Chapter 2 Summary

A haggard, dejected Alexander Hamilton confided to Thomas Jefferson, together waiting outside President Washington's New York office, that he was ready to resign his post as Secretary of the Treasury because Congress was deadlocked over his financial plan. In Hamilton's view, failure to have the federal government assume the states' debt would doom the union. Preoccupied with other matters and suffering migraine headaches, Jefferson offered to help by bringing Hamilton together over dinner with the leader of the opposition to this plan, James Madison. Jefferson provides the only account of the June 20, 1790, gathering, which resulted in one of the landmark accommodations in U.S. politics. The Residence Bill and the Assumption Bill, both considered near dead before the dinner, passed within days of each other in July by nearly identical votes in Congress. The press concluded that a secret deal had been reached...