634 THE CHANCELLOR'S CASE.

Finding it impossible to bring money into the treasury, of suf-
ficient value to meet the exigencies of the times, the General
Assembly, at their first session in the year 1780, authorized and
required the payment of taxes in wheat, flour, beef upon the hoof,
pork, and tobacco, at specified rates. The resolute freemen of
those days appear to have cheerfully paid into the treasury their last
dollar; and then to have contributed with alacrity, under all the
wasteful disadvantages of such a mode of contribution, a share
even of their provisions for the support of those who had taken
the field in the common cause. These taxes in kind, or these
"specifics" as they were called in those days, were collected in
many different warehouses, and places of deposite throughout the
State; and, as circumstances required, were distributed and handed
over to the army, or the public creditors, or sold to raise money to
meet instant and pressing demands. And, as we have seen, it
was made optional with the chancellor, in the year 1782, to draw
1 his salary in bills of credit of the last emission, or in wheat, one
of those specifics. Such was the general pecuniary and fiscal
poverty, and embarrassment of the first years of the republic, that,
at the April session of 1782, an act was passed declaring, that no
suit should be brought for the recovery of any debt unless the
debtor had neglected to pay interest, or had refused to deliver any
property he might have for sale, to his creditor in payment at a fair
valuation; and further, that the time from thence until the first of
January, 1784, should not be estimated in the limitation to the
prosecution of suits.

About the close of the year 1783, there being every reason to
hope for a rapid restoration of a sound circulating medium, with
which the taxes might be paid, and the treasury replenished, the
law allowing the payment of taxes in kind was abolished; and
the specifics on hand were ordered to be sold. The finances of the
State in fact recovered, as was expected; but they were not so soon
cleared of all embarrassment, and re-established upon so regular
and permanent a basis, as to enable the General Assembly, imme-
diately, to determine what amount of salaries could, with propriety,
be secured to the judicial .officers during the continuance of their
commissions, as was required by the constitution.(q)

(q) The authority for what is stated in this and the three preceeding paragraphs,
* relative to the paper currency and the pecuniary condition of the country in general,
may be found in the history of the Union and in the proceedings of Congress