alexander hamilton and the debt - 8th grade united states ...ideaallanpreapush.weebly.com ›...
TRANSCRIPT
Alexander Hamilton and the National Debt
Secretary of the Treasury • President George
Washington selected Alexander Hamilton to serve on his Cabinet as the nation’s first Secretary of the Treasury • Hamilton was given the task
of solving the problem of the $71 million national debt
A Plan to Reduce the Debt • During the Revolution, both
national and state governments borrowed money from foreign countries and ordinary citizens to pay for the costs of the war • Hamilton proposed creating a
national bank, collecting tariffs and excise taxes to raise revenue, and having the federal government assume the debt incurred by each state
A Plan to Reduce the Debt • Hamilton’s plan called for
the national government to assume both debt incurred by both the nation and individual states • Southern states opposed
the plan to have the national government assume all state debts because they had mostly paid off their debt from the war
A Plan to Reduce the Debt • Hamilton proposed a
compromise in which he would support a plan to move the capital of the United States be moved from Philadelphia to Washington D.C. if the southern states accepted his plan to pay off the national debt • In 1791, Hamilton called on
Congress to also establish the first Bank of the United States