National debt has been upon us since the beginning of time and has caught up with us today. Alexander Hamilton was a federalist and believed that the US needed to think of state debts as national debt. In order to do this, Hamilton suggested funding the national and individual state debts, and wanted to do so by selling bonds (Matson). John Steele Gordon discusses all the aspects of Hamilton's plan to help the national debt, and tries to prove that Hamilton's program to fix national debt was a "blessing" to the national government. .
Gordon believes that Hamilton was very daring about his ideas for government change. "Hamilton's background would always set him apart and give him an outlook on life and politics the other Founding Fathers did not share" (Gordon). Hamilton had a very strong work ethic ever since he was a young kid. After being appointed Secretary of Treasury, Hamilton immediately came up with ideas to improve the country from an economic standpoint. He quickly enacted the first Tariff Act, which put a tax onto imported goods (mainly from Great Britain) in hopes of boosting domestically made products. Congress also added a tax on a handful of goods such as, carriages, distilled, sugar, salt and other essential items during that time (Gordon). .
Hamilton put out the first report of public credit and said that he hoped the revenue from tariffs and the issuance of new bonds would increase revenue. Hamilton wanted banks holding bonds to use bank notes to create a better money supply. Many were opposed to most of Hamilton's ideas, mainly from the southern states. The south felt that they had decreased their debt immensely compared to the north, despite the fact that they felt they weren't being taxed the same way as the northern states (Edling). The second part of Hamilton's report was to include the individual states debt as a part of the federal government's debt.