as follows: “There appears to be great regularity in the city. Honesty is as much in fashion as in Connecticut, and I am persuaded that there is much greater attention to good morals than has been supposed in the country. So far as observance of the Sabbath is a criterion of religion, a comparison between this city and many places in Connecticut would be in favor of New York. We have not been able to hire a house, and shall continue in lodgings till the spring. Great expense is not required, nor does it add to the reputation of any person.”
As Washington himself, on his late tour through Connecticut, on one occasion passed thirty-six hours at a very poor country tavern because "it was contrary to law and disagreeable to the people of the State to travel on the Sabbath day,” and New York did not suffer by comparison in the mind of a keen Connecticut observer, the inference is clear.[1]
Oliver Wolcott had been appointed Auditor of the Treasury in September, at a yearly salary of fifteen hundred dollars,[2] an office which he hesitated about accepting. Hamilton wrote to him, “I am persuaded you will be an acquisition to the department. I need scarcely add that your presence here as soon as possible is essential to the progress of business.” Ellsworth furnished him with an estimate of the cost of living in New York, and remarked that he could keep his expenses within one thousand dollars per annum, unless he should change his style, which was wholly unnecessary. Wolcott, after reaching the city and instituting personal investigations, decided to enter the service. He wrote to his wife announcing the fact, saying, “The example of the President and his family will render parade and expense improper and disreputable.” Writing a few days later to his father upon the condition of affairs, he said “What arrangements are in contemplation with respect to the public debt I have not been able to learn, though I believe, from the character and manners of the Secretary, that they will be prudent, sensible, and firm.”
The organization of the Treasury Department occupied much time. The machinery must be constructed upon a plan of indefinite expansion, suited to every object and exigency of the great untried future. The numberless official forms to be used in every branch of business were
- ↑ Diary of Washington.
- ↑ Oliver Ellsworth wrote to Oliver Wolcott, September 12, 1789, as follows; "The Treasury Department is at length arranged and filled.
- Secretary, salary, $3,500, Colonel Hamilton of New York.
- Comptroller “ 2,000, Mr. Eveleigh of South Carolina.
- Auditor “ 1,500, Oliver Wolcott, Jr., of Connecticut.
- Register “ 1,250, Mr. Nourse, Pennsylvania.
- Treasurer “ 2,000, Mr. Meridith, Pennsylvania.
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