[Footnote 13: These were the banks of New York, Boston, Philadelphia,
and Baltimore. Seven presidents formed the committee. John A. Stevens of
New York was chairman, by request of the Secretary of the Treasury. The
other members were named by him. The sum advanced to the government was
one hundred and fifty millions of dollars in coin.]
[Footnote 14: At Portland, $120,000; Salem, $183,600; Boston, $75,300;
Providence, $67,800; Richmond, $49,000; Norfolk, $103,000; Charleston,
$354,000.]
[Footnote 15: Report of Secretary Dallas, September 20, 1816.]
[Footnote 16: Act of March 3, 1817.]
[Footnote 17: _Democratic Review_, xii. 641.]
[Footnote 18: Chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means.]
CHAPTER VII
IN THE CABINET
The general principles which Mr. Jefferson proposed to apply in his
conduct of the government were not principles of organization but of
administration. The establishments devised by Hamilton, in accordance
with or in development of the provisions of the Constitution, were
organic. The new policy was essentially restrictive and economic. The
military and naval establishments were to be kept at their lowest
possible limit. The Treasury Department was to be conducted on strictly
business principles. The debt was to be reduced and finally paid by a
fixed annual appropriation. The revenue was to be raised by imposts on
importation and tonnage, and by direct taxation, if necessary. The
public land system was to be developed. A scheme of internal
improvements by land and water highways was to be devised. All these
purposes except the last had been declared by the opposition during the
last part of Washington's second term and during Adams's presidency, and
had been lucidly expounded by Madison, Gallatin, Giles, Nicholas, and
others of the Republican leaders. On all these subjects Mr. Gallatin
was in accord with his chief. Only upon the bank question were they at
issue. Mr. Jefferson detested or feared the aristocracy of money, while
Gallatin, with a clearer insight into commercial and financial
questions, recognized that in a young country where capital was limited,
and specie in still greater disproportion to the increasing demands of
trade, a well-ordered, well-managed money institution was an enormous
advantage, if not an imperative necessity to the government and the
people.
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