AND THE FEDERALIST PARTY 127 



ness circles. To this end Hamilton came forth with 

 a measure of startling boldness. He proposed that 

 the federal government should assume all these state 

 debts and pay them, principal and interest ! 



This was no doubt a master stroke of policy. It 

 was one of the most important steps taken by Wash- 

 ington's administration toward setting the new govern- 

 ment fairly upon its feet. Had it not been for this act 

 of assumption state creditors would have been so jeal- 

 ous of national creditors, there would have been such 

 a jumble of clashing interests, that no steady financial 

 policy could have been carried out, and people would 

 soon have been impatiently asking wherein was the 

 new government any better than the old. But by this 

 act of assumption all public creditors, from Maine to 

 Georgia, were at once made national creditors, and all 

 immediately began to feel a personal interest in 

 strengthening the federal government. This measure 

 of Hamilton's was as shrewd as his idea of having 

 governors appointed by the President had been fool- 

 ish. That, if adopted, would have sought to drive 

 men ; this was an attempt to draw them. 



It was Hamilton's proposal for the assumption of 

 the state debts that originated the first great division 

 between political parties under the Constitution. It 

 also partly drew the line of division between the 

 Northern and the Southern states. In the debates on 

 the ratification of the Constitution it did not appear 

 that the desire for a more perfect union was any 

 stronger at the North than at the South. Virginia was 

 scarcely more afraid of centralization than Massa- 

 chusetts, and Rhode Island was even more backward 

 in ratifying than North Carolina. But the assumption 



