No one at this time seemed to feel the potency of the protective principle in enlarging the power of the Union. It was unseen until fully developed some thirty years later. Yet to appreciate the full force of this tariff bill of July 4, 1789, with its protective preamble, as a sample of Union-making legislation, one need only consider the gratitude which the National Government has won through such protective measures; the attachment of leading men to the Union from guarding their interests; the accumulated strength of moneyed interests in time of danger to the Republic; the use made of the tariff in protecting workingmen; the revenue derived from high tariffs, which has been spent on public improvements; and the force of public opinion which has been frequently rallied by both employer and employee to the support of the execution of a national revenue law. Above all members of the first administration, Hamilton stood for an efficient National Government. He saw opportunity in the administration and interpretation of the written document to correct the weak places which he had sought in vain to avoid when the frame was being made. A constructive genius by birth, a financier by study, a leader of men by nature, Hamilton had, in the Treasury Department, that function of the new Government which needed the most strengthening, and in its present condition the necessity which would support the strongest measures. Called upon by Congress at the time of its first adjournment to inform them of the exact financial condition of the country, he drew up an exhaustive report showing that the National and State governments together owed something like fifty-two millions of dollars. The national obligation to-day is twenty times that sum. Its proportion to eighty millions of people is not much less than the fifty-two millions were to the three and a half millions of people who faced the debt of Hamilton's time. But the debt now is of fixed form and assured payment before it is incurred. The debt which Hamilton presented to Congress was heterogeneous in form and without means of payment. Arguing that a national debt properly funded had contributed largely to the prosperity of Great Britain, Hamilton proposed to collect all these evidences of debt into a national obligation, which would bring interest to its holders until paid. The faith of the United States toward its creditors must be redeemed. To secure a revenue with which to pay this interest and evidently to redeem the principal in addition to meeting the running expenses of the Government was the first task. Hamilton proposed to place additional duties on imported goods and to lay a tonnage on vessels using American ports, the latter of which he estimated would yield more than a million dollars. He would also put an excise on distilled spirits manufactured in the United States and on those imported, both bringing in nearly three million dollars. The