cutive, and judicial branches of the government." But he
objected for reasons of detail. Mr. Dallas again, as a last resort,
insisted on a bank as the only means by which the currency of the
country could be restored to a sound condition. In December, 1815,
Dallas reported to the committee of the House of Representatives on the
national currency, of which John C. Calhoun was chairman, a plan for a
national bank, and on March 3, 1816, the second Bank of the United
States was chartered by Congress. The capital was thirty-five millions,
of which the government held seven millions in seventy thousand shares
of one hundred dollars each. Mr. Madison approved the bill. This
completed the abandonment of every shred of principle claimed by the
Republican party as their rule of action. They struggled through the
rest of their existence without a political conviction. The national
bank, and the system of internal taxation which had been scorned by
Jefferson and Madison as unconstitutional, were accepted actually under
Madison's administration. Gallatin's success, owing to the development
and application of Hamilton's plans, was a complete vindication of the
theory and practice of the Federalists which they abhorred; Jefferson's
plan of a government issue of paper money was a higher flight into the
upper atmosphere of implied powers than Hamilton ever dreamed of.

The second national bank of the United States was also located at
Philadelphia, and chartered for twenty years. The manner in which it
performed its financial service is admirably set forth in Mr. Gallatin's
"Considerations on the Currency," already mentioned. It acted as a
regulator upon the state banks, checked excessive issues on their part,
and brought the paper currency of the country down from sixty-six to
less than forty millions, before the year 1820.

In April, 1816, Mr. Dallas having signified his intention to resign the
Treasury, Mr. Madison wrote to Gallatin, offering him his choice between
the mission to France and the Treasury Department. Mr. Gallatin's reply
was characteristic. He declined the Treasury, but with reluctance, since
he thought he would be more useful at home than abroad, and because he
preferred to be in America rather than in Europe. One of his
preponderating reasons was that, although he felt himself competent to
the higher duties of the office, there was, for what he conceived "a
proper management of the Treasury, a necessity for a mass of