Hamilton's appointment to this most important portfolio at
the disposal of the President was looked upon as a matter of course. It
created little discussion, but so deep a feeling of security, that even
before the reading of his famous Report business had revived to some
extent. This Report upon the public credit was demanded of him at once,
but it was not until the recess of Congress that he could work
uninterruptedly upon it; for that body, floundering in its chaos of
inherited difficulties, turned to the new Secretary for advice on almost
every problem that beset it. I cannot do better here than to quote from
the monograph on Hamilton by Henry Cabot Lodge, who puts with admirable
succinctness a series of facts important to the knowledge of every
American:--
In the course of a year he was asked to report, and did report with
full details, upon the raising, management, and collection of the
revenue, including a scheme for revenue cutters; as to the
estimates of income and expenditure; as to the temporary regulation
of the chaotic currency; as to navigation laws, and the regulation
of the coasting trade, after a thorough consideration of a heap of
undigested statistics; as to the post-office, for which he drafted
a bill; as to the purchase of West Point; on the great question of
public lands and a uniform system of managing them; and upon all
claims against the government.
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