Congress builds a permanent Treasury; a war-debt nation finally gets a bank statement

New York City, September 2, 1789: the young republic still owed staggering sums from the Revolution, and no permanent office existed to manage a dollar of it. Meeting in the nation's temporary capital, Congress passed an act creating the Department of the Treasury, with a Secretary, Comptroller, Auditor, Treasurer, and Register spelled out by law. Robert Morris, who had run wartime finance from 1781 to 1784 without any such institution behind him, had already turned down the top post. Within days, George Washington settled on the man Morris recommended instead: Alexander Hamilton…