Fairness and efficiency in US Revolutionary War takings and post-war debt redemption

Many have noted the debate amongst Hamilton, Jefferson, and others on compensating original versus final US Revolutionary War debt holders upon federal assumption of state debts in 1790. However, to our knowledge the economics literature has not yet proposed a theoretical model of the argument. The purpose of this paper is to propose a simple household-level economic model to capture the most salient aspects of the debate, including the role of military impressment and the emergence of the Takings Clause of the US Constitution.