n accord with his pet plan of minute
specific appropriation of the sums estimated for and expended by each.
Mr. Madison heartily agreed with Mr. Gallatin on this subject, and on
taking office placed the relations of the State Department upon the
desired footing. But the heads of the Army and Navy were never willing
to consent to the strict limitation which Mr. Gallatin would have
imposed on their expenditures. In his notes to Jefferson for the draft
of his first message in 1801, Mr. Gallatin said that the most important
reform he could suggest was that of 'specific appropriations,' and he
inclosed an outline of a form to be enforced in detail. In January,
1802, he sent to Joseph H. Nicholson a series of inquiries to be
addressed to himself by a special committee on the subject, with regard
to the mode by which money was drawn from the Treasury and the situation
of accounts between that department and those of the Army and Navy. To
these questions he sent in to the House an elaborate reply, which he
intended to be the basis of legislation. Strict appropriation was the
ideal at which he aimed, and this word was so often on his tongue or in
his messages that it could not be mentioned without a suggestion of his
personality. He carried the same nicety of detail into his domestic
life. He managed his own household expenses, and at a time when
bountiful stores were the fashion in every household he insisted on a
rigid observance of the more precise French system. He made an
appropriation of a certain sum each day for his expenses, and required
from his purveyor a strict daily account of disbursements. An amusing
story is told of him at his own table. On an occasion when entertaining
a company at dinner, he was dissatisfied with the menu and expressed his
disapprobation to his maitre d'hotel, a Frenchman, who replied to him
in broken English, that it was not his fault, but that of the
"mal-appropriations."

The example set by Mr. Gallatin in this particular was never forgotten,
and from his day to this strict accountability has been the tradition of
the Treasury Department, now greatly increased in detail, but in
structure essentially as it was originally organized. Of its management
Mr. Sherman was able to say in his report of December 1, 1879, "The
organization of the several bureaus is such, and the system of
accounting so perfect, that the financial transactions of the government
during the past two years, aggregating $3,3