Aaron Burr may have killed Alexander Hamilton, but it was Albert Gallatin who killed Hamilton’s system for funding federal deficits.

Hamilton was proud of that system. He thought the ability to borrow endless amounts of money would allow the new United States to become a great nation. Gallatin disagreed. He thought that endless government borrowing was a drag on the private sector and a prescription for economic failure. In the first great fight over how to pay for the federal government, Gallatin won.