Alexander Hamilton’s Plan for the United States

Amidst the government economic pressing challenges and a huge debt, Alexander Hamilton, the Treasury Secretary, was assigned the task of resolving the problems. Hamilton laid down a broad economic as well as the political foundations for the new government, arguing the importance of honoring the government’s debts since contracts were crucial in the formation of both private and public morality. Hamilton’s proposal entailed the assumption of the entire federal government and the state’s debts by the government. Further, the plan required retiring of the old depreciated obligations through lower interest rates borrowings. However, the plan laid down would possibly provide huge profits to speculators having acquired bonds from the Revolutionary War veterans at meager rates. On the contrary, Hamilton’s plan on debt turned out very successful due to the demonstration of the country’s willingness to settle its debts thus being more attractive to foreign investors (U.S Hstory, 2018).

            Hamilton’s proposals were aimed at improving the economic powers of the government. The national government had the authority through the United States Constitution not only to levy and collect taxes but also the powers of borrowing money and paying off debts. The establishment of a national bank would with no doubt materially facilitate efficient performance of such functions (Digital history, 2016). Therefore, the creation of a national bank would by no means weaken the states’ rights but rather strengthen the states. However, some critics argued that the constitution expressly enumerates all the federal government powers and reserves all other powers to the states.

            The assumption of state debts was controversial because some states had already cleared their debts such as Virginia, while others had not such as New England (Digital history, 2016). When the debts were settled, the entire country was in delight as it was a good gesture to foreign investors. Hence, Hamilton’s solutions to the debt crisis did not in any way weaken the states’ rights as some people perceived it, but was a win for everyone.

References

Digital history. (2016). Alexander Hamilton’s Financial Program. Retrieved 2018, from Digital history: http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtID=2&psid=2973

U.S Hstory. (2018). Hamilton’s Financial Plan. Retrieved 2018, from U.S History: Pre-Columbian to the New Millenium: http://www.ushistory.org/us/18b.asp