From January 1, 1791, to January 1, 1808, the debt had fallen from $75,169,974 to $57,023,192; during the first ten years it had increased nearly seven millions of dollars, in the last eight it had been diminished more than twenty millions and Louisiana had been purchased. Thus closed the second term of Gallatin's service. Happen what might, the credit of the country could not be in a better situation to meet the exigencies of a war. A letter from Mr. Jefferson to Mr. Gallatin after the close of this administration, and Gallatin's reply, show the entire accord between them upon the one cardinal point of financial policy. Mr. Jefferson, October 11, 1809, wrote from Monticello, "I consider the fortunes of our republic as depending in an eminent degree on the extinction of the public debt before we engage in any war; because, that done, we shall have revenue enough to improve our country in peace and defend it in war, without incurring either new taxes or new loans." And urging Gallatin to retain his post, he closed with the striking words, "I hope, then, you will abandon entirely the idea you expressed to me, and that you will consider the eight years to come as essential to your political career. I should certainly consider any earlier day of your retirement as the most inauspicious day our new government has ever seen." To which Gallatin replied from Washington, on November 10:-- "The reduction of the public debt was certainly the principal object in bringing me into office, and our success in that respect has been due both to the joint and continued efforts of the several branches of government and to the prosperous situation of the country. I am sensible that the work cannot progress under adverse circumstances. If the United States shall be forced into a state of actual war, all the resources of the country must be called forth to make it efficient and new loans will undoubtedly be wanted. But whilst peace is 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.