When Hamilton became the first secretary of the treasury, his primary task was to draft a report on the future economic stability of America. In order to defeat the British, the colonies had to borrow a lot of money from other countries. By the time the Constitution was enacted, some states had already started repaying their debts, but many had not. Hamilton was adamant that the federal government take responsibility for the debts of all the states and pay them and the interest off—instead of canceling them as many new governments tried to do. Hamilton planned to raise taxes in order to pay off those debts. After his plans for decreasing the national debt passed, Hamilton wanted to create a national bank, but this resulted in a rift between him and Thomas Jefferson, who believed that a national bank could not be instituted, because, he claimed, the Constitution did not support the creation of such an institution.
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