Beschreibung:

11 reports bound together: 1. Report of the Secretary of the Treasury to the House of Representatives, relative to a provision for the Support of the Public Credit of the United States, in Conformity to a Resolution the the Twenty-First Day of September, 1789. Presented to the House on ... 14th of January, 1790. 1790. 51, [1 blank] pp. 2. Treasury Department, March 4, 1790. In Obedience to the Order of the House of Representatives, of the Second Instant, the Secretary of the Treasury (caption title). 3, [1 blank] pp. 3. A Plan for the General Arrangement of the Militia of the United States. 1790. 26 pp. 4. General Post-Office, New-York, January 20, 1790 (caption title). 7, [1 blank] pp. 5. The Secretary of State, to whom was referred by the House of Representatives the letter of John H. Mitchell, reciting certain proposals, for supplying the United States with Copper Coinage (caption title). 2 pp. 6. Report of the Secretary of State, on the Subject of Establishing a Uniformity in the Weights, Measures and Coins of the United States. 1790. 22 pp. Later issue, folio, but with postscript & errata added on p 22. Evans 22997. 7. Treasury Department, December 13, 1790 ... further provision ... necessary for establishing the Public Credit (caption title). 7, [1 blank] pp. 8. ... said the Secretary [of the Treasury] further (caption title). 22 pp. 9. Report of the Attorney-General read in the House of Representatives, December 31, 1790 (fly-title). [2], 34 pp. 10. Treasury Department, January 6, 1791 ... February 15, 1791. [8] pp. Letterpress folding table: "A General Abstract of Duties arising on the Tonnage of Vessels." 11. The Secretary of the Treasury having attentively considered the Subject referred to him ... of the fifteenth of April last, relative to the Establishment of a Mint, most respectfully submits the Result of his Enquiries and Reflections. 22 pp. Philadelphia: [by Francis Childs and John Swaine at New York by order of] the House of Representatives, 1790-1791. Folio (312 x 195 mm). Period half calf and marbled boards, red morocco spine label lettered "Reports to Congress Vol: I." Custom chemise and red quarter morocco slipcase. Intermittent browning or occasional spotting, upper cover detached, corners worn. REPORTS TO THE FIRST CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES, INCLUDING HAMILTON'S KEY DOCUMENT IN AMERICAN FINANCIAL HISTORY, a wonderful period assembly. In the first report, Hamilton sets forth his plan for strengthening the nation's public credit and significantly increasing the size of the national debt. Drawing on his reading of Enlightenment philosophers and economists, Hamilton makes an impassioned case for the importance of financial strength to domestic and international political well-being. "Had Hamilton stuck to dry financial matters his Report on the Public Credit would never have attained such historic renown. Instead, he presented a detailed blueprint of the government's fiscal machinery, wrapped in a broad political and economic vision" (Chernow Hamilton 297). Hamilton urges the federal assumption of $25 million of state debt to be paid off via raised taxes and import duties. His report was highly controversial, particularly so for his call to honor old Continental Congress notes, many of which had already been traded by Revolutionary War veterans to New York stock speculators. To many, including to James Madison, Hamilton's call smacked of insider trading and a betrayal of patriotic ideals. Worse yet, the assumption of state debts seemed to southerners, especially Virginians, to give too much power to the federal government. The animosity that developed over these issues between Hamilton and the Jeffersonians laid the ground-work for the two-party system in America. This plan of Hamilton's did not pass on the first attempt, but a compromise was reached, the so-called "dinner table compromise" of 1790 in which the fears of the Virginians were assuaged by a promise of Hamilton's to pressure the Pennsylvanian