CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES...AN ACT MAKING PROVISION FOR THE REDUCTION OF THE PUBLIC DEBT [caption title].
[Jefferson, Thomas]: [United States Congress - Second Session]:
[New York: Printed by Francis Childs and John Swaine, 1790]. [2]pp. printed on a 12 1/4 x 8 1/4-inch sheet, signed in manuscript by Thomas Jefferson. Closed tear in lower left margin repaired with no loss, closed tear in lower right margin with no loss. Old adhesive marks on edges. Very good. Archivally matted and protected with mylar sheets, allowing viewing from both sides. In a cloth clamshell case, leather label. The official printing, one of just a few signed by Thomas Jefferson as Secretary of State, of the Act for the Reduction of the Public Debt. This law was passed just eight days after the crucially important "Assumption Act," by which the federal government assumed the debts incurred by the individual states during the Revolution. The Public Debt Act, which authorized the federal government to borrow money and to use budgetary surpluses to pay down the federal debt, was an important linchpin of Alexander Hamilton's overall plan for putting the national economy on a sound footing. This copy of the Public Debt Act came from the personal collection of Dumas Malone, the most influential and exhaustive of all Thomas Jefferson's biographers. Malone's monumental Pulitzer-Prize-winning six-volume biography, JEFFERSON AND HIS TIME, remains an exceptional and vital work of scholarship, one that all who follow in Malone's footsteps must contend with. Paying down the public debt was a fundamentally important aspect of Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton's plan for building the American economy and establishing the public credit. Hamilton believed that assuming the debt of the states would help bind the nation together. Furthermore, paying down the public debt in a steady manner would result in a sound currency, and would also encourage the creation of a national bank to facilitate the endeavor. Though an ardent proponent of states' rights, Thomas Jefferson shared with Alexander Hamilton a common desire for binding the states together and for establishing the credit worthiness of the young republic. Jefferson subtly worked with Hamilton in negotiating the passage of the Assumption Act, and would have also been pleased by the intent of this Public Debt Act. The Public Debt Act provides that all monies raised from duties on imports and on the tonnage of ships that are not used on appropriations should be used to buy down the public debt. Further, it is stipulated that those in charge of reducing the debt are the President of the Senate, the Chief Justice, the Secretary of State, the Secretary of the Treasury, and the Attorney General, and it is enacted that the debt should be bought down in such a manner as to benefit each state equally. The President is also authorized to borrow up to two million dollars (at not more than 5% interest) to be used to further buy down the debt. Individual acts and bills of the first Congress were routinely printed for public distribution. A provision was made, however, to print a few copies of each act on large paper for official dissemination to the states, and to have each of those copies signed by the Secretary of State. The present copy is one of those large paper issues, bearing Thomas Jefferson's manuscript signature beside his printed title, as well as the printed signatures of President George Washington, Vice President John Adams, and House Speaker Frederick Muhlenberg. The Act was approved by the Congress on Aug. 12, 1790, just a day after a crash in the value of government securities. NAIP and Bristol together list only three locations for the present document, at the American Antiquarian Society, the Library of Congress, and the South Carolina Archives. The copies at South Carolina and the Library of Congress bear Jefferson's signature, but the AAS copy does not. Very rare and important in the financial history of the nation. BRISTOL B7574. SHIPTON & MOONEY 46050. NAIP w014351.
(Item ID: WRCAM37404) $55,000.00