Show 1S STUDENT LIFE he was at once the wisest counselor and the ablest debater He not only favored all the great principles in the constitution but he was the first propounder of most of them And the subsequent modifications and changes in the constitution have lecn in conformity with his policy lie stood for a strong central government with adequate powers not only to make but to execute and administer its laws Xo subject created more bitter controversy in the convention than the subject of taxation It was Hamilton’s wise counsel and eloquent arguments in speech and press which shaped the wise financial olicy in the constitution Guizot gives the following tribute to Hamilton’s genius: “There is not in the constitution of the United States an element of order of force of duration to which he did not powerfully contribute” But it was in finance Hamilton was destined to shine with the brightest lustre It is true that his genius had an exceptional opportunity but no man ever measured more fully up to his opportunities than lie To him belongs the credit of creating our national finance and credit It was his genius and originality which organized the Treasury Department so completely that no important change has been made em-lodi- ed since Robert Morris defined the function of National Finance in his statement to Washington regarding Hamilton’s abilities The function is four fold : to determine the neces sary expenditures of the government to find ways and means to meet these expenditures or in other words “to bring the resources of the country into active efficiency’ to regulate the circulating media and to maintain the public credit This was the task Hamilton was called iqon to perform when he was appointed Secretary of the Treasure under Washington The magnitude of his task will be realized when we consider that with only four millions of people there was a national and state debt of milnearly lions of dollars with no certain source of income The condition of the national treasury during the war is forcibly explained in a letter written bv Quartermaster General Charles Petone-lnmdrcd-seve- nty it in 1780 tinental lie says: “The Treasury Con is wretchedly so little or at Ioor and affords least so little comes from it to me that I have no money at command on the most pressing emergencies” Regarding his own observations Hamilton wrote about the same time: “I find our prospects are infinitely worse than they have been at any period of the war and unless some expedient can be instant-l- v adopted a dissolution of the armv for want of subsistence is unavoidable” The currency had become so entirely debased that to express utter worthlessness the phrase “not worth a continental dollar” became current Banking was almost unknown there being at that time |