Evening star., 1919-02-09

The work that he had undertaken at
the request of President Washington
was organized and the principles
originated by him for performing it
have been followed to this day by his
successors.
lie smote the rock of the national
resources" Daniel Webster said "and
abundant streams of revenue gushed
forth; he touched the dead corpse of
public credit and 1t sprang upon it's
feet"
1t has been declared by many quail
fled to judge that Hamilton ranks first
among American statesmen. He left
the cabinet of Washington because the
salary he received. $4,000 year, was
insufficient for the support of his
family.
In practice once more, he rose to the
leadership of the New York bar, No
lawyer elsewhere In the United States,
which, in those days, meant Boston
and Philadelphia, surpassed him in
learning, genius or material success.
During this time of his life. when
fortune was good to him, a New York
merchant. in writing, offered him
$1,000, payable in five years, at per
cent interest. for his appearance in all
suits brought by or against the mer-
chant within that period. The eXecu-
tor of 'Hamilton's estate found the let
ter, on the back of which, in Hamil-
tons handwriting. were these words:
Declined, as being too much"
when Hamilton wrote his viii, after
the duel with Burr had been arranged.
lie supposed that his estate, all debts
paid. though conscious that l have
too far sacrificed the interests of my
family to public avoca tons," would
amount to $4,000. He was forty
seven years old and for almost dec
ade had been vigorously practicing his
profession in the largest city in the
United States. A long time afterward
his estate actually reached the value
he had given 1t, but only then through
the purchase by former friends of con-
siderable unimproved land that he had
owned and left to his heirs.
And now, 123 years after Hamilton
resigned as Secretary of the Treasury
to restore his fortune, Mr. McAdoo
quits the same office for the same pur-
pose. The salary at present is
1900 month. Somewhere in Ham
ilton's writings, which fill seven vol
umes. will be found this sentence:
Few men are capable of making
continual sacrifice Of all views of
profit interest or advantage, to the
common good"
From Hamilton down to and in
cluding Carter Glass there have been
forty-five Secretaries of the Treasury.
All. perhaps, but half dozen have
been lawyers. Most Of them have
been poor; all were so, as wealth Is
measured today. One of them. Charles
Foster Of Ohio. failed In business.
Others left their families without
means of support. &
A,,l t,, tt~t ;<rIxf ha
said that no man who filled the Office
of Secretary of the Treasury ever be-
came President of the United States.
Many of them hoped to be President.
but only one in the forty five succeed
ed in being nominated for that office.
~
lie was William Harris Crawford.
born in Virginia, but brought up in
Georgia, who fought two duels. in one
OF which he was wounded and in the
other of which he killed his man. and
who, at the age of thirty five. was
elected to the United States Senate.
He became Secretary of the Treasury
i'm 1916. In 1924 he was nominated by
a congressional caucus for President
and carried Virginia and Georgia and
"
New York. Delaware and Maryland.
Crawford did not get within hailing
distance of the presidency, but even
SO he was closer to 1t than has been
any of the remaining forty -four Sec
retaries of the Treasury, Second to
him, in what up to this time. has been
a hopeless struggle to obtain the high
est office In the nation, may be men,
toned John Sherman of Ohio. g.
The names of only four or five Sec Z
retaries of the Treasury are remem-
bered by the people. Sherman's is one
OF them. Specie payments were sus-
pended by the government about Jan
uary l, 1862. Paper became the cir
culating medium of the country. and
was made legal tender--that is law
full money--mainly through the efforts
of Salmon p. Chase, then Secretary OF
the Treasury, and John Sherman. u
senator from Ohio.
A committee of republican senators
in 1874, Sherman chairman, took up
the subject of the resumption or
specie payments and fixed January l,
1870 as the time. when any man with
paper money In his pocket could ex-
change 1t for gold. Rutherford b.
Hayes. becoming President i'm March,
1877, appointed sherman Secretary of
the Treasury, and sherman immedi-
ately began preparing for the re-
sumption of gold payments. BY July
I. 1878, he had accumulated $780,
100000 In gold and when the day
20 ty lot on ~ htHh nu