"In the report's final section, Hamilton reiterated that a well-funded debt would be a "national blessing" that would protect American prosperity. He feared this statement would be misconstrued as a call for a perpetual public debt--and that is exactly what happened. For the rest of his life, he was to express dismay at what he saw as a deliberate distortion of his views. His opponents, he claimed, neglected a critical passage of his report in which he wrote that he "ardently wishes to see it incorporated as a fundamental maxim in the system of public credit of the United States that the creation of debt should always be accompanied with the means of extinguishment." The secretary regarded this "as the true secret for rendering public credit immortal." --