Nicholas Gilman to John Sullivan (September 3, 1787)

Philadelphia September 3 1787

. . . It is respecting the domestic debt. I find many of the States are making provisions to buy in their Quotas of the final Settlements and I most ardently wish that the Towns in New Hampshire may be so far awake to a sense of their Interest as to part with their property freely in order to purchase their several Quotas of the public Securities now in circulation while they are to be had at the present low rate; which is in this place, at two shillings and six pence in the pound. If they suffer the present opportunity to pass and we should be so fortunate as to have an efficient Government, they will be obliged to buy them of Brokers, Hawkers, Speculators and Jockeys, at six or perhaps at eight times their present value. I know your Excellency is well aware of the danger the people are in of suffering through their unwillingness to pay taxes, but perhaps if they were fully sensible of the measures that are pursuing in other States, it might operate as a new incentive to an immediate exertion.