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In a paragraph, what is his argument and what are the policies for and agaist the plan
Jan. 14, 1790
Alexander Hamilton, the first Secretary of the Treasury, made his long-awaited report on public credit to Congress on Jan.14. The boyish financial whiz – he celebrated his 33rd birthday Jan. 11 – listened as his 51-page report was read aloud to the nation’s solons at Federal Hall, at the intersection of Wall and Broad Streets. The document, dense with complex financial detail, left congressmen speechless.
They won’t stay that way for long. Hamilton’s basic point is simple enough: “States, like individuals, who observe their engagements – “that is, pay their debts – “are respected and trusted.” But two of Hamilton’s ideas about how the United States should pay its debts are sure to be controversial.
Polls and economists call Hamilton’s rst idea Assumption. The U.S. government took on a load of debt during the Revolutionary War. So did each of the 13 states. Some states have paid their debts off; others – notably Massachusetts, lately the scene of Shays’ Rebellion – are still struggling. Hamilton wants the U.S. government to assume all the state debts, and pay them off along with the national debt, to avoid the “collision and confusion” of different repayment schemes.
Hamilton’s second idea is Non-Discrimination. The largest class of creditors is Revolutionary War soldiers and officers, who were paid in certificates, or IOU’s. (Military unhappiness with IOU’s nearly caused a mutiny at Newburgh in 1783.) Over the years, many vets sold their certificates at a discount, in return for ready cash. Should the government discriminate between brave soldiers who hung on to their IOU’s, and shrewd investors who snapped them up? Hamilton says no: fooling with the terms of repayment now would be a “breach of contract.”
Where will the U.S. government’s money come from? According to Sec. Hamilton, from tariffs and from an excise tax on distilled spirits. Investors have been guessing about Hamilton’s intentions for months. New York is buzzing with rumors of ships and coaches full of money, headed for the South and the frontier to buy up the certificates of veterans who are clueless about what is happening in the nation’s capital. Critics will surely latch on to such stories to attack Sec. Hamilton’s program. The man to watch: Rep. James Madison (Virginia) – Sec. Hamilton’s friend and ally during the ght to ratify the Constitution, but now said to be disturbed by both Assumption and NonDiscrimination. At the same time, Sec. Hamilton has powerful allies, none more powerful than his old boss, President George Washington.
