Though George Washington is probably best known as the father of our country, he also achieved a great deal during his two terms of presidency (1789-1797), as the first president of the United States. On February 4, 1789, he became the unanimous choice of the Electoral college, and upon being notified on April 14, Washington left the comfort of his Mount Vernon home in Virginia to blaze a trail in American history, “with more anxious and painful sensations than I have words to express” (215). Among his most important decisions were to adopt Hamilton’s assumption plan, install Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton in his cabinet, and keep the United States neutral in the French Revolution. It was these decisions that were among the most influential made by Washington during his presidency.
An important decision Washington made was to adopt Hamilton’s assumption plan to resolve the debt crisis. With this plan, Hamilton proposed that the federal government take over the unpaid war debts of the states. By doing so, the nation would be strengthened “by doing away with the necessity of thirteen complicated and different systems of state finance” (236). Most of the taxes would be carried into the federal system, so it would be in all public creditors’ best interests to support the central government. This however, provoked the states like Virginia, who had already paid off most of her debts and did not want to pay taxes to bail out other states. Meanwhile, Massachusetts and Carolina threatened to secede from the Union if the other states did not help them pay all their debts. Washington drew up a “Plan of American Finance” where all taxes were collected by the Union because “expenses of the war had been incurred in a common cause” (236). He then made the important decision to compromise: northern votes to put capital in the south in exchange for southern votes to pass assumption. This was a significant decision because he prevented the succession of Massachusetts and Carolina, while resolving to pay the national war debt. With the help of Jefferson, he also resolved the issue of the location of the permanent national capital. Another significant outcome was that Congress decided that the permanent capital should be on the Potomac, and that Washington was empowered to pick the exact spot, allowing him the opportunity to create the great city near Mount Vernon he had been dreaming of. The decision to adopt Hamilton’s assumption proposal created a significant impact on the Union’s economic status.
