HST 202 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Abigail Adams
Document Summary
Founding fathers faced the problem of establishing a new government with two main competing philosophies (but not yet political parties): Federalism: strong central government, believed government should bolster the national economy, advocated for by john adams (from massachusetts, a small, wealthy trade state) Leading thinker of the founding fathers was alexander hamilton: Born in the west indies so ineligible for the presidency. Supported federalism and focused on the economy as a key point of intervention by turning it into a political issue. Proposed ways to increase revenue and establish international credibility (since citizens were not going to support taxes: tariff act of 1789: (taxed goods brought in by other countries) Provided 90% of government income for the first 30 years of the new nation. Easily passed in congress: national debt ( report on the public credit ): Ranked 3 types of debt by importance: million that individual states owed to citizens.
