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commission, said: "Mr. Gallatin, your most important duty will be to examine the accounts, and all the records of your department, in order to discover the blunders and frauds of Hamilton, and to ascertain what changes will be required in the system. This is a most important duty, and will require all your industry and acuteness. To do it thoroughly, you may employ whatever extra service you require."

Gallatin was an ardent partisan of the President, and declares, himself, that he undertook his task of exposing Hamilton, and bringing his lofty head low, with great zest and thoroughness. But his hunt for "blunders" and venality merged soon into a labor of love. Upon his just and comprehensive mind, Hamilton's perfect system, day by day, revealed itself. By the time he had mastered its details, and measured its completeness, he was filled with admiration. "In the honest enthusiasm of a truly great mind he went to Mr. Jefferson and said: Mr. President, 1 have, as you directed, made a thorough examination of the books, accounts and correspondence of my department, from its commencement. I have found,' said the conscientious Secretary, 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 marked his administration by a series of reports regarding the best method of canceling the national debt, the proper policy of disposing of the public lands, and the legality and necessity of establishing a national bank. Thus, contrary to his original intention, he associated himself with Morris and Hamilton as one of the three founders of the financial policy of the nation.

By the year 1804, the business of the Treasury had so increased, that an effort was made toward the erection of a building, to become the especial depository of the records. An idea may be given of the demands of the infant government and its notions of economy, in the facts that this vaunted fire-proof public building is much smaller than an unpretentious private dwelling of the present time, and that it cost less than the sum of twelve thousand dollars.

Mr. Madison, on his accession to the Presidency, retained Mr. Gallatin at the head of the Treasury.

On March 1, 1809, an act of Congress directed that all warrants drawn on the Treasury by the Secretaries of the different executive departments, should designate the appropriation to which they were charged.

June 18, 1812, war was declared, and Congress was convened in special session, to consider the necessities of the Treasury. Out of the legislation which followed, came our present internal revenue laws. Mr. Gallatin, after having held his office longer than any of his predecessors, resigned, and went on a foreign mission. A period of extreme money depression succeeded his resignation. August 24, 1814, the British troops entered Washington, and, with the Capitol and other public buildings, burned the Treasury. The business of the Treasury, for a considerable time afterwards, was carried on in what was known as "the Seven Buildings," in the western part of the city.

George N. Campbell, of Tennessee, Mr. Gallatin's successor, attempted to negotiate a loan of twenty-five millions of dollars, but failed, and resigned his office. The national credit was at its lowest ebb.

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When the need of a great man is absolute, Providence usually has one ready for the emergency. He appeared at this crisis, in the person of Alexander J. Dallas, of Pennsylvania. On entering upon his office, as head of the Treasury, he replied to the request of Congress, that he should suggest ways for the restoration of the public credit, in one of the most powerful documents extant in the archives of the Treasury. Mr. Dallas so inspired the faith of the capitalists of the country, that the national credit was at once restored. "The Treasury notes, issued on the universal opinion that they would be a drug in the market, rose to a premium.”

Mr. Monroe made W. II. Crawford, of Georgia, Secretary of the Treasury. Under him, the routine of the Department was improved by the appointment of a second Comptroller and four additional Auditors. Charges of malfeasance were brought against him toward the close of his term of office. They were examined by a committee consisting of John Randolph, Edward Livingston, and Daniel Webster, who pronounced the charges false. President John Quincy Adams recalled Richard Rush, of Pennsylvania, then Minister to England, and made him Secretary of the Treasury.

Under Andrew Jackson's Presidency, the conservative management of the Treasury Department changed into "the anti-bank period." His administration was marked by five different Secretaries, and a prevailing state of excitement. The first Secretary of the Treasury, under Jackson, was Samuel D. Ingham, of Pennsylvania, whose trust ended in a violent breaking up of the Cabinet. He was succeeded by William J. Doane, of Pennsylvania, who refused to remove the national deposits from the United

States Bank, and was dethroned by Roger B. Taney, of Maryland. The Senate refused to confirm his appointment, and Levi Woodbury, of New Hampshire, was installed in the office, holding it to the end of Jackson's administration.

April 1, 1833, the Treasury Building was for the third time destroyed by fire, and a large amount of valuable public documents destroyed. Afterwards, the business of the Department was carried on in a row of brick buildings opposite Willard's Hotel. At this time the "Agent of the Treasury," was changed to Solicitor of the Treasury, and a sixth Auditor was created. Jackson's administration closed with an "apparent plethora of money among the people, and the glorious consummation of paying off the national debt."

Mr. Woodbury continued at the head of the Treasury, under President Van Buren. It was his fate to be its director in the times of unparalleled plenty, speculation and extravagance, and two years afterwards, to witness a pecuniary revulsion that had no precedent in financial history." In 1837, financial ruin dismayed the Nation. Congress was convened by special proclamation, to devise ways and means to relieve the people. Specie payments were suspended, and all business involved in apparent ruin. Binding laws were passed, divorcing the Government from all banking institutions, and a new policy was created for the control of our national finances.

Under Presidents IIarrison and Tyler there were five Secretaries of the Treasury: Thomas Ewing, of Ohio; Walter Howard, of Pennsylvania; John C. Spencer, of New York, and George M. Beble, of Kentucky. President Polk made Robert J. Walker the head of the Treas

THE APOSTLE OF FREE-TRADE.

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ury. He was known as "the apostle of free trade." His administration was marked by the introduction of the present warehousing system, based upon English precedent; by his reciprocity system between Canada and the United States abolishing all customs and imports, and the establishment of an "Interior Department" upon the old overgrown Land Office, with a Cabinet officer to administer its affairs, under the title of Secretary of the Interior.

The Secretary of the Treasury, under President Taylor, was William M. Meredith, of Pennsylvania; who was succeeded, under President Fillmore, by Thomas Corwin, of Ohio. Secretary Corwin established the present lighthouse department and wrote the instructions regarding light-vessels, beacons and buoys. This beneficent legislation gave over six hundred lights to protect the hitherto neglected mariner on his way.

The Chief of the Treasury under President Pierce, was James Guthrie, of Kentucky. He is remembered as a strict and efficient officer, carrying out in minutia, the duties and laws of the department. IIe discovered outstanding balances against the Treasury, which, if collected, would more than pay the national debt. Of this sum he collected hundreds of millions into the Treasury, and raised the standard of efficiency in the Treasury service by demanding monthly, instead of quarterly reports, from all its employés.

Three Secretaries of the Treasury served under James Buchanan-Howell Cobb, of Georgia; Philip F. Thomas, of Maryland; and John A. Dix, of New York. A monetary crisis, almost as severe as that of 1837, marked this administration. The throes of Secession shook the Union to its foundation, and the Secretaries of the Treasury,