Chapter 2 of Ellis" Founding Brothers deals with the contentious propositions of James Madison and Alexander Hamilton. One evening, in late June of 1790, Thomas Jefferson arranged for a dinner meeting to take place at his residence, where Madison and Madison could settle out their oppositions and establish an agreement.
There was a detailed description of Madison, Hamilton, and Jefferson. Madison was a short, shy, monotonous man that no one would expect much from, yet he was a political tyrant. Hamilton was a very publicly involved individual, who aimed for distinction. Jefferson was the most intimidating of the three, and was a very well known and respected. Jefferson and Madison had been a pair for a very long time; being called the "great collaboration". Then from 1784-1789, Jefferson departed to Paris, to serve as America's minister. From then on, Madison and Hamilton teamed together.
The reason Madison and Hamilton had not been cooperating, during dinner, is because Madison had wanted the capital of the United States to be located on the Potomac River, in his native Virginia. The Residence Bill was passed on July 9, allowing for this to happen. Hamilton used his authority to affirm that the bill would be validated. Likewise, Hamilton had wanted assumption to be used for dealing with the United States" debt, but Madison had been opposing it all along. After the dinner, on July 26, the Assumption Bill was ratified. In return, Madison supported Hamilton by not protesting this proposal. By 1792, Thomas Jefferson had concluded that the dinner meeting had been a gigantic blunder, saying "It was unjust and acquiesced in merely from a fear of disunion, while our government was still in its infant state." Page 51.
I thought the whole idea of assumption was ridiculous and preferred the motifs that Madison thought of, in comparison to those of Hamilton.
