Albert Gallatin Part 6

On July 5 a resolution was moved to appoint a committee to consider the expediency of declaring, by legislative act, the state of relations between the United States and the French Republic. Mr. Gallatin asked if a declaration of war could not be moved as an amendment, but the speaker, Mr. Dayton, made no reply. Mr. Gallatin objected that Congress could not declare a state of facts by a legislative act. But this view, if tenable then, has long since been abandoned. In witness of which it is only necessary to name the celebrated resolution of the Congress of 1865 with regard to the recognition of a monarchy in Mexico. July 6 the House went into committee of the whole on the state of the Union to consider a bill sent down by the Senate abrogating the treaty with France. The bill was pa.s.sed on the 16th by a vote of 47 ayes to 37 nays, Gallatin voting in the negative. The House adjourned the same day.

While thus engaged in debates which called into exercise his varied information and displayed not only the extent of his learning but his remarkable powers of reasoning and statement, Mr. Gallatin never lost sight of reform in the administration of the finances of the government.

To the success of his efforts to hold the Treasury Department to a strict conformity with his theory of administration, Mr. Wolcott, the secretary, gave ample if unwilling testimony. To Hamilton he wrote on April 5, 1798, "The management of the Treasury becomes more and more difficult. The legislature will not pa.s.s laws in gross; their appropriations are minute. Gallatin, to whom they yield, is evidently intending to break down this department by charging it with an impracticable detail."

During these warm discussions Gallatin rarely lost his self-control.

Writing to his old friend Lesdernier at this period, he said, "You may remember I am blessed with a very even temper; it has not been altered by time or politics."

The third session of the fifth Congress opened on December 3, 1798. On the 8th, when the President was expected, Lieutenant-General Was.h.i.+ngton and Generals Pinckney and Hamilton entered the hall and took their places on the right of the speaker's chair. They had been recently appointed to command the army of defense.

The President's speech announced no change in the situation. "Nothing,"

he said, "is discoverable in the conduct of France which ought to change or relax our measures for defense. On the contrary, to extend and invigorate them is our true policy. An efficient preparation for war can alone insure peace. It must be left to France, if she is indeed desirous of accommodation, to take the requisite steps. The United States will steadily observe the maxims by which they have hitherto been governed."

The reply to this patriotic sentiment was unanimously agreed to, and was most grateful to Adams, who thanked the House for it as "consonant to the characters of representatives of a great and free people."

On December 27 a peculiar resolution was introduced to punish the usurpation of the executive authority of the government of the United States in carrying on correspondence with the government of any foreign prince or state. Gallatin thought this resolution covered too much ground. The criminality of such acts did not lie in their being usurpations, but in the nature of the crime committed. There was no authority in the Const.i.tution for a grant of such a power to the President. To afford aid and comfort to the enemy was treason, but there was no war, and therefore no enemy. He claimed the right to himself and others to do all in his power to secure a peace, even by correspondence abroad, and he would not admit that the ground taken by the friends of the measure was a proper foundation for a general law. A committee was, however, appointed, in spite of this remonstrance, to consider the propriety of including in the general act all persons who should commence or carry on a correspondence, by a vote of 65 to 23. A bill was reported on January 9, when Gallatin endeavored to attach a proviso that the law should not operate upon persons seeking justice or redress from foreign governments; but his motion was defeated by a vote of 48 to 37. Later, however, a resolution of Mr. Parker, that nothing in the act should be construed to abridge the rights of any citizen to apply for such redress, was adopted by a vote of 69 yeas to 27 nays. On this vote Harper voted yea. Griswold, Otis, Bayard, and Goodrich were found among the nays. Gallatin succeeded in carrying an amendment defining the bill, after which it was pa.s.sed by a vote of 58 to 36.

Towards the close of January, 1799, a bill was brought in authorizing the President to discontinue the restraints of the act suspending intercourse with the French West India Islands, whenever any persons in authority or command should so request. This was to invite a secession of the French colonies from the mother country. Gallatin deprecated any action which might induce rebellion against authority, or lead to self-government among the people of the islands who were unfit for it.

Moreover, such action would remove still further every expectation of an accommodation with France. The bill was pa.s.sed by a vote of 55 to 37. He objected to the bill to authorize the President to suspend intercourse with Spanish and Dutch ports which should harbor French privateers, as placing an unlimited power to interdict commerce in the hands of the executive. The bill was carried by 55 to 37. On the question of the augmentation of the navy he opposed the building of the seventy-fours.

In February Edward Livingston presented a pet.i.tion from aliens, natives of Ireland, against the Alien and Sedition laws. Numerous similar pet.i.tions followed; one was signed by 18,000 persons in Pennsylvania alone. To postpone consideration of the subject, the Federalists sent these papers to a select committee, against the protests of Livingston and Gallatin. This course was the more peculiar because of the reference of pet.i.tions of a similar character in the month previous to the committee of the whole. The Federalists were abusing their majority, and precipitating their unexpected but certain ruin. One more effort was made to repeal the offensive penal act; the const.i.tutional objection was again pleaded, but the repeal was defeated by a vote of 52 in the affirmative. Mr. Gallatin opposed these laws in all their stages, but, failing in this, persistently endeavored to make them as good as possible before they pa.s.sed. Jefferson later said that nothing could obliterate from the recollection of those who were witnesses of it the courage of Gallatin in the "Days of Terror."[8] The vote of thanks to Mr. Dayton, the speaker, was carried by a vote of 40 to 22. On March 3, 1800, this Congress adjourned.

The sixth Congress met at Philadelphia on December 2, 1799. The Federalists were returned in full majority. Among the new members of the House, John Marshall and John Randolph appeared for Virginia. Theodore Sedgwick was chosen speaker. President Adams came down to the House on the 3d and made the usual speech. The address in reply, reported by a committee of which Marshall was chairman, was agreed to without amendment. Adams was again delighted with the very respectful terms adopted at the "first a.s.sembly after a fresh election, under the strong impression of the public opinion and national sense at this interesting and singular crisis." At this session it was the sad privilege of Marshall to announce the death of Was.h.i.+ngton, "the Hero, the Sage, and the Patriot of America." In the shadow of this great grief, party pa.s.sion was hushed for a while.

Gallatin again led the Republican opposition; Nicholas and Macon were his able lieutenants. The line of attack of the Republicans was clear.

If war could be avoided, the growing unpopularity of the Alien and Sedition laws would surely bring them to power. The foreign-born voter was already a factor in American politics. In January the law providing for an addition to the army was suspended. Macon then moved the repeal of the Sedition Law. He took the ground that it was a measure of defense. Bayard adroitly proposed as an amendment that "the offenses therein specified shall remain punishable as at common law, provided that upon any prosecution it shall be lawful for the defendant to give as his defense the truth of the matter charged as a libel." Gallatin called upon the chair to declare the amendment out of order, as intended to destroy the resolution, but the speaker declined, and the amendment was carried by a vote of 51 to 47. The resolution thus amended was then defeated by a vote of 87 to 1. The Republicans preferred the odious act in its original form rather than accept the Federal interpretation of it.

On February 11, 1800, a bill was introduced into Congress further to suspend commercial intercourse with France. It pa.s.sed the House after a short debate by a vote of 68 yeas to 28 nays. On this bill the Republican leaders were divided. Nicholas, Macon, and Randolph opposed it; but Gallatin, separating from his friends, carried enough of his party with him to secure its pa.s.sage. Returned by the Senate with amendments, it was again objected to by Macon as fatal to the interests of the Southern States, but the House resolved to concur by a vote of 50 to 36.

In March the country was greatly excited by the news of an engagement on the 1st of February, off Guadaloupe, between the United States frigate Constellation, thirty-eight guns, and a French national frigate, La Vengeance, fifty-four guns. The House of Representatives called on the secretary of the navy for information, and, by 84 yeas to 4 nays, voted a gold medal to Captain Truxton, who commanded the American s.h.i.+p. John Randolph's name is recorded in the negative.

Notwithstanding this collision, the relations of the United States and France were gradually a.s.suming a kindlier phase. The Directory had sought to drive the American government into active measures against England. Bonaparte, chosen First Consul, at once adopted a conciliatory tone. Preparing for a great continental struggle, he was concentrating the energies and the powers of France. In May Mr. Parker called the attention of the House to this change of conduct in the French government and offered a resolution instructing the Committee on Commerce to inquire if any amendments to the Foreign Intercourse Act were necessary. Macon moved to amend so that the inquiry should be whether it were not expedient to repeal the act. Gallatin opposed the resolution on the ground that it was highly improper to take any measures at the present time which would change the defensive system of the country. The resolution was negatived,--43 nays to 40 yeas.

One singular opposition of Gallatin is recorded towards the close of the session; the Committee on the Treasury Department reported an amendment to the act of establishment, providing that the secretary of the treasury shall lay before Congress, at the commencement of every session, a report on finance with plans for the support of credit, etc.

Gallatin and Nicholas opposed this bill, because it came down from the Senate, which had no const.i.tutional right to originate a money bill; but Griswold and Harper at once took the correct ground that it was not a bill, but a report on the state of the finances, in which the Senate had an equal share with the House. The bill was pa.s.sed by a vote of 43 to 39. It is worthy of note that the first report on the state of the finances communicated under this act was by Mr. Gallatin himself the next year, and that it was sent in to the Senate. The House adjourned on May 14, 1800.

The second session of the sixth Congress was held at the city of Was.h.i.+ngton, to which the seat of government had been removed in the summer interval. After two southerly migrations they were now definitively established at a national capital. The session opened on November 17, 1800. On the 22d President Adams congratulated Congress on "the prospect of a residence not to be changed." The address of the House in reply was adopted by a close vote.

The situation of foreign relations was changed. The First Consul received the American envoys cordially, and a commercial convention was made but secured ratification by the Senate only after the elimination of an article and a limitation of its duration to eight years. While the bill was pending in the Senate, Mr. Samuel Smith moved to continue the act to suspend commercial intercourse with France. Mr. Gallatin opposed this motion; at the last session he had voted for this bill because there was only the appearance of a treaty. Now that the precise state of negotiation was known, why should the House longer leave this matter to the discretion of the President? The House decided to reject the indiscreet bill by a vote of 59 to 37. An effort was also made to repeal a part of the Sedition Law, and continue the rest in force, but the House refused to order the engrossing of the bill, taking wise counsel of Dawson, who said that, supported by the justice and policy of their measures, the approaching administration would not need the aid of either the alien, sedition, or common law. The opponents of the bill would not consent to any modification. The last scenes of the session were of exciting interest.

Freed from the menace of immediate war, the people of plain common sense recognized that the friends.h.i.+p of Great Britain was more dangerous than the enmity of France. They dreaded the fixed power of an organized aristocracy far more than the ephemeral anarchy of an ill-ordered democracy; they were more averse to cla.s.s distinctions protected by law than even to military despotism which destroyed all distinctions, and they preferred, as man always has preferred and always will prefer, personal to political equality. The Alien and Sedition laws had borne their legitimate fruit. The foreign-born population held the balance of power; a general vote would have shown a large Republican or, it is more correct to say, anti-Federalist majority. But the popular will could not be thus expressed. Under the old system each elector in the electoral college cast his ballot for president and vice-president without designation of his preference as to who should fill the first place. New England was solid for Adams, who, however, had little strength beyond the limits of this Federal stronghold. New York and the Southern States with inconsiderable exceptions were Republican. Pennsylvania was so divided in the legislature that her entire vote would have been lost but for a compromise which gave to the Republicans one vote more than to the Federalists. Adams being out of the question, the election to the first place lay between Jefferson and Burr, both Republicans. The Federalists, therefore, had their option between the two Republican candidates, and the result was within the reach of that most detestable of combinations, a political bargain. Mr. Gallatin's position in this condition of affairs was controlling. His loyalty to Jefferson was unquestioned, while Burr was the favorite of the large Republican party in New York whose leaders were Mr. Gallatin's immediate friends and warm supporters.

Both Jefferson and Burr were accused of bargaining to secure enough of the Federalist vote to turn the scale. That Mr. Jefferson did make some sacrifice of his independence is now believed. Whether Mr. Gallatin was aware of any such compromise is uncertain. If such bargain were made, General Samuel Smith was the channel of arrangement, and in view of the inexplicable and ignominious deference of Jefferson and Madison to his political demands, there is little doubt that he held a secret power which they dared not resist. Gallatin felt it, suffered from it, protested against it, but submitted to it.

The fear was that Congress might adjourn without a conclusion. To meet this emergency Mr. Gallatin devised a plan of balloting in the House, which he communicated to Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Nicholas. It stated the objects of the Federalists to be, 1st, to elect Burr; 2d, to defeat the present election and order a new one; 3d, to a.s.sume _executive_ power during the interregnum. These he considers, and suggests alternative action in case of submission or resistance on the part of the Republicans. The Federalists, holding three branches of government, viz., the presidency, a majority in the Senate, and a majority in the House, might pa.s.s a law declaring that one of the great officers designated by the Const.i.tution should act as president pro tempore, which would be const.i.tutional. But while Mr. Gallatin in this paragraph admitted such a law to be const.i.tutional, in the next he argued that the act of the person designated by law, or of the president pro tempore, a.s.suming the power is clearly "unconst.i.tutional." By this ingenious process of reasoning, to which the strict constructionists have always been partial, it might be unconst.i.tutional to carry out const.i.tutional law. The a.s.sumption of such power was therefore, Mr. Gallatin held, usurpation, to be resisted in one of two ways; by declaring the interval till the next session of Congress an interregnum, allowing all laws not immediately connected with presidential powers to take their course, and opposing a silent resistance to all others; or by the Republicans a.s.suming the executive power by a joint act of the two candidates, or by the relinquishment of all claims by one of them. On the other hand, the proposed outlines of Republican conduct were, 1st, to persevere in voting for Mr. Jefferson; 2d, to use every endeavor to defeat any law on the subject; 3d, to try to persuade Mr. Adams to refuse his consent to any such law and not to call the Senate on any account if there should be no choice by the House.

In a letter written in 1848 Mr. Gallatin said that a provision by law, that if there should be no election the executive power be placed in the hands of some public officer, was a revolutionary act of usurpation which would have been put down by force if necessary. It was threatened that, if any man should be thus appointed President he should instantly be put to death, and bodies of men were said to be organized, in Maryland and Virginia, ready to march to Was.h.i.+ngton on March 4 for that purpose. The fears of violence were so great that to Governor McKean of Pennsylvania was submitted the propriety of having a body of militia in readiness to reach the capital in time to prevent civil war. From this letter of Mr. Gallatin, then the last surviving witness of the election, only one conclusion can be drawn: that the Republicans would have preferred violent resistance to temporary submission, even though the officer exercising executive powers was appointed in accordance with law. Fortunately for the young country there was enough good sense and patriotism in the ranks of the Federalists to avert the danger.

On the suggestion of Mr. Bayard it was agreed by a committee of sixteen members, one from each State, that if it should appear that the two persons highest on the list, Jefferson and Burr, had an equal number of votes, the House should immediately proceed in their own chamber to choose the president by ballot, and should not adjourn until an election should have been made. On the first ballot there was a tie between Jefferson and Burr; the deadlock continued until February 17, when the Federalists abandoned the contest, and Mr. Jefferson received the requisite number of votes. Burr, having the second number, became vice-president.

Mr. Gallatin's third congressional term closed with this Congress. In his first term he a.s.serted his power and took his place in the councils of the party. In his second, he became its acknowledged chief. In the third, he led its forces to final victory. But for his opposition, war would have been declared against France, and the Republican party would have disappeared in the political chasm. But for his admirable management, Mr. Jefferson would have been relegated to the study of theoretical government on his Monticello farm, or to play second fiddle at the Capitol to the music of Aaron Burr.

In the foregoing a.n.a.lysis of the debates and resolutions of Congress, and the recital of the part taken in them by Mr. Gallatin, attention has only been paid to such of the proceedings as concerned the interpretation of the Const.i.tution or the forms of administration with which Mr. Gallatin interested himself. From the day of his first appearance he commanded the attention and the respect of his fellows.

The leaders.h.i.+p of his party fell to him as of course. It was not grasped by him. He was never a partisan. He never waived his entire independence of judgment. His ingenuity and adroitness never tempted him to untenable positions. Hence his party followed him with implicit confidence. Yet while the debates of Congress, imperfectly reported as they seem to be in its annals, show the deference paid to him by the Republican leaders, and display the great share he took in the definition of powers and of administration as now understood, his name is hardly mentioned in history. Jefferson and Madison became presidents of the United States. They, with Gallatin, formed the triumvirate which ruled the country for sixteen years. Gallatin was the youngest of the three.[9] To this political combination Gallatin brought a knowledge of const.i.tutional law equal to their own, a knowledge of international law superior to that of either, and a habit of practical administration of which they had no conception. The Republican party lost its chief when Gallatin left the House; from that day it floundered to its close.

In the balance of opinion there are no certain weights and measures. The preponderance of causes cannot be precisely ascertained. The freedom which the people of the United States enjoy to-day is not the work of any one party. Those who are descended from its original stock, and those whom its free inst.i.tutions have since invited to full members.h.i.+p, owe that freedom to two causes: the one, formulated by Hamilton, a strong, central power, which, deriving its force from the people, maintains its authority at home and secures respect abroad; the other, the spirit of liberty which found expression in the famous declaration of the rights of man. This influence Jefferson represented. It taught the equality of man; not equality before the law alone, nor yet political equality, but that absolute freedom from cla.s.s distinction which is true social equality; in a word, mutual respect. But for Hamilton we might be a handful of petty States, in discordant confederation or perpetual war; but for Jefferson, a prey to the cla.s.s jealousy which unsettles the social relations and threatens the political existence of European States.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 4: Lord Sheffield to Mr. Abbott, November 6, 1812.

_Correspondence of Lord Colchester_, ii. 409.]

[Footnote 5: Gallatin later described Jackson as he first saw him in his seat in the House: "A tall, lank, uncouth looking individual, with long locks of hair hanging over his brows and face, while a queue hung down his back tied in an eelskin. The dress of this individual was singular, his manners and deportment that of a backwoodsman." Bartlett's _Reminiscences of Gallatin_.]

[Footnote 6: The phrase "stop the wheels of government" originated with "Peter Porcupine" (William Cobbett) and was on every tongue.]

[Footnote 7: Charles C. Pinckney, when amba.s.sador to France, 1796.]

[Footnote 8: Jefferson to William Duane, March 28, 1811. Jefferson's _Works_, vol. v. p. 574.]

[Footnote 9: Jefferson was born in 1743, Madison in 1751, Gallatin in 1761.]

CHAPTER VI

SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY

_Funding_

The material comfort of every people depends more immediately upon the correct management of its finances than upon any other branch of government. _Haute finance_, to use a French expression for which there is no English equivalent, demands in its application the faculties of organization and administration in their highest degree. The relations of money to currency and credit, and their relations to industry and agriculture, or in modern phrase of capital to labor, fall within its scope. The history of France, the nation which has best understood and applied true principles of finance, supplies striking examples of the benefits a finance minister of the first order renders to his country, and the dangers of false theories. The marvelous restoration of its prosperity by the genius of Colbert, the ruin caused by the malign sciolism of Law, are familiar to all students of political economy. Nor has the United States been less favored. The names of Morris, Hamilton, Gallatin, and Chase s.h.i.+ne with equal l.u.s.tre.

Morris, the Financier of the Revolution, was called to the administration of the money department of the United States government when there was no money to administer. Before his appointment as "Financier" the expenses of the government, military and civil, had been met by expedients; by foreign loans, lotteries, and loan office certificates; finally by continental money, or, more properly speaking, bills of credit emitted by authority of Congress and made legal tender by joint action of Congress and the several States. The relation of coin to paper in this motley currency appears in the appendix to the "Journal of Congress" for the year 1778, when the government paid out in fourteen issues of paper currency, $62,154,842; in specie, $78,666; in French livres, $28,525.[10] The power of taxation was jealously withheld by the States, and Congress could not go beyond recommending to them to levy taxes for the withdrawal of the bills emitted by it for their quotas, _pari pa.s.su_ with their issue. When the entire scheme of paper money failed, the necessary supplies for the army were levied in kind. In the spring of 1781 the affairs of the Treasury Department were investigated by a committee of Congress, and an attempt was made to ascertain the precise condition of the public debt. The amount of foreign debt was approximately reached, but the record of the domestic debt was inextricably involved, and never definitely discovered. Morris soon brought order out of this chaos. His plan was to liquidate the public indebtedness in specie, and fund it in interest-bearing bonds. The Bank of North America was established, the notes of which were soon preferred to specie as a medium of exchange. Silver, then in general use as the measure of value, was adopted as the single standard. The weight and pureness of the dollar were fixed by law. The dollar was made the unit of account and payment, and subdivisions were made in a decimal ratio.

This was the dollar of our fathers. Gouverneur Morris, the a.s.sistant of the Financier, suggested the decimal computation, and Jefferson the dollar as the unit of account and payment. The board of treasury, which for five years had administered the finances in a bungling way, was dissolved by Congress in the fall of 1781, and Morris was left in sole control. Semi-annual statements of the public indebtedness were now begun. The expenses of the government were steadily and inflexibly cut down to meet the diminis.h.i.+ng income. A loan was negotiated in Holland, and, with the aid of Franklin, the amount of indebtedness to France was established.

The public debt on January 1, 1783, was $42,000,375, of which $7,885,088 was foreign, bearing four and five per cent. interest; and $34,115,290 was held at home at six per cent. The total amount of interest was $2,415,956. No means were provided for the payment of either princ.i.p.al or interest. In July of the previous year Morris urged the wisdom of funding the public debt, in a masterly letter to the president of Congress. On December 16 a sinking fund was provided for by a resolution, which, though inadequate to the purpose, was at least a declaration of principle. In February, 1784, Morris notified Congress of his intended retirement from office. He may justly be termed the father of the American system of finance. In his administration he inflexibly maintained the determination, with which he a.s.sumed the office, to apply the public funds to the purpose to which they were appropriated. He declared that he would "neither pay the interest of our debts out of the moneys which are called for to carry on the war, nor pay the expenses of the war from the funds which are called for to pay the interest of our debts." One new feature of Morris's administration was the beginning of the sale of public lands.

On the retirement of Mr. Morris, November, 1784, a new board of treasury was charged with the administration of the finances, and continued in control until September 30, 1788, when a committee, raised to examine into the affairs of the department, rendered a pitiful report of mismanagement for which the board had not the excuse of their predecessors during the war. They had only to observe the precepts which Morris had enunciated, and to follow the methods he had prescribed, with the aid of the a.s.sistants he had trained. But the taxes collected had not been covered into the Treasury by the receivers. Large sums advanced for secret service were not accounted for; and the entire system of responsibility had been disregarded. John Adams attributed all the distresses at this period to "a downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit and circulation;" an ignorance not yet dispelled. More truly could he have said that our distresses arose from willful neglect of the principle of accountability in the public service.

The first Congress under the new Const.i.tution met at New York on March 4, 1789, but it was not until the autumn that the executive administration of the government was organized by the creation of the three departments: State, Treasury, and War.

The bill establis.h.i.+ng the Treasury Department pa.s.sed Congress on September 2, 1789. Hamilton was appointed secretary by Was.h.i.+ngton on September 11. On September 21 the House directed the secretary to examine into and report a financial plan. On the a.s.sembling of Congress, June 14, 1790, Hamilton communicated to the House his first report, known as that on public credit. The boldness of Hamilton's plan startled and divided the country. Funding resolutions were introduced into the House. The first, relating to the foreign debt, pa.s.sed unanimously; the second, providing for the liquidation of the domestic obligations, was sharply debated, but in the end Hamilton's scheme was adopted. The resolutions providing for the a.s.sumption of the state debts, which he embodied in his report, aroused an opposition still more formidable, and it was not until August 4 that by political machinery this part of his plan received the a.s.sent of Congress. To provide for the interest on the debt and the expenses of the government, the import and navigation duties were raised to yield the utmost revenue available; but, in the temper of Congress, the excise law was not pressed at this session. The secretary had securely laid the foundations of his policy. Time and sheer necessity would compel the completion of his work in essential accord with his original design. The President's message at the opening of the winter session added greatly to the prestige of Hamilton's policy by calling attention to the great prosperity of the country and the remarkable rise in public credit. The excise law, modified to apply to distilled spirits, pa.s.sed the House in January. The principle of a direct tax was admitted. On December 14, 1790, in obedience to an order of the House requiring the secretary to report further provision for the public credit, Hamilton communicated his plans for a national bank. Next in order came the establishment of a national mint. Thus in two sessions of Congress, and in the s.p.a.ce of little more than a year from the time when he took charge of the Treasury, Hamilton conceived and carried to successful conclusion an entire scheme of finance.

One more measure in the comprehensive system of public credit crowned the solid structure of which the funding of the debt was the cornerstone. This was the establishment of the sinking fund for the redemption of the debt. Hamilton conformed his plan to the maxim, which, to use his words, "has been supposed capable of giving immortality to credit, namely, that with the creation of debts should be incorporated the means of extinguishment, which are twofold. 1st. The establis.h.i.+ng, at the time of contracting a debt, funds for the reimburs.e.m.e.nt of the princ.i.p.al, as well as for the payment of interest within a determinate period. 2d. The making it a part of the contract, that the fund so established shall be inviolably applied to the object." The ingenuity and skill with which this master of financial science managed the Treasury Department for more than five years need no word of comment.