The war was the crucial test of the soundness of his financial policy.

The maxims which he announced, that debt can only be reduced by a surplus of revenue over expenditure, and the accompaniment of every loan by an appropriation for its extinguishment, became the fundamental principle of American finance.

Mr.Gallatin was uniformly supported in it by Congress and public opinion.

It was faithfully adhered to by his distinguished successors, Dallas and Crawford, and the impulse thus given continued through later administrations, until, in 1837, twenty years after the peace, the entire debt had been extinguished.

All this without any other variation from Mr.Gallatin's original plan than an increase of the annual appropriation, to the sinking fund for its reimbursement, from eight to ten millions.[16] The only charge which has ever been made against Gallatin's administration was, that he reduced the debt at the expense of the defenses and security of the country; but, to quote the words of one of his biographers:[17] "Mr.Gallatin had the sagacity to know that it [the redemption of the debt] would make but little difference in the degree of preparation of national defense and means of contest, for which it is impossible ever to obtain a considerable appropriation before the near approach of the danger that may render them necessary.