RC (CtY); addressed: “Tenche Coxe esq. Director of the public revenue Philadelphia”; endorsed. PrC (DLC). Enclosure: TJ to James Monroe, 10 July 1796.

The interesting contest occurred in the House of Representatives on 1 June 1796, the last day of the first session of the Fourth Congress, when the South Carolina Federalist William Loughton Smith responded to a lengthy discourse on Treasury Department receipts and expenditures made by Albert Gallatin on 12 Apr. 1796 in which the Pennsylvania Republican concluded that the national debt had increased by at least one million dollars during 1795 and that Congress was thereby “laying the foundation of that national curse—a growing and perpetual Debt.” In countering Gallatin’s analysis, Smith credited four millions due from bonds for duties on imports. In his earlier presentation, Gallatin had challenged this procedure, noting that the bonds should not be included as receipts until they were due to the treasury and paid. The debate between Smith and Gallatin was reported in the Philadelphia Gazette, 28–30 June 1796 (Annals, description begins Annals of the Congress of the United States: The Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States … Compiled from Authentic Materials Washington, D.C., Gales & Seaton, 1834–56, 42 vols. All editions are undependable and pagination varies from one printing to another. The first two volumes of the set cited here have “Compiled … by Joseph Gales, Senior” on the title page and bear the caption “Gales & Seatons History” on verso and “of Debates in Congress” on recto pages. The remaining volumes bear the caption “History of Congress” on both recto and verso pages. Those using the first two volumes with the latter caption will need to employ the date of the debate or the indexes of debates and speakers. description ends v, 921–36, 1499–1516).