Alexander Hamilton’s Financial Program

Alexander Hamilton 's Financial Program

Alexander Hamilton was to say in 1792 "Most of the important measures of every government are connected with the Treasury . This simple yet profound axiom he had come to as a result of his reflections on the nature of statecraft and the obligations of government . Installed in office , he had accepted this as his guiding principle . The basic nature of public finance to assure stability and promote welfare has been alluded to in these observations again and again . A government that keeps its own house in both

attracts and creates confidence : to the financing of its own obligations and for the support of those business ventures , or enterprises , without which a society cannot create employment and wealth

The Treasury at once became the largest and the leading office of the government . Its interests ramified into the whole economic life of the nation . It was intimately associated with commerce and shipping with the commercial banks of the nation with a large part of the country 's farming community . It bought the army 's supplies , it sold the nation 's public lands , it negotiated with foreign governments . This was not usurpation : for Congress , in establishing the Treasury Department , had given it wide powers independent of the Executive . Hamilton was simply utilizing his opportunities

All this did not fail to create unease and then dissent . Madison originally the Administration 's spokesman in the House of Representatives , left Hamilton 's side in the battle over the assumption of the state debts . Jefferson , who at the start had expressed his satisfaction with the Constitution and Hamilton 's funding proposals more and more saw their differences in terms of power : an energetic government could become an irresponsible , and therefore a dangerous one . By the spring of 1792 , there was an organized opposition to the Administration with Hamilton the chief focus of distrust

The charges against Hamilton ran the whole gamut from truth to falsity It was being said , he was consistently the friend of a speculative interest , he unduly favored commerce and finance at the expense of agriculture , he himself was personally involved in questionable practices . He was subverting democracy he was preparing the way for a monarchy . These charges were both unkind and untrue . Hamilton was indignant at accusations directed against his personal rectitude and he had every right to be . If there was a public servant in all of America 's annals who conducted himself with exact propriety , it was he . From the vast operations in the public funds , neither he nor his family ever benefited and he quit his post after more than five years in office a poor man . In one of his letters to Washington , he cried out against his detractors "I have not fortitude enough always to hear with calmness calumnies which necessarily include me . I trust I shall always be able to bear , as I ought , imputations of errors of judgment but I acknowledge that I cannot be entirely patient under charges which...