The purchase of Louisiana was the extraordinary financial measure of Jefferson's first presidential term. Though the new obligation for the consideration money, fifteen millions of dollars, was a large sum in proportion to the total existing debt of the United States, it did not in the least derange Gallatin's plan of funding and reduction, but was brought without friction within his general scheme. With the terms of the contract Gallatin had nothing to do. They were arranged by Livingston and Monroe, the American commissioners; the intervention of the houses of Hope and the Barings being a part of the understanding between the commissioners and the French government. These bankers engaged to make the money payments and take six per cent. stock of the United States at seventy-eight and one half cents on the dollar. With this price Mr. Gallatin does not seem to have been satisfied, though of course he interposed no objection to the terms; but to Jefferson he wrote, August 31, 1803, that the low price at which that stock had been sold, was "not ascribable to the state of public credit nor to any act of your administration, and particularly of the Treasury Department;" and he adds in a postscript, "at that period our threes were in England worth one per cent. more at market than the English." RECEIPTS. ------------------+----------------+---------------+-------------+ Four years | Customs. | Internal | Direct | ending | | Revenue. | Taxes. | December 31. | | | | ------------------+----------------+---------------+-------------+ Adams, 1800 | $30,347,093.62 | $2,808,382.37 | $734,223.97 | +--------------- +-------------- +------------ + Jefferson, 1804 | 44,766,997.61 | 1,936,053.30 | 862,986.46 | 1808 | 59,813,257.40 | 63,110.73 | 131,539.54 | +--------------- +-------------- +------------ + | 104,580,255.01 | 1,999,146.03 | 994,526.00 | ------------------+----------------+---------------+-------------+ ------------------+-------------+--------------+---------------+ Four years | Postage. | Public | Loans and | ending | | Lands. | Treasury | December 31. | | | Notes. | ------------------+-------------+--------------+---------------+ Adams, 1800 | $223,000.00 | $95,947.46 | $7,055,791.25 | +-------------+--------------+---------------+ Jefferson, 1804 | 157,427.26 | 1,009,556.56 | 25,255.00 | 1808 | 60,074.90 | 2,419,541.86 | 179,534.81 | +-------------+--------------+---------------+ | 217,502.10 | 3,429,098.42 | 205,089.81 | ------------------+-------------+--------------+---------------+