204.Assumptionof State Debts
A further part of Hamilton's original scheme aroused even greater opposition . During the Rev - olutionary War the states , too , had become heavily in debt . They had furnished soldiers and supplies to Congress . Some of them had undertaken expeditions at their own expense . Virginia , for example , had borne all the cost of Clark ' s con - quest of the Northwest ( p .116). She had later ceded nearly all her rights in the conquered territory to the United States ( p .135). These debts had been incurred for the bene - fit of the people as a whole . Would it not then be fair for the peo - ple of the United States as a whole to pay them ? Hamilton thought that it would . It chanced , however , that the Northern states had much larger debts than had the Southern states . One result of Hamilton ' s scheme would be to relieve the Northern states of a part of their burdens and to increase the burdens of the Southern states . The Southerners , therefore , were strongly opposed to the plan . The North Carolina repre - sentatives reached New York just in time to vote against it , and that part of Hamilton ' s plan was defeated .
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