While the struggle over the adoption of the Constitution was going on
Hazard put a stop to the customary practice by which newspaper publishers
were allowed to exchange copies by mail. Washington wrote an indignant
letter to John Jay about this action which was doing mischief by "inducing
a belief that the suppression of intelligence at that critical juncture
was a wicked trick of policy contrived by an aristocratic junto." As soon
as Washington could move in the matter, Hazard was superseded by Samuel
Osgood, who as a member of the old Congress had served on a committee to
examine the post-office accounts. There was no Secretary of the Treasury
at that time, but the affairs of that department were in the hands of a
board of commissioners,--this same Samuel Osgood, together with Walter
Livingston and Arthur Lee. To all these officials Washington now applied
for a written account of "the real situation" of their departments.
Several months elapsed before he was in a position to make new
arrangements. The salary bill was approved September 2, 1789, and on the
same day Washington commissioned Hamilton as Secretary of the Treasury,--
the first of the new appointments, although in the creative enactments the
Treasury Department came last.
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