."

The receipts into the Treasury during the
year ending September, 1808, the last of
Jefferson's administration, were $17,952,419.90

The disbursements during the same period
were 12,635,275.46
-------------
Excess of receipts $5,317,144.44

And the specie in Treasury, October 1,
1808 $13,846,717.82

From January 1, 1791, to January 1, 1808, the debt had fallen from
$75,169,974 to $57,023,192; during the first ten years it had increased
nearly seven millions of dollars, in the last eight it had been
diminished more than twenty millions and Louisiana had been purchased.
Thus closed the second term of Gallatin's service. Happen what might,
the credit of the country could not be in a better situation to meet the
exigencies of a war. A letter from Mr. Jefferson to Mr. Gallatin after
the close of this administration, and Gallatin's reply, show the entire
accord between them upon the one cardinal point of financial policy. Mr.
Jefferson, October 11, 1809, wrote from Monticello, "I consider the
fortunes of our republic as depending in an eminent degree on the
extinction of the public debt before we engage in any war; because, that
done, we shall have revenue enough to improve our country in peace and
defend it in war, without incurring either new taxes or new loans." And
urging Gallatin to retain his post, he closed with the striking words,
"I hope, then, you will abandon entirely the idea you expressed to me,
and that you will consider the eight years to come as essential to your
political career. I should certainly consider any earlier day of your
retirement as the most inauspicious day our new government has ever
seen." To which Gallatin replied from Washington, on November 10:--

"The reduction of the public debt was certainly the principal
object in bringing me into office, and our success in that respect
has been due both to the joint and continued efforts of the several
branches of government and to the prosperous situation of the
country. I am sensible that the work cannot progress under adverse
circumstances. If the United States shall be forced into a state of
actual war, all the resources of the country must be called forth
to make it efficient and new loans will undoubtedly be wanted. But
whilst peace is