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 merely verbal and of no consequence.  We shall now get rid of the commissioner of the internal revenue, and superintendant of stamps.  It remains to amalgamate the comptroller and auditor into one, and reduce the register to a clerk of accounts; and then the organization will consist, as it should at first, of a keeper of money, a keeper of accounts, and the head of the department.  This constellation of great men in the treasury department was of a piece with the rest of Hamilton’s plans.  He took his own stand as a Lieutenant General, surrounded by his Major Generals, and stationing his Brigadiers and Colonels under the name of Supervisors, Inspectors, &tc. in the different States.  Let us deserve well of our country by making her interests the end of all our plans, and not our own pomp, patronage, and irresponsibility.  I have hazarded these hasty and crude ideas, which occurred on contemplating your report.  They may be the subject of future conversation and correction.  Accept my affectionate salutations.