This act was immediately followed by an amendment to the bill then pending before the senate for funding the debt of the union.

The amendment was similar in principle to that which had been unsuccessfully proposed in the house of representatives.

By its provisions, twenty-one millions five hundred thousand dollars of the state debts were assumed in specified proportions; and it was particularly enacted that no certificate should be received from a state creditor which could be "ascertained to have been issued for any purpose other than compensations and expenditures for services or supplies towards the prosecution of the late war, and the defence of the United States, or of some part thereof, during the same." When the question was taken in the house of representatives on this amendment, two members representing districts on the Potomac, who, in all the previous stages of the business, had voted against the assumption, declared themselves in its favour; and thus the majority was changed.[45] [Footnote 45: It has ever been understood that these members were, on principle, in favour of the assumption as modified in the amendment made by the senate; but they withheld their assent from it when originally proposed in the house of representatives, in the opinion that the increase of the national debt, added to the necessity of giving to the departments of the national government a more central residence.

It is understood that a greater number would have changed had it been necessary.] Thus was a measure carried, which was supported and opposed with a degree of zeal and earnestness not often manifested; and which furnished presages, not to be mistaken, that the spirit with which the opposite opinions had been maintained, would not yield, contentedly, to the decision of a bare majority.

This measure has constituted one of the great grounds of accusation against the first administration of the general government; and it is fair to acknowledge, that though, in its progress, it derived no aid from the President, whose opinion remained in his own bosom, it received the full approbation of his judgment.
A bill, at length, passed both houses, funding the debt upon principles which lessened considerably the weight of the public burdens, and was entirely satisfactory to the public creditors.