RC (DLC); at foot of text: “The President of the United States”; endorsed by TJ as received from the Treasury Department on 20 Feb. and “Manhattan” and so recorded in SJL. Enclosures: (1) Gallatin to Thomas Willing, the president of the Bank of the United States, 4 Feb., informing Willing of the risks to New York banks, particularly the Manhattan Company, posed by the scarcity of specie and by the conduct of the directors of the Merchants’ Bank; Gallatin has reached an agreement with the Manhattan Company by which the government will put $200,000 in the bank’s hands for six months; he asks Willing to provide any necessary support to the New York banks so long as such efforts do not threaten the safety of his own institution; Gallatin believes that an additional $200,000 could probably be spared by the Baltimore branch, and $100,000 from Boston; he asks for Willing’s opinion on a plan to transfer purchase of government bills on Holland from the Philadelphia and Boston branches to that of New York; he advises Willing to resist the efforts of the directors of the Merchants’ Bank by not “discounting for them or purchasing their bills” and requests that, in order to protect the revenue, he instruct his directors to help deserving parties discharge their revenue bonds; Gallatin admits that the present low rate of exchange with Great Britain and that country’s impending war with Spain may make the shortage of specie temporary, but he fears that the next installment of the government’s payment to London will worsen the situation; he wonders if it might not be proper to make the payment via remittances in Europe, rather than having Great Britain export a payment in specie from the United States; he asks Willing to communicate his bank’s view on that subject “without delay” (Gallatin, Papers description begins Carl E. Prince and Helene E. Fineman, eds., The Papers of Albert Gallatin, microfilm edition in 46 reels, Philadelphia, 1969, and Supplement, Barbara B. Oberg, ed., reels 47-51, Wilmington, Del., 1985 description ends , 10:565-7). (2) Willing to Gallatin, 12 Feb., from Philadelphia, enclosing a report of that day by the board of directors of the Bank of the United States; Gallatin’s proposal on the “subject of the British Instalment” has been considered and a resolution passed by the board of directors; Willing stresses the need to stipulate 15 Sep. as a payment date, rather than 15 July; he agrees that arranging a payment in bills of exchange, rather than specie, will “prevent that great distress” a large exportation of specie might cause; Willing adds that executing the government’s orders for purchase of bills at New York has put the Bank of the United States into debt with the banks there, so a part of the contemplated purchase of bills will have to be made in Boston, Baltimore, and New York, “wherefore it is to be hoped that a continuance of other purchases by you may not be for some time found necessary”; in the enclosed report, the committee of the board of directors notes that through the actions of the Treasury Department and the Bank of the United States, the chartered banks of New York “will soon be restored to perfect safety”; the committee believes that given the scarcity of specie, it is the “indispensible duty of the Directors of this Bank to prevent, at this time the exportation of the precious metals” and therefore approves of Gallatin’s plan; the bank will begin purchasing bills of exchange and will remit £200,000 sterling to the bank’s agent in London with instructions to pay that sum to the order of the Treasury secretary on or before 15 Sep. (same, 612-14).