INTRODUCTION. 63 



Madison and John Jay. In this admirable work he expounded the principles of 

 the constitution, and pointed out its application in all the various exigencies of 

 peace and war, and of domestic prosperity and discontent ; and such were the 

 sagacity and forecast thus manifested, that the Federalist still remains, after a 

 lapse of half a century, a great and authoritative commentary on the federal com- 

 pact. These labors were followed by others equally effective in the convention 

 of tliis state, which resulted in the acceptance of the constitution of the United 

 States by that body : efforts in which he was ably seconded by Robert R. Li- 

 vingston, while that measure was resisted with great ability by Melancton Smith 

 and his associates. 



The people of the United States were not unaware of the difficulties which 

 would attend the organization of the new government, and, therefore, with the 

 greatest unanimity, called Washington from his retirement to preside in the public 

 councils in that emergency. While wisdom and energy were required in every 

 department, that, which was to be entrusted with the subjects of finance, was sur- 

 roimded with the worst embarrassments. The federal government and the 

 state governments were alike hopelessly encumbered with debts, and the credit 

 of both was prostrate. There was, as yet, no plan of revenue, no currency. 

 The country was filled with imported fabrics, while every department of domes- 

 tic industry was deranged. In what manner could a sufficient revenue be 

 provi<led for the necessary expenditures of the government in so trying an 

 emergency, and how was the exhausted credit of the country to be restored, 

 and its prosperity to be renewed and invigorated 1 These were among the 

 leading questions, to be settled by the first congress that assembled after the adop- 

 tion of the constitution ; and they involved controversies in political economy, 

 rendered still more difficult by conflicting interests and discordant views concern- 

 ing the fiscal principles and powers of the government. Washington, with that 

 sagacity which never erred, had assigned these subjects to the consideration of 

 Alexander Hamilton, the first secretary of the treasury. 



The work of Adam Smith, on the Wealth of Nations, published the year 



