New factional lines now revealed a supposed diversity of interest of the several States.

The false notions of finance then current were illustrated by an argument that was in continual use, either on the floor or in the lobby.

Members would figure how much their States would have to pay as their share of the debt that would be assumed, and on that basis would reach conclusions as to how their States stood to win or lose by the transaction.

By this reckoning, of course, the great gainer would appear to be the State upon whom the chances of war had piled the largest debt.
This calculation made Burke of South Carolina, usually an opponent of anything coming from Hamilton, a strong advocate of assumption.

He told the House that "if the present question was lost, he was almost certain it would end in her bankruptcy, for she [South Carolina] was no more able to grapple with her enormous debt than a boy of twelve years of age is able to grapple with a giant." Livermore, representing a State never within the actual field of military operations, at once replied: "I conceive that the debt of South Carolina, or Massachusetts, or of an individual, has nothing to do with our deliberations.