3628. HAMILTON (Alexander), Treasury management.—[further continued].
I do not at all wonder
at the condition in which the finances of the
United States are found. Hamilton's object
from the beginning, was to throw them into
forms which should be utterly undecipherable.
I ever said he did not understand their condition
himself, nor was able to give a clear
view of the excess of our debts beyond our
credits, nor whether we were diminishing or
increasing the debt.—
To James Madison. Washington ed. iv, 131.
Ford ed., vii, 61.
(M.
1796)
