Late in life, in a letter to John M. Botts, June 14, 1841, Mr. Gallatin expressed the same opinions with regard to the usefulness of a government bank as an aid to the Treasury Department, but limited his approval to that use. "Except in its character of fiscal agent to the general government I attach much less importance to a national bank than several of those who are in favor of it." "Did I believe," he adds in the same letter, "that a bank of the United States would effectually secure us a sound currency, I would think it a duty at all hazards to promote the object." The reason for his doubts in 1841 is easily seen in the impossibility of annihilating or controlling the three hundred distinct currencies of as many banks, each nominally convertible into specie at its point of issue; a financial puzzle which Mr. Chase solved in the device and organization of the present national banking system, which, without involving the government in banking operations, affords to the people a homogeneous currency of uniform value, and secures its convertibility by reasonable but absolute restrictions, upon conformity to which the existence of the banks depends. The exigencies of war compelled an acquiescence in the plans of Mr. Chase, which, at the time when Mr. Gallatin expressed his doubts, could not have been had in any system whatever which involved the subordination of the banks. The wide spread of the state bank system, with its irresponsible and unlimited issues, occurring subsequent to Mr. Gallatin's withdrawal from the Treasury, was a consequence of the failure to renew the charter of the Bank of the United States; and if ever there were a system by which the inhabitants of States whose floating capital was small were placed at the mercy of moneyed corporations of the States where it was abundant, it was the state bank system. The experience of the old confederation had not taught this lesson. The colonial system was continued by the several States, and bills of credit were issued on their faith. The continental system was a compound of the main features of this plan. The bills were issued by the Congress, but the States were relied upon for their ultimate redemption.