Baltimore, 7 February, 1777.
I am at last, after a great deal of difficulty, settled in comfortable
quarters, but at an infinite expense. The price I pay for my board is
more moderate than any other gentlemen give, excepting my colleagues,
who are all in the same quarters and at the same rates, except Mr.
Hancock, who keeps a house by himself. The prices of things here are
much more intolerable than at Boston. The attempt of New England to
regulate prices is extremely popular in Congress, who will recommend an
imitation of it to the other States. For my own part I expect only a
partial and a temporary relief from it, and I fear that after a time the
evils will break out with greater violence. The water will flow with
greater rapidity for having been dammed up for a time. The only radical
cure will be to stop the emission of more paper, and to draw in some
that is already out and devise means effectually to support the credit
of the rest. To this end we must begin forthwith to tax the people as
largely as the distressed circumstances of the country will bear. We
must raise the interest from four to six per cent. We must, if possible,
borrow silver and gold from abroad. We must, above all things, endeavor
this winter to gain further advantages of the enemy, that our power may
be in somewhat higher reputation than it is, or rather than it has been.