Inside the First Presidency： Power, Fear, and the Bill of Rights ｜ The American Story ｜ Ep 9
Episode Stats
Words per minute
140.51807
Harmful content
Misogyny
1
sentences flagged
Hate speech
3
sentences flagged
Summary
George Washington was a soldier, a farmer, a man who had already given everything he had to a country that just keeps asking for more. And today, it s asking again. Letters pile up on his desk like insistent knocks. Friends, colleagues, respected officers from war, statesmen from every corner of the young republic are saying the same thing: You must be the president. This fragile new experiment in self-government requires the best leadership. You need to be the President.
Transcript
00:00:00.000
When you travel well, your KLM Royal Dutch Airlines ticket takes you to more than just your destination.
00:00:06.880
It takes you to front row views, voices lost in the music, and new shared memories.
00:00:17.900
The KLM Royal Dutch Airlines crew is here to ensure your journey home hits all the right notes.
00:00:25.500
KLM Royal Dutch Airlines. When you travel, travel well.
00:00:38.940
He's staring into a misty morning, relishing the quiet.
00:00:46.260
indifferent to the weight settling on Washington's shoulders.
00:00:58.100
A man who's already given everything he had to a country that just keeps asking for more.
00:01:08.400
Letters pile up on his desk like insistent knocks.
00:01:11.860
Friends, colleagues, respected officers from war, statesmen from every corner of the young
00:01:17.360
republic, and all of them are saying the same thing.
00:01:20.320
This fragile new experiment in self-government requires the best leadership.
00:01:28.100
A heartfelt appeal arrives from France, written in the unmistakable hand of the Marquis de Lafayette, one of Washington's officers and good friends during the Revolution.
00:01:39.440
Washington reads it more than once, maybe because it says what no one else dares to say.
00:01:45.880
I beg you, my dear General, do not refuse the responsibility of the presidency during the first few years.
00:01:53.900
You alone can make this political machine operate successfully.
00:01:59.100
Washington exhales slowly. Responsibility. Expectation. Fear. Though he would never call
00:02:07.760
it that. The public must not think he wants the office. He can't seem ambitious, hungry for power,
00:02:15.520
king-like. He's against a king. The new constitution is barely ratified, the ink hardly dry.
00:02:23.560
Americans are anxious, suspicious, terrified of any single man becoming too powerful,
00:02:29.300
and Washington feels every bit of that weight. The pressure campaign is relentless on him. No
00:02:37.000
one is more insistent than Alexander Hamilton, Washington's former aide during the Revolutionary
00:02:42.200
War, now one of the most capable and ambitious political minds in America. Hamilton is very
00:02:49.040
aware that Washington and his administration would create opportunities, namely a very important
00:02:55.520
opportunity for himself. In August 1788, he writes, You will permit me to say that it is
00:03:01.680
indispensable you should lend yourself to the new government's first operations. It is to little
00:03:07.140
purpose to have introduced a system if the weightiest influence is not given to its firm
00:03:12.260
establishment in the outset. It was flattering, but the quiet life of Mount Vernon held a lot
00:03:17.920
more appeal to Washington. As he replied, on the delicate subject with which you conclude your
00:03:24.460
letter, I can say nothing. For you know me well enough, my good sir, to be persuaded that I am
00:03:32.420
not guilty of affectation when I tell you it is my great and sole desire to live and die in peace
00:03:48.420
somewhat bookish neighbor from Virginia, adds his voice.
00:03:52.520
He warns that if Washington refuses the whole project,
00:03:57.260
everything they built, everything they fought for,
00:04:07.940
would be the severest of all possible aggravations
00:04:11.640
to our misery. So, Washington sits, holding these letters, knowing that if he accepts the
00:04:19.720
presidency, he's stepping into a storm no one has ever faced before. A government with no road map,
00:04:26.160
a people on the alert for signs of a monarchy, a world waiting to pounce on failure.
00:04:38.360
it's the place he loves more than any battlefield
00:05:01.760
I should consider myself as entering upon an unexplored field, enveloped on every side with clouds and darkness.
00:05:11.920
America is about to choose its first president.
00:05:16.180
But before the election, before the inauguration, before the fireworks, the parades, the prayers, there is this moment.
00:05:24.020
One man, alone at his desk, accustomed to wrestling with difficult decisions,
00:05:30.720
now faced with one of the hardest choices of his life.
00:05:41.620
adapted from the book of the same title by David Barton and Tim Barton.
00:05:46.180
Episode 9, Inside the First Presidency, Power, Fear, and the Bill of Rights.
00:05:57.880
It's hard for Americans today to imagine just how fragile things felt in 1788.
00:06:03.500
The new Constitution had been ratified, barely.
00:06:06.960
But the fear of monarchy still hovered like a shadow over every conversation about the presidency.
00:06:13.260
Americans had just fought a brutal war to escape the rule of a king.
00:06:16.460
They didn't want to accidentally create a new one.
00:06:19.840
That fear shaped how people viewed George Washington.
00:06:26.360
But surprisingly, one of his greatest political advantages was something deeply personal.
00:06:34.120
In a world where hereditary power was the norm, and in an environment terrified of that power,
00:06:49.580
I firmly believe she would be demanded in marriage
00:06:52.300
by one of the royal families of France or England,
00:06:59.460
he would be invited to come according to Europe.
00:07:02.460
For the very first presidential election in U.S. history,
00:07:09.080
States either held popular votes to pick electors or, in many cases, state legislators appointed electors directly.
00:07:16.100
Then each elector cast two ballots, one for president, one for vice president.
00:07:20.340
There were no campaigns, no debates, no rallies.
00:07:24.900
And yet, when the electors voted on February 1789, George Washington received all 69 votes.
00:07:36.620
Behind the scenes, Alexander Hamilton had quietly pressured many northern electors not to vote for Adams.
00:07:43.200
Hamilton feared that a closer margin might embarrass George Washington,
00:07:47.200
or even worse, create confusion about who should lead the new government.
00:07:51.360
Hamilton was playing a political game while claiming not to be playing a political game,
00:07:59.940
When the new Congress assembled in April in New York City, they set salaries.
00:08:04.740
$25,000 a year for the president and $5,000 a year for the vice president.
00:08:13.200
He had refused pay as the general of the Continental Army, but this time he couldn't avoid it.
00:08:22.260
Years of crop failures at Mount Vernon combined with a bad national economy
00:08:26.380
and his inability to sell Western land holdings left him short on money.
00:08:30.360
He actually had to take out a loan to travel to his own inauguration.
00:08:35.400
On April 16th, 1789, Washington stepped into his carriage and left Mount Vernon.
00:08:43.200
About ten o'clock I bade adieu to Mount Vernon, to private life and to domestic felicity,
00:08:51.880
and, with a mind oppressed with more anxious and painful sensations than I have words to express,
00:09:00.360
Set out for New York with the best dispositions to render service to my country in obedience to its call
00:09:09.360
But with less hope of answering its expectations
00:09:13.440
He was already a national celebrity, but his journey north turned into a full-blown spectacle
00:09:19.860
Town after town erupted in spontaneous celebrations as he passed through in Philadelphia
00:09:25.640
citizens presented him with a white horse so he could make a dramatic entrance into the city
00:09:30.520
in trenton new jersey a massive floral arch stretched across the road with a banner honoring
00:09:35.960
him 13 young girls dressed in white scattered flower petals in his path by the time he reached
00:09:42.680
new york city the city was overflowing with people washington could barely move through the crowds
00:09:47.720
pressing in from every direction outside the three-story mansion that congress rented for him
00:09:53.800
on Cherry Street. The Constitution said nothing about delivering an inaugural address,
00:10:00.020
but Washington established this tradition. His draft, written in collaboration with an aide,
00:10:05.540
was absurdly long and full of policy proposals. Washington sent it to James Madison, now a member
00:10:12.160
of the House of Representatives, who tactfully advised him to ditch it. Beside being too long,
00:10:18.080
Madison thought the policy proposals would be stepping on the toes of Congress.
00:10:22.380
Madison then wrote a much, much shorter, tighter version.
00:10:26.740
He also wrote Congress's official reply, as well as Washington's response to Congress.
00:10:32.740
Madison was apparently concerned about Washington crossing separation of power boundaries,
00:10:38.140
while having absolutely no qualms about crossing them himself.
00:10:41.800
At that time, New York's City Hall had been remodeled into Federal Hall by a French engineer.
00:10:48.260
The House of Representatives met on the first floor in a room with a public gallery.
00:10:52.900
The Senate met on the second floor behind closed doors.
00:10:58.560
In fact, the Senate's first hire was a doorkeeper
00:11:01.460
whose job was to keep members of the public and the House of Representatives out of the room.
00:11:07.340
Washington privately disliked the secrecy, but he never publicly condemned it.
00:11:11.980
The Senate didn't open its doors to the public until 1794.
00:11:15.780
And then on April 30th, the official procession formed outside of Washington's residence and
00:11:22.080
he entered Federal Hall. He walked to the Senate chamber, vowed to both houses of Congress and
00:11:27.900
took his seat. Then John Adams rose and proclaimed, Sir, the Senate and House of Representatives are
00:11:34.920
ready to attend you to take the oath required by the Constitution. Washington then replied,
00:11:43.420
He stepped onto the balcony overlooking Wall Street.
00:11:46.640
Thousands packed the streets and surrounding rooftops.
00:11:50.380
For the president's swearing in, the Constitution required only the oath of office.
00:11:55.100
But that morning, a congressional committee decided that Washington should lay his hand on a Bible as he took the oath.
00:12:01.660
That was the frantic last-minute search for a suitable Bible.
00:12:06.160
A local Masonic lodge came up with a large, leather-bound Bible.
00:12:15.380
for the inauguration of Presidents Harding, Eisenhower,
00:12:24.880
At the conclusion, Washington picked up the Bible
00:12:28.240
Then Livingston turned to the crowd and shouted,
00:12:40.420
Washington delivered his inaugural address. He was visibly nervous.
00:12:44.740
Congressman Fisher Ames of Massachusetts described the scene.
00:12:47.780
His aspect grave, almost to sadness, his modesty actually shaking,
00:12:54.340
his voice deep, a little tremulous, and so low as to call for close attention.
00:13:03.560
No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the invisible hand,
00:13:17.140
a grand procession escorted Washington up Broadway
00:13:23.780
That evening, New York erupted with celebrations and fireworks.
00:13:38.600
But Martha soon lamented that future First Families would come to know life in a fishbowl.
00:14:14.180
What should the president officially be called?
00:14:17.060
John Adams, ever drawn to formality, preferred something grand.
00:14:32.060
The more simple, the more Republican we are in our manners,
00:14:39.320
Fortunately, the House recommended and the Senate finally settled on just the President of the United States.
00:14:46.200
Washington began working tirelessly to establish the new executive departments.
00:14:50.780
No patronage, no backroom dealing, and he refused to appoint anyone who had openly opposed the Constitution.
00:14:58.060
That summer, Congress created three departments, State, War, and Treasury.
00:15:03.240
The Constitution says nothing about a presidential cabinet.
00:15:08.800
Thomas Jefferson became the Secretary of State,
00:15:12.960
and Alexander Hamilton was the Secretary of Treasury.
00:15:17.060
Though the Senate confirmed Washington's picks,
00:15:20.000
not everybody celebrated Hamilton's new influence.
00:15:26.020
Beware of the artful designs and machinations of your late aide-de-camp, Alexander Hamilton,
00:15:31.580
who, like Judas Iscariot, would, for the gratification of his boundless ambition, betray his lord and master.
00:15:42.120
This uneasy tension between Washington's trust in Hamilton and the country's suspicion of him
00:15:47.960
would eventually explode into one of the greatest political battles in American history.
00:15:53.900
When an unexpected pregnancy happens, the focus is almost always on the mother and the dads.
00:15:59.440
too often. They're overlooked, pushed to the side, left feeling like their voice doesn't matter.
00:16:03.720
Maybe that's how you would feel too. You want to be supportive. You want to do the right thing,
00:16:07.980
but fear sets in. Questions start racing. Can I really do this? Can I be a good father?
00:16:13.100
That's exactly how John felt. John wrote to me and he said, me, dad, that didn't even feel possible.
00:16:18.740
I didn't know the first thing about being a good father, but then we found pre-born. We talked to
00:16:23.560
people, Glenn, who cared. We got free ultrasound, and that's when it all came together for me,
00:16:30.940
Today, you can help another father experience the same moment of hope.
00:16:34.880
For $28, you can sponsor an ultrasound through Preborn
00:16:38.560
and help expectant parents see a future filled with life and compassion
00:16:47.740
That's pound 250, keyword baby, or visit preborn.com slash Glenn.
00:16:54.620
Hey, if you're enjoying this and you want to keep going,
00:16:56.440
you don't have to wait a week for the next episode.
00:17:10.180
Near the Jefferson Memorial in Washington today,
00:17:14.060
tucked away from the crowds beneath the curved trellis
00:17:26.440
Legs crossed, looking contemplative, almost lonely.
00:17:31.000
His position slightly off to the side of the national spotlight.
00:17:36.100
Mason is the founding father who doesn't get many headlines in our history books.
00:17:40.300
But without his influence, we might not have the Bill of Rights.
00:17:45.220
Etched beside Mason's statue is one of his quotes.
00:17:48.740
I recommend it to my sons never to let the motives of private interest or ambition to induce them to betray.
00:17:56.440
nor the terrors of poverty and disgrace or the fear of danger or of death deter them from
00:18:02.920
asserting the liberty of their country and endeavoring to transmit to their posterity
00:18:07.760
those sacred rights to which themselves were born. Mason had been obsessed with individual rights
00:18:15.720
long before independence. In 1776, he wrote most of the Virginia Declaration of Rights,
00:18:21.740
which later became a blueprint for several key protections in the U.S. Bill of Rights.
00:18:26.860
But in 1787 at the Constitutional Convention, when the time came to sign the new Constitution,
00:18:32.940
Mason refused. His objection was simple and unwavering. There was no Bill of Rights.
00:18:41.820
Mason's vision eventually fell to someone who, ironically, had been skeptical of the
00:18:46.700
idea at first. James Madison. Madison, reserved, cerebral, chronically frail, but stubbornly
00:18:55.740
determined, found himself in an unusual position. As a Virginian, as a Washington trusted ally,
00:19:02.780
and as one of the principal architects of the Constitution, he had to navigate political
00:19:08.060
currents that shifted daily. Early on, Madison thought of the Bill of Rights as unnecessary
00:19:14.540
because, as he argued, the federal government could only exercise powers the Constitution
00:19:19.580
explicitly granted. How quaint. But in 1788, while running for a seat in the first U.S. House
00:19:26.420
of Representatives, Madison encountered a political reality. Many voters, especially
00:19:32.460
anti-federalists, were furious that the Constitution had no Bill of Rights. Madison realized that if
00:19:38.460
he wanted the public to trust the new government, compromise was essential. Even if he believed a
00:19:43.680
of Rights was unnecessary, he came to see that it was politically necessary to gain
00:19:48.240
wider support for the new Constitution. Once elected to Congress, Madison made the Bill of
00:19:54.480
Rights his top priority. In June 1789, he stood before the House and delivered a landmark speech
00:20:02.880
proposing 20 amendments. Madison drew heavily from George Mason's Virginia Declaration of Rights,
00:20:09.200
but Congress seemed uninterested. Members were preoccupied with setting up a functioning
00:20:15.580
government, establishing the revenue system, and organizing the executive departments.
00:20:20.480
The amendments kind of felt secondary, but Madison refused to let it all go.
00:20:26.860
He hounded colleagues relentlessly, pulled them aside in the hallways, pressed them after sessions,
00:20:31.860
and then sent them copies of his proposals. He asked President Washington to support the
00:20:37.460
amendments, knowing Washington's approval carried enormous weight. Washington then wrote a letter
00:20:44.320
endorsing them, which helped soften congressional resistance. Gradually, momentum began to build.
00:20:50.860
A month later, Madison gave another speech to push the amendments forward. This time,
00:20:56.200
the House formed a select committee, one member from each state, to review and refine the proposals.
00:21:02.560
After the debate, the committee approved the draft containing 17 amendments.
00:21:07.340
They were sent to the Senate, which revised them and reduced them to the number of 12.
00:21:12.500
Then, on September 25, 1789, Congress approved all 12 amendments and sent them to the states for ratification.
00:21:20.900
Only 10 were ratified, what we now know as the Bill of Rights.
00:21:25.920
though formal ratification didn't occur until december 1791 the passage of the amendments
00:21:34.380
was enough to convince the last holdouts north carolina and rhode island to finally ratify the
00:21:39.720
constitution and join the new nation the bill of rights itself is short but monumental because it
00:21:47.340
sets constitutional boundaries that leaders are not permitted to cross it would have been actually
00:21:53.040
more accurate to call it the Bill of Limits, since it places direct restraints on federal
00:21:58.680
authority. The First Amendment protects what are known as the five freedoms, religion, speech,
00:22:05.300
press, peaceful assembly, and to petition the government. Now, over the past century,
00:22:11.320
no clause has been more misinterpreted than the First Amendment's Establishment Clause,
00:22:16.220
which declares, Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion
00:22:25.920
As a young man traveling through Culpeper County, Virginia,
00:22:29.260
James Madison passed a jail where several Baptist preachers were imprisoned.
00:22:34.320
Their crime? Preaching without a license and publishing their views.
00:22:39.640
Virginia's state-sanctioned Anglican Church had them prosecuted.
00:22:46.400
It left a permanent mark on his understanding of liberty
00:22:50.000
and his suspicion of government power over conscience.
00:22:54.500
This memory shaped his drafting of the First Amendment.
00:22:59.520
The Establishment Clause is straightforward and very clear,
00:23:03.800
but in legal circles it has become muddled by the phrase
00:23:06.700
that appears nowhere in the Constitution or Bill of Rights,
00:23:13.740
Now that phrase, that came from a letter written by Thomas Jefferson
00:23:19.360
Modern courts have leaned heavily on that phrase,
00:23:22.360
but Jefferson didn't mean it in the way too many Americans now assume.
00:23:26.620
Jefferson's record was unmistakably pro-religious liberty.
00:23:31.380
He wrote Virginia's Statute for Religious Freedom,
00:23:34.180
a broad protection against compelled belief and state imposition of religion.
00:23:39.540
His views made him very popular with Baptist congregations around the country
00:23:46.160
faiths. In 1801, a group of pastors from Danbury, Connecticut wrote Jefferson expressing concern
00:23:52.480
that religious liberty existed only as a favor granted by the state, not as a natural right.
00:23:58.780
Jefferson replied with a reassuring letter. Believing with you that religion is a matter
00:24:03.460
which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or
00:24:08.700
his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only and not opinions,
00:24:13.840
I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that
00:24:19.620
their legislature should make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the
00:24:25.380
free exercise thereof, thus building a wall of separation between church and state.
00:24:31.300
Jefferson's wall was not meant to prevent religious expression in public life. It was
00:24:36.760
meant to reinforce the founders' understanding of two important religious clauses in the First
00:24:42.680
Amendment. First, that the federal government may not create an official state church. Second,
00:24:49.800
the government may not restrict religious beliefs and expression. What gets lost in the separation
00:24:56.400
of church and state rhetoric is that Jefferson had no role in drafting the First Amendment.
00:25:01.920
He was in Paris at the time, serving as the U.S. minister to France. Jefferson's own conduct as
00:25:07.460
president, proved he did not believe the public square should be secularized. Two days after
00:25:13.120
writing that letter, Jefferson attended church services held inside the U.S. Capitol. In fact,
00:25:19.240
he attended there almost every week during his presidency and even had a reserve seat.
00:25:27.020
No nation has ever yet existed or been governed without religion, nor can be. The Christian
0.52
00:25:33.320
religion is the best religion that has been given to man, and I, as chief magistrate of this nation,
00:25:39.140
am bound to give it the sanction of my example. Under Jefferson, Sunday church services were also
00:25:46.480
held at the War Department, the Treasury Department, government buildings under his
00:25:51.320
direct control as part of the executive branch. Clearly, he did not consider this unconstitutional.
00:25:58.440
He went even further. As president, Jefferson authored the original plan for public education
00:26:05.020
in Washington, D.C., and his chosen primary reading text? The Bible, hymnal. He also signed
00:26:14.080
federal acts supporting Christian education among Native American tribes. None of this,
00:26:19.440
in Jefferson's mind, violated the First Amendment. Jefferson and Madison's views were not hostile to
00:26:25.860
religion. They were hostile to state-mandated religion. Just as the Bill of Rights became the
00:26:33.620
law of the land, another drama unfolded inside President Washington's administration,
00:26:39.240
one that would erupt into the fiercest political rivalry of the era. Two men placed in the same
00:26:46.040
cabinet, both brilliant, both indispensable, yet absolutely incapable of agreeing on anything.
00:26:52.680
The coming clash not only shaped the early republic, but defined the American political landscape for the next two centuries.
00:27:05.000
For 250 years, Americans have believed in one powerful idea.
00:27:10.900
We're free to work hard, free to move, free to enjoy life without being held back.
00:27:14.360
But every day, I don't know about you, my body hurts, aches and pains.
00:27:18.320
If they're slowing you down, it might be time to declare your independence from pain.
00:27:21.880
I started taking Relief Factor years ago to get my life back, to thrive again, and I still take it every day because it works for me.
00:27:30.600
It's a research-based formula that is designed to help your body fight inflammation, one of the root causes of pain.
00:27:35.980
It's not a quick fix. It's not a temporary mask.
00:27:40.980
Relief Factor, created so people can get back to living life on their own terms, walking, working, exercising, enjoy the moments that matter.
00:27:47.260
This year, as we celebrate 250 years of American independence, take a stand for your own freedom.
00:27:52.100
To commemorate, they're offering a special patriotic price, just $17.76.
00:27:56.580
Declare your independence from pain. Take control.
00:28:00.180
$17.76. Three-week quick start ready for you right now.
00:28:06.380
Being prepared has always been a good idea, but Jace Medical is taking that idea to the next level
00:28:13.760
Most people get supplies and then hope they never have to use them, but preparedness doesn't end there.
00:28:17.520
Supplies run low, and when something actually happens, you don't want to be figuring it out in real time.
00:28:21.840
I asked Jace to solve this issue for anybody who's like me and is prepared.
00:28:25.460
Jace Plus, it's a membership designed to help you stay ready over time.
00:28:28.940
With membership, you get 15% off all of their products at Jace.com, 50% off replenishment medications,
00:28:35.120
free shipping insurance, early access to new product launches and exclusive promotions,
00:28:39.280
and 5% cash back on every purchase, as easy to use as store credit.
00:28:43.220
Then there is the pocket paramedic. Knowing how to use your kit when it matters is everything.
00:28:47.540
So they have real-time guidance for everyday injuries and situations. So you're not guessing,
00:28:51.720
you're responding with confidence. This is all about responsibility and self-reliance and being
00:28:55.700
ready without over-complicating it. Jace Plus and the pocket paramedic. They're available now
00:29:00.400
only at Jace.com. J-A-S-E.com. Use the promo code FREEMONTH for one month free. Jace.com.
00:29:07.000
alexander hamilton's improbable life story unfolded like a dickens novel he was born out
00:29:15.860
of wedlock in the caribbean on the island of nevis his father abandoned the family his mother died
00:29:21.460
when he was about 12 he then worked as a clerk in the virgin islands keeping books for a shipping
00:29:27.080
company when he was 17 he wrote an eloquent letter describing his experience surviving a
00:29:32.860
hurricane that was published in the local newspaper. Noting his talent, benefactors
00:29:37.700
raised money to send him to the mainland for an education. There he went to King's College in
00:29:42.760
New York City, which later became Columbia University. From there, Hamilton rose with
00:29:48.020
the force of a man who realized early that genius alone was not enough. Ambition had to do the rest.
00:29:56.080
He joined the Patriot cause. He became George Washington's indispensable aide-de-camp in the
00:30:01.420
army. He married into the wealthy Schuyler family, and by 1789, when Washington became
00:30:09.040
president, Hamilton was 34. He was intelligent, intense, and completely certain he understood
00:30:15.960
the economic blueprint that America needed. That certainty energized some people. It scared the
00:30:24.140
rest of them. In one of the starkest differences between Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson appeared
00:30:29.060
immediately in how they responded to Washington's appointments. Hamilton, named Secretary of the
00:30:34.840
Treasury, accepted instantly and plunged into work before the ink was even dry in his commission.
00:30:40.660
He saw the moment, the birth of a new national government as a rare window into dramatic action
00:30:46.420
that could shape the country permanently. His instinct was urgency. Jefferson, meanwhile,
00:30:53.280
was on his way home from Paris, where he had spent the last five years as the minister to France.
00:30:58.100
By the time he reached Virginia and learned that Washington had appointed him Secretary of State, two months had already passed.
00:31:11.240
Washington and James Madison urged him to accept, and Jefferson finally agreed, but he didn't arrive in New York until late March 1790.
00:31:20.780
From the first cabinet meeting forward, Hamilton and Jefferson seemed destined to collide.
00:31:26.040
Hamilton championed commercial growth, manufacturing, banking, and finance.
00:31:30.000
His aim was a strong national government that could stand shoulder to shoulder with global powers.
00:31:35.760
Jefferson championed the small farms, liberty, minimal government, an America rooted in local self-rule.
00:31:43.920
They represented two very different visions of what the United States should become.
00:31:49.040
Jefferson once summarized the balance that he wanted between national and state power in a letter to Madison.
00:31:54.080
To make us one nation as to foreign concerns and keep us distinct in domestic ones
00:31:59.220
gives the outline of the proper division of powers between the general and particular governments.
00:32:05.020
Hamilton got right to work designing a powerful treasury department.
00:32:08.820
He hired 39 employees, making treasury the largest department in the new federal government.
00:32:16.720
Controlling customs officials, the people who collect the tariffs at America's ports,
00:32:21.160
meant controlling the revenue stream that made government possible.
00:32:29.980
Even before Washington's inauguration, Congress had passed tariffs to fund the new government.
00:32:34.520
To enforce them, Hamilton sought the approval to build 10 revenue cutters, boats,
00:32:39.640
that were intended to patrol the harbors, chase smugglers, and guard customs collections.
00:32:44.640
Washington approved these vessels would eventually evolve into the United States Coast Guard.
00:32:50.000
but Hamilton believed deeply in federal power. From day one, he pushed its boundaries,
00:32:55.040
sometimes softly, sometimes with an enthusiasm that made Jefferson and Madison really uneasy.
00:33:00.760
One unique aspect of Hamilton's office was that Congress required the Treasury Secretary
00:33:06.520
to submit periodic written reports directly to the legislature. Hamilton embraced this requirement
00:33:13.300
as an opportunity, and each report became not just financial guidance, but a blueprint for
00:33:18.380
building the nation. In his first report, Report on Public Credit, it was essentially a sweeping
00:33:24.520
economic manifesto. The United States owed more than $54 million in national debt and $25 million
00:33:32.340
in state debt from the Revolutionary War. Hamilton wanted the federal government to assume the state's
00:33:38.200
debt and to fund the national debt at full value, creating a unified financial system that tied
00:33:44.620
wealthy creditors to the success of the new government. Historian Ron Chernow put it this
00:33:50.560
way, quote, peerless in crafting policies embedded with a secret political agenda,
00:33:55.760
Hamilton knew how to dovetail one program right with another in a way that made them all difficult
00:34:01.700
to undo, end quote. Madison had been Hamilton's close ally at the Constitutional Convention, but
00:34:07.760
now he viewed the rise of a funded national debt and a bloated Treasury Department as far too
00:34:14.020
similar to the British system that they had fought so hard against. And Jefferson, well, he agreed.
00:34:22.660
In April 1790, Benjamin Franklin died at the age of 84. In his will, he left General George
00:34:30.440
Washington a deeply symbolic gift. My fine crabtree walking stick with a gold head curiously wrought
00:34:38.800
in the form of the cap of liberty, I give to my friend, and the friend of mankind, General
00:34:46.380
Washington. If it were a scepter, he has merited it and would become it. The gesture was poignant,
00:34:55.640
a cap of liberty, a reminder of the revolution's ideals, gifted to the man who now presided over
00:35:02.380
a government trying to be the anti-monarchy. But the gift came nearly too late for George Washington
00:35:09.440
because just a few weeks later, Washington contracted the flu and pneumonia. His throat
00:35:15.420
swelled, his breathing grew shallow, fever spiked. Those closest to him, including his doctors,
00:35:21.360
expected him to die. Abigail Adams captured the feeling many had when she wrote,
00:35:26.420
At this early day when neither our finances are arranged,
00:35:30.100
nor are governments sufficiently cemented to promise duration.
00:35:34.520
His death would, I fear, have had most disastrous consequences.
00:35:39.200
The Constitution gave no instructions for what to do if the president became incapacitated.
00:35:49.560
For weeks, Washington's life and national power hung in the balance.
00:35:57.360
But when he returned to work, he stepped back in to a political firestorm.
00:36:04.660
Hamilton's plan to assume state debts was tearing Congress apart.
00:36:09.000
Then the location of the new U.S. Capitol became entangled with a debt issue.
00:36:14.100
The fight became so intense that some feared the union itself might fracture.
00:36:18.880
Jefferson despised Hamilton's debt plan, seeing it as a direct threat to the Republican liberty.
00:36:24.220
He joined Madison in resisting it, and in the middle of this turmoil, Jefferson encountered
00:36:29.800
Hamilton walking near the president's residence. Jefferson noted,
00:36:33.780
His look was somber, haggard, and dejected. Even his dress uncouth and neglected.
00:36:39.520
Hamilton poured out his frustrations. The government was disunited. Congress was fracturing.
00:36:47.840
Jefferson organized a dinner at his home for Hamilton and Madison the next evening,
00:36:51.900
and at the dinner, the three men forged a compromise with far-reaching implications for
00:36:57.120
the U.S. Jefferson and Madison would help secure the votes for Hamilton's Dead Assumption Plan.
00:37:03.820
Hamilton would persuade Pennsylvania's delegation to support a temporary capital in Philadelphia
00:37:09.240
and later a permanent U.S. capital on the Potomac River. Within weeks, Congress passed that exact
00:37:16.060
deal. But later, Jefferson lamented that dinner party compromise. Of all the errors of my
00:37:21.620
political life, this has occasioned me the deepest regret. He didn't regret the Capitol's location.
00:37:28.160
He regretted giving Hamilton the political leverage to expand federal power through the
00:37:32.380
national debt. But Hamilton was not done with his blueprint. In December 1790, just after the
00:37:39.620
Capitol relocated to Philadelphia, Hamilton submitted his next major proposal, the creation
00:37:45.620
of a national bank. Madison hated it. He argued passionately that Congress lacked the constitutional
00:37:54.060
authority to create such a bank. But the bill passed in the House and then the Senate. That
00:37:59.340
left the president, Washington, with a veto decision. As was his habit, Washington requested
00:38:04.840
written opinions from his cabinet. Jefferson's memo was scathing. He urged strict construction
00:38:12.700
of the Constitution, reading its power narrowly. He then went on to compare the bank to Europe's
00:38:18.640
monarchy system and warned that such federal power was dangerous. Madison went to see Washington and
00:38:25.320
found him wrestling with the decision. Madison later wrote, the constitutionality of the National
00:38:30.620
Bank was a question on which his mind was greatly perplexed. Hamilton, on the other hand, produced a
00:38:36.460
lengthy defense, arguing that the Constitution's necessary and proper clause permitted Congress
00:38:43.360
to exercise implied powers. If a national bank was necessary to carry out enumerated
00:38:49.680
financial responsibilities, then the bank was constitutional.
00:38:57.240
Finally, just before the veto deadline, Washington sided with Hamilton, and the National Bank
00:39:04.460
became law. With the bills for the assumption of the state's debts, the new U.S. capital,
00:39:10.320
and now the National Bank, Washington's long honeymoon period with the American people
00:39:15.280
was over. The nation was slowly dividing into camps, Hamiltons and Jeffersons. Two visions
00:39:23.040
for America, two philosophies of power, two future political parties starting to evolve.
00:39:29.500
some people feel kind of stuck right now on one hand they built up a lot of equity in their home
00:39:36.780
over the years but on the other hand they're looking at that low mortgage rate that they've
00:39:40.740
had for a long time like it's a family heirloom that you need to protect at all costs i get it
00:39:45.100
if you locked into a really good rate a few years ago the idea of refinancing your entire mortgage
00:39:50.760
right now probably feels like a horrible financial decision that's why i want you to know about the
00:39:56.040
smart equity loan from American Financing. It is designed to help you access the equity in your
00:40:02.460
home without giving up your low first mortgage rate. So whether you're trying to pay off high
00:40:07.880
interest credit card debt, handle a big expense, make improvements to your home, or just give
00:40:11.920
yourself some financial breathing room, this could be a really smart option to look into.
00:40:16.600
Call American Financing. They actually will take the time to talk you through your specific
00:40:20.600
situation. There's no upfront fees to find out if you even qualify. So call them now,
00:40:25.380
800-906-2440, 800-906-2440, or AmericanFinancing.net. NMLS 182334, NMLSConsumerAccess.org.
00:40:35.420
APR for rates on the 5 starts at 6.327% for well-qualified borrowers. Call 800-906-2440
00:40:40.340
for details about credit costs and terms. Visit AmericanFinancing.net slash Glenn.
00:40:44.040
Average savings based on borrowers who save over $200.
00:40:45.960
For more of the history that inspired this podcast series, be sure to read The American
00:40:53.360
Story, The Beginnings by David Barton and Tim Barton, available now at wallbuilders.com.
00:41:03.400
George Washington's decision to side with Hamilton on the National Bank does not mean
00:41:08.500
that he was a big government progressive in a modern sense.
00:41:11.600
In fact, far from it. Washington was deeply Federalist. He believed in a strong central
00:41:18.980
government, but the reasons were all practical, deeply rooted in his personal experience.
00:41:25.680
He was a military man. A clear chain of command wasn't a political philosophy,
00:41:30.480
it was simply how the world worked for him. And during the Revolutionary War,
00:41:34.440
he had watched the Articles of Confederation sabotage the war effort again and again.
00:41:41.820
States dragged their feet, supplies ran out, and his soldiers starved and shivered without coats.
00:41:51.020
So a stronger central government wasn't ideological for him.
00:41:56.840
But Jefferson and Hamilton's growing feud created something Washington feared even more than a weak national government.
00:42:09.380
Hamilton and Jefferson saw them as inevitabilities.
00:42:13.440
America's emerging political culture finally was beginning to take shape.
00:42:30.120
It was the beginning of the essential conflict that has fueled American politics for the past 250 years.
00:42:36.220
Conflict over the size and reach of the federal government.
00:42:38.660
And along the way, both major political parties have adopted Hamilton and Jefferson as their philosophical mascots.
00:42:46.080
In the Gilded Age in the 1800s, an era of rising industry, railroads, steel, finance, Republican leaders embraced Hamilton.
00:42:56.300
He was the founding father who championed commerce, banking, full credit, capitalism.
00:43:01.880
In that moment of industrial expansion, Hamilton was their man.
00:43:08.660
A statue of him was placed outside the Treasury Department in 1923 during Warren Harding's
00:43:18.360
Republican administration. A few years later, under Republican President Calvin Coolidge,
00:43:23.220
Hamilton was put on the $10 bill. At that time, American progressives and much of the political
00:43:29.980
left detested Hamilton. To them, he represented big business, concentrated wealth, centralized
00:43:36.360
power. He was exactly the kind of figure they believed had corrupted the Gilded Age.
00:43:43.840
Jefferson, meanwhile, somehow or another, had become the patron saint of the Democratic Party.
00:43:49.660
When the Great Depression struck and Franklin D. Roosevelt began his massive expansion of the
00:43:54.800
government, Jefferson's image, pro-farmer, pro-common man, became a convenient political
00:44:00.140
symbol. Jefferson had been on the little-used $2 bill since the 1860s. But in 1938, the Roosevelt
00:44:07.340
administration moved him onto the nickel, the everyday coin of ordinary Americans. That same
00:44:14.620
year, they also placed him on the three-cent stamp. And then they went further. In 1938,
00:44:19.460
construction began on the Jefferson Memorial, with FDR personally laying the cornerstone.
00:44:24.800
five years later he presided over its dedication jefferson had become the philosophical giant for
00:44:33.460
fdr's new deal democratic party conveniently ignoring of course that jefferson favored
00:44:40.340
limited federal government but political taste has a very short memory in recent decades jefferson
00:44:47.520
has fallen out of favor on the political left because of his record on slavery and hamilton
00:44:52.300
thanks largely to a certain Broadway musical, has undergone a renaissance.
00:44:58.240
In his book, How Alexander Hamilton's Screwed Up America, written by Brian McClanahan,
00:45:06.880
Alexander Hamilton, it seems, has been reinvented by Lin-Manuel Miranda.
00:45:12.300
He is the new hero for the left, a hipster who personified the immigrant experiment,
00:45:17.300
who pursued active central government and championed the notion of a diverse America.
00:45:22.300
end quote. Jefferson recounted a dinner party at his house where he showed Hamilton portraits of
00:45:29.420
his personal heroes, Sir Francis Bacon, Sir Isaac Newton, and John Locke. Jefferson told Hamilton
00:45:35.860
how they were the three greatest men the world had ever produced. He said Hamilton paused for
00:45:41.740
a long moment. Then he told him the greatest man in history was Julius Caesar. Jefferson said that
00:45:49.220
pretty much summed up Hamilton's political philosophy.
00:45:53.960
Hamilton was honest as a man, but as a politician,
00:45:57.620
believing in the necessity of either force or corruption to govern men.
00:46:02.280
One historian described the difference between these founders like this.
00:46:15.580
two fundamentally different theories on human nature.
00:46:32.340
who thought the other side threatened the future of the republic.
00:46:37.500
and by relying on Jefferson as a diplomat and political counselor,
00:46:41.860
Washington unintentionally created the two poles
00:46:44.480
around which American politics would orbit for centuries,
00:46:47.920
and he was barely through his first term in office.
00:46:53.800
Coming up on the American story, The Beginnings.
00:46:58.240
At the foot of the scaffold stands King Louis XVI,
00:47:02.500
the same king who just a decade earlier bankrolled the American Revolution,
00:47:08.100
funneling money, weapons, and ships to George Washington's struggling army.
00:47:12.180
It was his support that helped the United States become a nation.
00:47:16.720
But here today, none of that matters. He's just another victim in the chaos that he unwittingly
00:47:24.080
helped unleash. The crowd craves royal blood. Louis looks out at the sea of faces, some furious,
0.97
00:47:31.840
some triumphant, some simply curious. And then he's strapped in place. The drum roll begins
00:47:51.360
I'd love you to rate and subscribe to the podcast