at
the head of that department with an empty treasury, a revenue inadequate
to the expenses, and no means to borrow." Nevertheless he feared that if
it were declared that the payment of the debt incurred by themselves
were to be postponed till the present generation were over, it might
well be expected that the principle thus adopted by them would be
cherished, that succeeding legislatures and administrations would follow
in their steps, and that they were laying the foundations of that
national curse,--a growing and perpetual debt.

On the last day of the session W. Smith had challenged the correctness
of Gallatin's charge that there had been an increase of the public debt
by five millions under the present administration, and claimed that
there were errors in Gallatin's statement of more than four and a half
millions. Gallatin defended his figures. At this day it is impossible to
determine the merits of this dispute.

One incident of this session deserves mention as showing the distaste of
Gallatin for anything like personal compliment, stimulated in this
instance, perhaps, by his sense of Washington's dislike to himself. It
had been the habit of the House since the commencement of the government
to adjourn for a time on February 22, Washington's birthday, that
members might pay their respects to the President. When the motion was
made that the House adjourn for _half an hour_, the Republicans
objected, and Gallatin, nothing loath to "bell the cat," moved that the
words "half an hour" be struck out. His amendment was lost without a
division. The motion to adjourn was then put and lost by a vote of 50
nays to 38 ayes. The House waited on the President at the close of the
business of the day. On June 1 closed this long and memorable session,
in which the assaults of the Republicans upon the administration were so
persistent and embarrassing as to justify Wolcott's private note to
Hamilton, April 29, 1796, that "unless a radical change of opinion can
be effected in the Southern States, the existing establishments will not
last eighteen months. The influence of Messrs. Gallatin, Madison, and
Jefferson must be diminished, or the public affairs will be brought to a
stand." Here is found an early recognition of the political
"triumvirate," and Gallatin is the first named.

Gallatin seems to have had some doubts as to his reelection to Congress.
As he did not reside in the Washington and Allegheny district, his name
was n