The committee then proceeded to the consideration of the Treasury Department.

Gerry at once made a plea for delay.

"He thought they were hurrying on business too rapidly.

Gentlemen had already committed themselves on one very important point." He "knew nothing of the system which gentlemen proposed to adopt in arranging the Treasury Department," but the fact was worth considering that "the late Congress had, on long experience, thought proper to organize the Treasury Department, in a mode different from that now proposed." He "would be glad to know what the reasons were that would induce the committee to adopt a different system from that which had been found most beneficial to the United States." What Gerry had in view was the retention of the then existing system of Treasury management by a Board of Commissioners.

In 1781 the Continental Congress had been forced to let the Treasury pass out of its own hands into those of a Superintendent of Finance, through sheer inability to get any funds unless the change was made.