To  those  who  have  shall  be  given,  and  from  those  who  have  not
shall  be  taken  away  that  which  theyjiave.  Such  is  the  scheme  of
the  universe,  which  man's  devices  can  but  regulate  and  mitigate;
but,  in  a  large  number  of  instances,  this  profoundly  beneficent  law
appears  to  the  sufferers  to  work  sheer  cruelty.  After  a  long  and
severe  struggle,  in  which  Madison  strove  worthily  for  the  soldiers'
interest.  Congress  accepted  Hamilton's  conclusion  as  th»  Ipw  of
necessity  governing  the  case.
IQ


388  LIFE  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON.
This  contest  was  at  its  height  while  JeflTerson  was  floundering
^)  through  the  mud  from  Virginia  to  New  York.  Immersed  at  once
upon  his  arrival  in  the  husincss  of  his  own  department,  and  having  a
dislike  of  financial  questions,  he  took  no  part  in  the  strife.  But
Hamilton,  unhappily,  had  cumbered  his  report  with  a  recommenda-
tion that  Congress  should  assume  tlie  debts  of  the  States.  To  him,
born  in  a  little  sugar-island,  from  which  he  had  early  escaped,  and
therefore  unable  to  comprehend  or  sympathize  with  the  hereditary
love  of  the  native  citizen  for  the  State  in  which  he  was  born,  nothing
seemed  more  natural  or  more  proper  than  this  sweeping  measure.
Debt  is  debt.  The  people  of  the  United  States  owe  this  money.
