After Jefferson turned against the Administration, his participation in the passage of the assumption bill was such an awkward circumstance that he discredited his own intelligence by professing that he “was most ignorantly and innocently made to hold the candle” to Hamilton’s “game.”  In reality the public service Jefferson then performed was the most useful in all his long and fruitful career.  But for this action, the Declaration of Independence, to the drafting of which he owes his greatest fame, might now be figuring among the historical documents of lost causes, like similar elaborate statements of principle made during the Commonwealth period in England.  Had the national forces failed at the critical period of financial organization, and the States, bankrupt by the revolutionary struggle, been left in the lurch, the republic would have followed the usual course of disintegration displayed by federations from the time of the Greek amphictyonies down to that of the Holy Roman Empire.

The charge was made soon after Hamilton’s victory that it was largely due to the influence of speculators.  The advance in the market value of securities produced by Hamilton’s measures certainly gave an opportunity to speculators of which they availed themselves with the unscrupulous activity characteristic of the sordid tribe.  Jefferson has left an account of “the base scramble.”  “Couriers and relay horses by land, and swift sailing pilot boats by sea, were flying in all directions.  Active partners and agents were associated and employed in every state, town, and country neighborhood, and this paper was bought up at five shillings, and even as low as two shillings in the pound, before the holder knew that Congress had already provided for its assumption at par.  Immense sums were thus filched from the poor and ignorant, and fortunes accumulated by those who had themselves been poor enough before.”

This account is highly colored.  The struggle was too close, and the issue was long too doubtful, to admit of speculative preparations extending to every “town and country neighborhood.”  If speculation took place on such a large scale, it must have been also taking risks on a large scale, for assumption was not assured until Jefferson himself put his shoulder to the wheel.  The lack of means for prompt diffusion of intelligence naturally provided large opportunity for speculation by those in a position to keep well-informed, and undoubtedly large profits were made; but the circumstances were such that it seems most probable that profits were less than market opportunities would have allowed had not the issue been so long in doubt.  Nevertheless there was much speculative activity, and the charge was soon made that it extended into Congress.[Footnote:  This charge was put forth by John Taylor in pamphlets printed in 1793 and 1794, in which he reviewed the financial policy of the Administration and gave a list of Congressmen who had invested in the public