Ildest outburst of democratic fanaticism which any of the measures of
Hamilton had induced. The proposition to stamp the coins with the head
of the President was conclusive of an immediate design to place a crown
upon the head of Washington. Doubtless the leaders of the Federal party,
under the able tuition of their despot, had their titles ready, their
mine laid. Jefferson, in the Cabinet, protested with such solemn
persistence against so dangerous a precedent, and Hamilton perforated
him with such arrows of ridicule, that Washington exploded with wrath,
and demanded to know if neither never intended to yield a point to the
other. During this session of Congress, Hamilton also sent in Reports on
Trade with India and China, and on the Dutch Loan. He was fortunate in
being able to forget his enemies for days and even weeks at a time, when
his existence was so purely impersonal that every capacity of his mind,
save the working, slept soundly. By now, he had his department in
perfect running order; and his successors have accepted his legacy, with
its infinitude of detail, its unvarying practicality, with gratitude and
trifling alterations. When Jefferson disposed himself in the Chair of
State, in 1801, he appointed Albert Gallatin--the ablest financier,
after Hamilton, the country has produced--Secretary of the Treasury, and
begged him to sweep the department clean of the corruption amidst which
Hamilton had sat and spun his devilish schemes. Gallatin, after a
thorough and conscientious search for political microbes, informed his
Chief that in no respect could the department be improved, that there
was not a trace of crime, past or present. Jefferson was disconcerted;
but, as a matter of fact, his administrations were passed complacently
amidst Hamilton legacies and institutions. Jefferson's hour had come. He
could undo all that he had denounced in his rival as monarchical,
aristocratical,
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