History of the United States I / Unit 8 USH1 1062 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
What Hamilton's Programme Achieved
The idea
The whole programme passed. It rescued the nation from near bankruptcy, established American capitalism, promoted commerce, created creditworthiness and enabled the growth of a stock market. Hamilton's stated aims were doing justice to the creditors of the nation, promoting the increasing respectability of the American name, answering the calls for justice, and restoring landed property to its due value.
In practice
A federal government that could borrow, because it had demonstrated it would pay.
Where people slip
Judge it by what it was for, not only by who gained. Hamilton was building a state that European lenders would deal with, and he did. The cost was that public money flowed to people holding paper they had bought cheaply, and the beneficiaries were concentrated in commercial cities. Both halves are true, and the party system forms around which half you weigh more.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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