THE CHANCELLOR'S CASE. 633

of depreciation, whereby the community suffers great injustice, the
public finances are deranged, and the necessary dispositions for the
defence of the country are much impeded and perplexed." Such
was the declaration of Congress in March, 1780, the correctness
of which was solemnly acknowledged by the Maryland legislature
in the June following, (p)

But, even as early as February, 1777, the General Assembly of
Maryland had declared, that the quantity of paper then in circula-
tion greatly exceeded the medium of commerce. In the early part
of the year 1779, wheat sold for fifteen to twenty pounds per
bushel; and in the year following it sold as high as thirty pounds
ten shillings per bushel, in the then currency of the State. At the
close of the year 1779, a committee of the Delegates stated, " that
every necessary of life had risen to forty prices at least." Paper
money continued to depreciate so rapidly, that in March of the
year 1781, it passed at one hundred and thirty for one, and soon
after, some kinds of it, ceased to circulate at all.

At the close of the year 1781, the pecuniary resources of Mary-
land appear to have sunk to their lowest point of depression.
Every effort had been made to prevent a total bankruptcy, but
without effect. The State seems to have been forced into an open
and solemn acknowledgment of its utter inability to pay its debts
for some time to come. The money of the country, under the
various denominations of provincial bills, continental bills, conven-
tion bills, state continental money, state money, black money, and
red money, which had, from time to time, been issued—and had,
so far, been one of the most potent means of sustaining the cause
of our independence, had so sunk in value, as it increased in
quantity, as to have become at length absolutely worthless, and no
longer to be respected, in any shape, as money. It was estimated,
that the whole amount of coin, then in this State, did not exceed
one hundred thousand pounds; and that it would be impossible to
collect by taxation a sufficiency to answer the demands upon the
government. A committee of the Delegates, in December 1784,
stated, that the great fluctuation, and inequality in the valuation,
from 1778 to 1782, inclusive, of the property in the State, espe-
cially of land, rendered it impossible for the legislature to ascertain
the sum that any tax would produce.

(p) The Journals of Congress of the 18th of March 1780; and the act of June
1780, ch. 8.

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