The National tribune., 1900-02-22
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By MARY S. LOCKWOOD.
The Treasury Department.
Copyrighted, 1899, by THE NATIONAL TRIBUNE.

| Hamilton. which amazed the world. Ham
ilton realized that il was impossible to keep
ones credit without paving ones debts.
| America had no credit and no capital. Am
sterdam lankerS refused the small loan OF
100000. Here was a man of 81 outlining
and proposing 10 manage a financial
scheme which should set in running order
a bankrupt Nation, exhausted by war. and
| holding no place among the nations of the
earth.
Hamilton. in one of his reports. says:
! We wish to cement more closely the Union
of States, and to establish public order on
a basis of upright and liberal policy He
established an excise TO raise a revenue 10
'pay the States debt; and then followed his
National Bank scheme, which is in opera
ton to-day. OF course, there was opposi-
ton to these schemes-the Hamiltonians
on one side and the Jcffersonians on the
other But Daniel Webster said of Hamil-
ton: He touched the dead corpse of the
public credit and it sprang upon its feet"
Money had to be forthcoming for the
present needs of the new Government.
The whole machinery of the Treasury De-
partment had to be oiled and set going
! When all was ready Hamilton moved the
lever and the wheels of Government turned
without a jar Out of the differences of
opinion grew the first two political parties of
the Union, the Federalists and the Anti
Federalists.
When, in 1900, the Treasury Department
performed a six-days' journey from Philadei-
phia to Washington, it took up its abode in
small five-story building facing Fifteenth
Street. This building was so small that
there was not sufficient room for the clerical
force. The official records were deposited i'll
another building, and papers which would
now be invaluable were consumed by fire.
The first official act of the Treasury De-
partment after reaching the Capital directed
that the Secretary should make an annual
report to Congress of the state of the finances
of the Nation; of the revenue and eXpendi-
lures. and plans for increasing the reve-
nue.. Hamilton had always done this vol
UNFAIRLY.
On the election of Jefferson the two Sec
retaries, Oliver Wolcott and Samuel Dexter,
who succeeded Hamilton, We're supplanted
by Albert Gallatin. HamiIton's financial
policy was in exact opposition.
'rditdtiil W stil tGlll EtEiitiSoh pi l. Ito-
dent jefferson. and with much vigor de-
clared that he would bring Hamilton's lofty
head low: but in his still-hunt for 'blun-
ders" he soon became an admirer of Ham,
ilton's methods. His wonderful system
reveal d itself day by day. He at last went
to jefferson and, like an honest man, said:
Mr.. President, l have, as you directed,
made thorough examination OF the books,
accounts and correspondence of my De-
partment from its commencement. have
found the most perfect system ever formed.
Any change under it would injure it.
Hamilton made no blunders-committed
no frauds. He did nothing wrong"
Albert Gallatin associated himself with
the policy OF Morris and Hamilton, and
has come down in history as one of the
three founders of the financial policy of the
Nation.
Aug. "a, 1914, when the British entered
Washington, they burned the Treasury
building. For some time after the busi-
ness was carried on in "The Seven Build
ings"
The history Of the Treasury Department,
with its statistics, is the financial history