362 Journal and Correspondence.

February 19
Liber No. 78
p. 4iS

[W Paca in Council to Col^o Samuel Smith]

We have enclosed, open for your Perusal, a Letter to the Mer-
chants of Baltimore Town. We hope you will give it all the Weight
in your Power, and we request you will be so obliging as to take upon
yourself the Transaction of the Business, in Behalf of the State. If
our Request is complied with, we flatter ourselves, the Vessels and
Hands will be down in two or three Days : every Moment's Delay is
big with the Ruin of some defenceless Family.

Ibid.

[W^m Paca, in Council to Honble Intendant]

We are honored with yours of the 12^th in Reply to ours of the 7^th
Instant.
The General Assembly having entrusted us with the final Settle-
ment of public Claims, and subjected all public Monies, except in a
few Instances, to our Orders, Disposition, and Application, it be-
comes our Duty, when Demands are made upon us, and we find no
Monies lodged in the Treasury to satisfy them, to apprize you of it,
and request a Supply of Money, with all possible Expedition. The
Treasury can only be replenished by Monies arising upon the Sale
of Specifics, the Disposition and Sale of which, belongs solely and
absolutely to your Department.
Altho' Sir, the public Demands are accumulated by the generous
Exertions of this State, in Defence of its Rights and Liberties, be-
yond its present Resources; yet, so far as its Resources are compe-
tent, there ought to be a fair and impartial Application of them; and,
when the General Assembly have made a particular and specific Ap-
plication, there can be no Departure from it, without a Violence both
to the Objects of it and the Honor of the Public.
It has, for some Time past, been the Wisdom and Policy, of our
General Assembly to effect, if possible, a Restoration of public
Credit; thoroughly persuaded that no Country is able to prosecute
an expensive War by an immediate and prompt Supply of Money
from the Pockets of its People. By their Supply Bill, November
Session 1781, providing for the current Expences in 1782, they ap-
propriated and mortgaged, in the first Instance, the whole Specific
Tax, for the Payment of Interest on Loans to the State, and by the
Supply Bill for 1783, they have made the same Appropriation &
Mortgage. The public Creditors are thus entitled to their Interest,
and, whether this Provision and Reference to all other Public De-
mands was proper or not, on either Supposition, it is equally con-
clusive on you and us; and if the Creditors are deprived of the Bene-
fit of this Provision, or postponed to other Demands, the designed
Influence with Regard to Credit, is defeated, the Intention of the
Legislature opposed, and public Faith violated.

You admit, for the Year 1782, that possibly 12000 Bushels of
Wheat may have been received, since September 1782. You say noth-