About two years, however, after the commencement of the present federal government (viz. March 3. 1791,) a resolution of congress was passed, concerning the establishing of a Mint, under such regulations as should be directed by law. Previously to this, the late Alexander Hamilton, Esq. had communicated to the house of representatives, by their order, the result of his enquiries and reflexions on the subject, in a diffuse and masterly official report. In his report, this able financier, alike distinguished as a statesman and a soldier,[276] remarked, that “the unequal values allowed in different parts of the Union to coins of the same intrinsic worth; the defective species of them, which embarrass the circulation of them in some of the states; and the dissimilarity in their several monies of account, are inconveniences, which if not to be ascribed to the want of a national coinage, will at least be most effectually remedied by the establishment of one; a measure that will at the same time give additional security against impositions, by counterfeit as well as by base currencies.”—“It was with great reason, therefore,” continues the Secretary, “that the attention of congress, under the late confederation, was repeatedly drawn to the establishment of a Mint; and it is with equal reason that the subject has been resumed; now that the favourable change which has taken place in the situation of public affairs, admits of its being carried into execution.” ----- Footnote 276: “The task of re-creating public credit,” (says Chief Justice Marshal, in his _Life of Washington_,) “of drawing order and arrangement from the chaotic confusion in which the finances of America were involved, and of devising means which should render the revenue productive, and commensurate with the demand, was justly classed among the most arduous of the duties which devolved on the new government[276a]. In discharging it, much aid was expected from the head of the treasury. To Colonel Hamilton[276b] was assigned this important, and at that time intricate department.