AND THE FEDERALIST PARTY 133 



tents to capture the federal garrison at Pittsburg, 

 and then to secede from the Union, together with the 

 western counties of Virginia and North Carolina, and 

 form an independent state of which the corner-stone 

 should be free whiskey. But Washington's action 

 was so prompt and his force so overwhelming that 

 the rebellion suddenly collapsed without bloodshed. 

 Thus the strength of the government was most hap- 

 pily asserted and Hamilton's financial policy sustained 

 in all particulars. 



The completion of Hamilton's general scheme was 

 the establishment of a national bank, in which the 

 government was to own a certain portion of the stock, 

 and which was to make certain stated loans to the 

 government. This was another feature of the alli- 

 ance between the government and the moneyed 

 classes. Like the other kindred measures, it was 

 attacked as unconstitutional, and as in the other cases 

 the objection was met by asserting the loose construc- 

 tionist theory of the Constitution. Hamilton's finan- 

 cial policy was thus in the widest sense a political 

 policy. In these methods of obtaining revenue and 

 regulating commerce were laid the foundations of the 

 whole theory of government upon which our federal 

 Union was built up. Their immediate effect in re- 

 viving the national credit was marvellous. They met 

 with most hearty support in the Northern states, while 

 in the purely agricultural state of Virginia they were 

 regarded with distrust, and under the leadership of 

 Jefferson and Madison there was developed a power- 

 ful opposition which was soon to prove wholesome as 

 a restraint upon the excesses into which pure federal- 

 ism was betrayed. 



