importance of the issues. Much of the tedious and pointless character of
their speeches may be ascribed to the lack of the personal presence of the
Secretary. There being nothing to focus the debate and exclude the
fictitious and irrelevant, it rambled in any direction a speaker's
fancy might suggest. Moreover, its quality was impaired because any
consideration of motive was of the nature of talking about a man behind
his back and this, everyone knows, is very different from saying things to
his face. Assertions and innuendos which would hardly have been hazarded
had Hamilton been present, or which, had they been made, would have been
forthwith met and refuted, were indulged in without restraint. Although
one of the reasons given for requiring a written report was that the House
would be the better informed, the debate does not indicate that the
arguments by which Hamilton had vindicated his proposals had really been
apprehended.

The question whether or not any discrimination could be made between
original holders of the public securities and those who had acquired them
by purchase was considered at length by Hamilton in his report. The public
securities had been at such a heavy discount that now, if they were to be
met at face value, speculators would reap large profits. Hamilton put the
case of the opposition as strongly as possible. It might be urged that it
was unreasonable "to pay twenty shillings in the pound to one who had not
given more for it than three or four; and it is added that it would be
hard to aggravate the misfortune of the first owner, who, probably through
necessity, parted with, his property at so great a loss, by obliging him
to contribute to the profit of the person who had speculated on his
distresses." Nevertheless, Hamilton submitted considerations showing that
discrimination would be "equally unjust and impolitic, as highly injurious
even to the original holders of public securities, as ruinous to public
credit." It is unnecessary to repeat the lucid argument by which Hamilton