g himself the airs of providing for the payment of the debt, he
left himself free to add to it continually, as he did in fact, instead
of paying it. I like your idea of kneading all his little scraps and
fragments into one batch, and adding to it a complementary sum, which,
while it forms it into a single mass from which every thing is to be
paid, will enable us, should a breach of appropriation ever be charged
on us, to prove that the sum appropriated, and more, has been applied to
its specific object.

But there is a point beyond this, on which I should wish to keep my
eye, and to which I should aim to approach by every tack which previous
arrangements force on us. That is, to form into one consolidated mass
all the monies received into the treasury, and to marshal the several
expenditures, giving them a preference of payment according to the order
in which they should be arranged. As for example. 1. The interest of
the public debt. 2. Such portions of principal as are exigible. 3. The
expenses of government. 4. Such other portions of principal as, though
not exigible, we are still free to pay when we please. The last object
might be made to take up the residuum of money remaining in the treasury
at the end of every year, after the three first objects were complied
with, and would be the barometer whereby to test the economy of the
administration. It would furnish a simple measure by which every one
could mete their merit, and by which every one could decide when
taxes were deficient or superabundant. If to this can be added a
simplification of the form of accounts in the treasury department, and
in the organization of its officers, so as to bring every thing to a
single centre, we might hope to see the finances of the Union as
clear and intelligible as a merchant's books, so that every member of
Congress, and every man of any mind in the Union, should be able to
comprehend them, to investigate abuses, and consequently to control
them. Our predecessors have endeavored by intricacies of system, and
shuffling the investigator over from one officer to another, to
cover every thing from detection, I hope we shall go in the contrary
direction, and that, by our honest and judicious reformations, we may be
able, within the limits of our time, to bring things back to that simple
and intelligible system, on which they should have been organized at
first.

I have suggested only a single alteration in the report, which is merel