These Truths: A History of the United States

by Jill Lepore

With the ratification of the Bill of Rights, new disputes emerged. Much of American political history is a disagreement between those who favor a strong federal government and those who favor the states. During Washington’s first term, this dispute took the form of a debate over the economic plan put forward by Hamilton. Much of this debate concerned debt. First stood private debt. The depression that followed the war had left many Americans insolvent. There were so many men confined to debtors’ prison in Philadelphia that they printed their own newspaper: Forlorn Hope.77 Second stood the debts incurred by the states during the war. And third stood the debts incurred by the Continental Congress. Until these government debts were paid, the United States would have no lenders and no foreign investors and would be effectively unable to participate in world trade.