Such was the state of this transaction, when the commencement of those calamities, which have finally overwhelmed St.Domingo, induced the American government, on the urgent application of the French minister, to furnish supplies to that ill fated colony, in payment of the debt to France.

This being a mode of payment which, to a certain extent, was desired by the creditor, and was advantageous to the debtor, a consequent disposition prevailed to use it so far as might comport with the wish of the French government; and a part of the money designed for foreign purposes, was drawn into the United States.

In the course of these operations, a portion of the instalments actually due to France, had been permitted to remain unsatisfied.
A part of the money borrowed in Europe being thus applicable to the extinguishment of the domestic debt, and a part of the domestic revenue being applicable to the payment of interest due on the loans made in Europe, the secretary of the treasury had appropriated a part of the money arising from foreign loans to the payment of interest due abroad, which had been replaced by the application of money in the treasury arising from domestic resources, to the purchase of the domestic debt.
The secretary had not deemed it necessary to communicate these operations in detail to the legislature: but some hints respecting them having been derived either from certain papers which accompanied a report made to the house of representatives early in the session, or from some other source, Mr.Giles, on the 23d of January, moved several resolutions, requiring information, among other things, on the various points growing out of these loans, and the application of the monies arising from them, and respecting the unapplied revenues of the United States, and the places in which the sums so unapplied were deposited.

In the speech introducing these resolutions, observations were made which very intelligibly implied charges of a much more serious nature than inattention to the exact letter of an appropriation law.

Estimates were made to support the position that a large balance of public money was unaccounted for.
The resolutions were agreed to without debate; and, in a few days, the secretary transmitted a report containing the information that was required.
This report comprehended a full exposition of the views and motives which had regulated the conduct of the department, and a very able justification of the measures which had been adopted; but omitted to state explicitly that part of the money borrowed in Europe had been drawn into the United States with the sanction of the President .-- It is also chargeable with some expressions which can not be pronounced unexceptionable, but which may find their apology in the feelings of a mind conscious of its own uprightness, and wounded by the belief that the proceedings against him had originated in a spirit hostile to fair inquiry.
These resolutions, the observations which accompanied them, and the first number of the report, were the signals for a combined attack on the secretary of the treasury, through the medium of the press.