam said.
I walked over to my bookcase and took down a volume I should probably have read more often during my legal studies. It’s surprising how the most basic principles can be overlooked amid the din of modern law practice with its endless deadlines, and procedural rules, and local rules, and all the other minutiae without which we apparently find it impossible now to resolve legal disputes. But with all the crap we’ve imposed on the laws designed to protect us, there are still some enduring anchors to keep us from floating away on a tide of technicality, if we will only allow ourselves to hold on fast to them.
‘This is what Hamilton was talking about,’ I said, opening the book at the page I knew I needed. ‘It’s the first paragraph of Article Six of the Constitution.’
I read it aloud.
‘All Debts contracted and Engagements entered into before the Adoption of this Constitution shall be as valid against the United States under this Constitution as under the Confederation.’
Sam nodded.
‘That’s it. That’s what he was saying. They actually guaranteed the debt – Jacob’s debt – in the Constitution.’
‘Exactly, and Hamilton knew, even before the Supreme Court spelled it out, that the Constitution prevails over any contrary law. So there was no way to avoid it. There was no law they could enact to shut the speculators out. The government had to pay them, whether they wanted to or not.’
‘Connect it up for me,’ Sam said. ‘How does that help us now?’
‘The Constitution still prevails over any contrary law,’ I replied. ‘That hasn’t changed since 1790. So what if we argue that the statute of limitations is a contrary law? They can’t shut Jacob out any more than they could shut out the speculators.’
‘The government can’t use the statute to defeat a claim guaranteed by the Constitution,’ she smiled.
‘That has to be an argument. Congress can pass any statute of limitations it wants, but Jacob still has a valid claim, and on the face of it, Article Six of the Constitution says that the war debt is valid without any limitation of time. Any judge who throws this case out because of the statute of limitations is effectively repealing Article Six of the Constitution.’ I smiled. ‘Judge Morrow will have to think long and hard before he does that.’
She screamed and hugged me.
‘Kiah, does this mean we’re going to win on Monday?’
We held each other for several moments. My heart was racing. I desperately tried to focus on what we had discovered. I sensed that Sam had made a vital breakthrough, but I still needed to keep my feet on the ground. I still needed to work out exactly what it meant.
‘Not quite so fast,’ I said. ‘We still have to think this through.’
‘Think what through? If –’
‘The debt is valid, yes, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that the government has to provide a remedy for collecting it, and if they do, maybe they can still attach conditions to using the remedy.’
‘Such as a statute of limitations?’
‘Maybe.’
She sighed and shook her head.
‘But how can they say the debt is valid, but then not give us a way to collect it? It doesn’t make sense.’
I smiled.
‘That’s what they’ll have to explain to the court. It’s not a guarantee that we’ll win, Sam, but the government’s case just got a lot harder to argue.’
‘We have a chance after all?’
‘We have a definite chance, particularly when you consider what else Hamilton said about the war debt: he said it was the price of liberty. When you put it that way, any judge is going to think twice about dismissing without at least letting us try to prove our case.’
I hugged her again and kissed her on the cheek.
‘You’ve kept us alive,’ I replied. ‘You did that, Sam. We’re in with a shot.’
She laughed.
‘So, now what?’
‘Now,’ I replied, ‘I’m going home to get some sleep, and tomorrow I’m going to write a brief that will tell Dave Petrosian he has a fight on his hands.’
‘What can I do?’
‘You can go back to the library and get me copies of Hamilton’s reports on the public credit – all of them, however many of them there are. Then you can go back over the proceedings in the House of Representatives at about the same time and see if you can find anything else of interest, anything at all, either before or after February 9.’
She nodded. She was beaming. So was I.
‘You got it,’ she said.