Debt Assumption

Documenting that the Debt Assumption Clause is one of several Constitutional indicators of the Founders’, specifically Hamilton’s, belief that the new national government should service public debt and establish sound credit.

Agreeing with Kesavan on the importance of the Clause for the question of when the Articles ceased to have power, but pointing out that “Article VI is agnostic on whether the Confederation was capable of generating debts and engagements for any period of time after adoption of the Constitution; it simply says that such debts and engagements, if any can exist, will not be assumed by the new government.”

Examining the text of the Clause, comparing it to its precursor in the Articles of Confederation, and reviewing the records of the Committee of the Whole to argue that the Clause “squarely suggests by negative implication” that the actions of the Confederation Congress after the adoption of the Constitution would no longer be valid against the United States as they would have been under the Articles of Confederation.