What happen in the dinner of Thomas Jefferson in 1790?

Answer 1

In 1790, there were 2 large issues that were issues that the entire Congress was worked up about. The first was the location of the capital. Since New York wasn't a great place to put it, and everyone knew, new sites for the capital were proposed - Trenton, Philadelphia, and a site that Thomas Jefferson and James Madison liked on the Potomac River. The second was Alexander Hamilton (the thirty-four year old Secretary of the Treasury) and his Report on Public Credit. He argued that the government needed to assume 25 million dollars of debt in addition to its own 54 million. James Madison, easily the most influential delegate in the House, vehemently opposed.

Jefferson, knowing that Hamilton wielded influence with Washington, invited both he and Madison to dinner. Hamilton agreed to convince skeptics to put the temp capital in Philadelphia and the permanent on the Potomac, as Jefferson and Madison wanted, in exchange for support of his assumption plan by Madison and Jefferson (Madison actually said that he would not actively oppose it, but he wasn't going to vote for it).

History still remembers this deal for a few reasons. First of all, it was the only time that Hamilton and Jefferson, who hated each other, would work together. Secondly, the site of the nations capital, in what was then the centre of the country, would effectively unite the country because Virginia was in the country's center and was a border state (there is a reason the 6 of the first 10 presidents were from Virginia). Thirdly, Hamilton's Report on Public Credit, passed with assumption and all, and the subsequent Reports would shape our country's economic system and give the United States good credit and a working economy.