54,345,040, have been
adjusted without question with the exception of a few small balances,
now in the process of collection, of which it is believed that the
government will eventually lose less than $13,000, or less than four
mills for each $1000 of the amount involved;" and in 1880 he said with
entire truth, "The department is a well organized and well conducted
business office, depending mainly for its success upon the integrity and
fidelity of the heads of bureaus and chiefs of divisions."

_Banking_

There is no more instructive chapter in the history of finance than that
upon the banking system of the United States. It has its distinct eras
of radical change, each of which presents a series of tentative
experiments. The outcome, by a process of development, in which
political expediency has been as effective an agency as financial
necessity, is the present national banking system. Though the term
"government," or "national," bank is constantly used in reference to the
great banking institutions of England, France, and the United States, no
one of these is in the true sense of the word a national bank. The Bank
of England is a chartered corporation, the Bank of France an association
instituted by law. The Bank of North America, and the Bank of the United
States which followed it, were founded on the same principle. Both were
corporations of individuals intimately connected with the government,
enjoying certain privileges accorded and being under certain
restrictions, but otherwise independent of government control.

The Bank of North America, the first bank established in the United
States, was also the first which had any direct relation to the
government. It was the conception of the comprehensive and original mind
of Robert Morris, the financier or superintendent of the public finances
of the United States. Its purpose was not the convenience or profit of
individuals, but to draw together the scattered financial resources of
the country and found a public credit. He submitted his plan to
Congress, which adopted a resolution of approval May 26, 1781. The
original plan contemplated a capital of ten millions of dollars; but the
collection of such a sum in gold and silver in one depository was beyond
the range of possibility at that period, and the capital was finally
fixed at four hundred thousand dollars, in one thousand shares of four
hundred dollars each. Subscription books were immediately opened, but
not