preserved, the revenue will, at all events, be
sufficient to pay the interest and to defray necessary expenses. I
do not ask that in the present situation of our foreign relations
the debt be reduced, but only that it shall not be increased so
long as we are not at war."

In his eight years of service under Jefferson, Gallatin had not found
the Treasury Department a bed of roses. Under Madison there was an undue
proportion of thorns.

It has been shown that the entire reliance of Gallatin for the expenses
of government was on customs, tonnage dues, and land sales. The effect
of the Embargo Act was soon felt in the falling off of importations, and
consequently in the revenue from this source. Mr. Gallatin felt the
strain in the spring of 1809; and on March 18, soon after Mr. Madison's
inauguration, he gave notice to the commissioners of the sinking fund of
a probable deficiency. In his annual report to Congress, December, 1809,
he announced the expenses of government, exclusive of the payments on
account of the principal of the debt, to have exceeded the actual
receipts into the Treasury by a sum of near $1,300,000. For this
deficiency, and the sum required for the sinking fund, Gallatin was
authorized in May to borrow from the Bank of the United States
$3,750,000 at six per cent., reimbursable on December 31, 1811. Of this
sum only $2,750,000 was taken, the expenses having proved less than Mr.
Gallatin had anticipated.

Madison called Congress together on November 1, 1811. The political
tension was strong, and he was anxious to throw the responsibility of
peace or war upon Congress. On November 22, 1811, Mr. Gallatin made his
report on the finances and the public debt. It was, as usual, explicit
and in no manner despondent. The actual receipts arising from revenue
alone exceeded the current expenses, including the interest paid on the
debt, by a sum of more than five and one half millions of dollars. The
public debt on January 1, 1812, was $45,154,463. Since Gallatin took
charge of the department, the United States had in ten years and nine
months paid in full the purchase money of Louisiana, and increased its
revenue nearly two millions of dollars. For eight years eight millions
of dollars had been annually paid on account of the principal and
interest of the debt. And as though intending to leave as the legacy of
his service a lesson of financial policy, he said:--

"_The redemption of pri