The Constitution, in favor of the Articles of Confederation. Of course, one must point out at this point its illegal adoption.
what is this i don't even
Ah yes. During the Revolutionary War the Continental Congress issued a large quantity of paper currency called "Continentals." These were supposedly "equal to" a 'dollar' (then a Spanish coin) of silver, but not redeemable for silver, so they were worth much less than their face value. Also during the war, several states had issued debt to fund the war effort, but subsequently defaulted on it.
A group of speculators, among the wealthiest men in America (including Washington, Adams, Madison, Hamilton etc.), bought large quantities of Continentals and state debt in default at pennies on the dollar, betting that they could convince the Continental Congress to redeem them at face value. When Congress refused to do so, they took it upon themselves to declare that they refused to abide by any actions of the Continental Congress until they had concluded a "constitutional convention" - of themselves! The convention, already illegal since amendments to the Articles had to be approved by state legislatures, not self-appointed speculators, was doubly illegal since only 9 out of 13 states represented approved the document, in direct contravention of the Articles' clause that any amendments had to be adopted unanimously.
The plotters swiftly threatened to raise a mercenary army to crush any "rebellion" against their putsch, had their new government as its very first act agree to pay off all Continentals and state debt at their full face value in specie, in true coup fashion "elected" a figurehead general "unanimously," and violently crushed "rebellion" by poor farmers against the crippling taxes they imposed to pay off themselves.
I think Zinn is leading you astray. Madison and Hamilton didn't have much if anything in distressed securities. There is a straightforward reason behind wanting to pay back the war bonds - they wanted a government that would be a credible lender. Madison wanted to give some of the returns to the original holders who had sold them to speculators, but Hamilton's argument that it was unfeasible won out.
