eterminate
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.
Nor do they fall within the scope of this outline of the features of his
policy. His reports are the textbook of American political economy.
Whoever would grasp its principles must seek them in this limpid source,
and study the methods he applied to revenue and loans. Well might
Webster say of him in lofty praise, "He smote the rock of national
resources, and abundant streams of revenue gushed forth; he touched the
dead corpse of Public Credit, and it sprung upon its feet."

On the resignation of Hamilton, January 31, 1795, Washington invited
Wolcott, who was familiar with the views of Hamilton and on such
intimate terms with him that he could always have his advice in any
difficult emergency, to take the post. Wolcott had been connected with
the department from its organization, first as auditor, afterwards as
comptroller of the Treasury. He held the Treasury until nearly the end
of Adams's administration. On November 8, 1800, upon the open breach
between Mr. Adams and the Hamilton wing of the Federal party, Wolcott,
whose sympathies were wholly with his old chief, tendered his
resignation, to take effect at the close of the year. On December 31 Mr.
Samuel Dexter was appointed to administer the department. But the days
of the Federal party were now numbered: it fell of its own dissensions,
"wounded in the house of its friends."

There is little in the administration of the finances by Wolcott to
attract comment. He managed the details of the department with integrity
and skill. On his retirement a committee of the House on the condition
of the Treasury was appointed. No similar examination had been made
since May 22, 1794. On January 28, 1801, Mr. Otis, chairman of the
committee, submitted the results of the investigation in an unanimous
report that the business of the Treasury Department had been conducted
with regularity, fidelity, and a regard to economy; that the
disbursements of money had always been made pursuant to law, and
generally that the financial concerns of the country had been left by
the late secretary in a state of good order and prosperity. During his
six years of administration of the finances Wolcott negotiated six
loa