To James Madison from Albert Gallatin, 17 March 1812
From Albert Gallatin
Treasury department March 17th 1812
Sir
Understanding that the law authorising a loan has passed,1 I beg leave to submit the propriety of requesting the Secretaries of the War and Navy departments to prepare estimates of the probable monthly expenditures of each of the said departments to the end of the present year. The extent of the loan, the time of opening it, and the dates at which its several instalments should be made payable, must depend on that expenditure:2 and as those three points may materially affect the success of the loan, it appears important that the whole arrangement should be the result of general concert and be matured under the sanction of the President. I have the honor to be with the highest respect Sir Your obedt. Servt.
Albert Gallatin
RC (DLC). Docketed by JM.
1. On 14 Mar. 1812 JM had signed “An Act authorizing a loan for a sum not exceeding eleven millions of dollars” (, 2:694–95).
2. Gallatin issued a Treasury Department circular on 31 Mar. 1812 as a preliminary to opening subscriptions for a loan of up to $11 million at an interest rate not exceeding 6 percent per annum. Books for receiving subscriptions to the loan were opened at banks throughout the nation on 1 May 1812. After the second day of subscriptions on 2 May, the government had received offers totaling $6,118,900, two-thirds of which had come from banks and the remainder from individual subscribers (see , Finance, 2:565–68).