One more measure in the comprehensive system of public credit crowned the solid structure of which the funding of the debt was the cornerstone. This was the establishment of the sinking fund for the redemption of the debt. Hamilton conformed his plan to the maxim, which, to use his words, "has been supposed capable of giving immortality to credit, namely, that with the creation of debts should be incorporated the means of extinguishment, which are twofold. 1st. The establishing, at the time of contracting a debt, funds for the reimbursement of the principal, as well as for the payment of interest within a determinate 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."