r might, had the French Revolution
been postponed, though its occurrence furnished them with means of
attack,--the larger part of the American people sympathizing with the
French, while Hamilton shared with Edmund Burke opinions which time has
done much to show were sound; and he was a strenuous supporter of that
policy of neutrality which Washington wisely adopted. The Secretary of
the Treasury was assailed by those who envied and hated him, in various
ways. His official integrity was called in question, but the
investigations which he courted led to the confounding of his enemies,
while his personal character stood brighter than ever. So bitter became
the opposition that some of their number wished for the success of the
Whiskey Insurrection in Pennsylvania, as Mr. Jefferson's correspondence
shows; and the part which Hamilton had in suppressing that outbreak did
not increase their regard for him. The presence of two such men in
Washington's Cabinet as Hamilton and Jefferson made it the scene of
dissension until Jefferson retired.

Hamilton remained in office some time longer; and when he left it, he
did so only for personal reasons. He was poor. He had expended, not only
his salary, but almost all the property he possessed when he took
office. The man who had made his country rich had made himself poor by
his devotion to her interests, and had received nothing but vindictive
abuse in requital of his unrivalled labors. He resolved to return to the
practice of his profession, which he never would have left, had he
consulted merely his individual interests and those of his family. Some
weeks before he retired, he addressed a letter to the Speaker of the
House of Representatives, announcing his purpose, in order that inquiry
might be made into the state of his department, should Congress see fit
to make it; but his foes had been so humiliated by the results of the
two inquiries undertaken at their instance, that they would not venture
upon a third. In January, 1795, he sent a letter to Congress on the
subject of the public credit, which is one of his ablest productions,
full of sound financial doctrine, and showing that he was in advance of
most men on those economical questions the proper settlement of which so
closely concerns the welfare of nations. This letter affords a complete
view of the financial history of the government, and may be considered
as Secretary Hamilton's statement of his case to the world. The debt
e