The successful application of Mr. Gallatin's plan would have subordinated all the executive departments to the Treasury. The theory was perfect, but it took no account of the greed of office, the jealousies of friends, the opposition of enemies, and the unknown factor of foreign relations. A speck on the horizon would cloud the peaceful prospect, a hostile threat derange the intricate machinery by which the delicate financial balance was maintained. Mr. Gallatin was fast realizing the magnitude of his undertaking, in which he was greatly embarrassed by the difficulty of finding faithful examining clerks, on whose correctness and fidelity a just settlement of all accounts depends. The number of independent offices attached to the Treasury made the task still more arduous. He wrote to Jefferson at this time, "It will take me twelve months before I can thoroughly understand every detail of all these several offices. Current business and the more general and important duties of the office do not permit me to learn the lesser details, but incidentally and by degrees. Until I know them all I dare not touch the machine." One of the acquirements which he considered indispensable for a secretary of the treasury was a "thorough knowledge of book-keeping." The recollection of his persistent demands for information from Hamilton and Wolcott during his congressional career would have stung the conscience of an ordinary man. But Gallatin was not an ordinary man. He asked nothing of others which he himself was not willing to perform. His ideal was high, but he reached its summit. It seems almost as if, in his persistent demand that money accountability should be imposed by law upon the Treasury Department, he sought to set the measure of his own duty, while in the requirement that it should be extended to the other departments, he pledged himself to the perfect accomplishment of that duty in his own. In his first report to Congress,[11] made December 18, 1801, Mr. Gallatin submitted his financial estimate for the year 1802. REVENUE. EXPENDITURES. Imposts $9,500,000 Int. on debts. $7,100,000 Lands } 450,000 Civil List 980,000 Postages } Army 1,420,000 Internal Rev. 650,000 Navy 1,100,000 ---------- ---------- $10,600,000 $10,600,000