His report to Congress was as outspoken politically as it was financially, and from a foreign-born citizen to an American Congress must have carried its sting.

"Either America," he wrote, "must accept the position of commerce allotted to her by the British edicts, and abandon all that is forbidden,--and it is not material whether this is done by legal provisions limiting the commerce of the United States to the permitted places, or by acquiescing in the capture of vessels stepping beyond the prescribed bounds.

Or the nation must oppose force to the execution of the orders of England; and this, however done, and by whatever name called, will be war." He recalled to them his advice of the preceding years in a vein of tempered bitterness: "Had the duties been doubled on January 1, 1808, as was then suggested, in case of war the receipts into the Treasury during that and the ensuing year would have been increased nine or ten millions of dollars." He then proposed to continue the Mediterranean Fund and to double all existing duties on importations after January 1, 1809.

He informed them that no internal taxes, either direct or indirect, were contemplated by him even in the case of hostilities against the two belligerent powers; France having responded to the Orders in Council by Napoleon's Milan decree, December 17, 1807, which was quite as offensive to the United States as that of Canning.

With true statesmanship Mr.Gallatin nerved the country to extraordinary exertion by reminding it that the geographical situation of the United States and their history since the Revolution removed every apprehension of frequent wars.
During the year 1809 the country drifted along apparently without rudder or compass, helmsman or course, and the treasury locker was being rapidly reduced to remainder biscuit.