The office of Comptroller of the Treasury was created November 3, 1778, and Jonathan Trumbull, Jr., appointed, with a salary of four thousand dollars. Money was painfully scarce. That made it the more imperative that this poor little empty Treasury should have some supreme responsible head who, by the adroit magic of financial genius, should create a way to fill it, and by some way provide cash for the unprovided-for emergencies which were perpetually imminent. Thus in September, 1781, Congress repealed the act appointing five Commissioners, and in their stead appointed a single supreme “Superintendent of Finance.” The first high functionary of the Treasury was Robert Morris, of Philadelphia. He had already distinguished himself for his remarkable financial talents as a merchant, and for his devoted patriotism. Besides, he was the intimate friend and confidential adviser of Washington. He was the man for the place and the hour. He kept the credit of the struggling Colonies afloat in their direst moment. He gave from his private fortune without stint, and added thereto the contributions of the infant nation. When even Washington was ready to give up in despair, because he had no money to pay his troops, and the troops were ready to surrender and disband from sheer misery and suffering, Robert Morris applied to “the purser of our allies, the French,” and saved the perishing army and the struggling republic. He proved then, what has been proved so conspicuously since during a still greater struggle, that he who preserves the credit of his country in the hour of its peril is as truly a patriot as he who dies for her sake on the battle-field. Notwithstanding his benefactions, at the close of the Revolution, the jealousy among foremost men was so great, it was found to be impossible to give to one man the precedence and power in so responsible a place. The claims of the three contending sections were acknowledged by the appointment of three Commissioners: one from the Eastern, one from the Middle, and one from the Southern districts, in the persons of Samuel Osgood, Walter Livingston and Arthur Lee. Robert Morris became a member of the Convention which framed the Constitution of the United States, and concluded his public services to his country as United States Senator. At the end of three years, the administration of the three Commissioners of Finance had proved so inharmonious and unsuccessful that the country was nearly bankrupt, and the Union of States ready to break into ruins, for lack of money to pay its expenses and hold it together.