Debates in the House of Representatives : Third Session : December 1790-March 1791 : Biographies of Members

United States Congress 1789-1791 House (COR); Bowling, Kenneth R. (EDT); Bickford, Charlene Bangs (EDT); Veit, Helen E. (EDT); Digiacomantonio, William Charles (EDT); Bickford, Charlene Bangs; Bowling, Kenneth R.; Veit, Helen E.

ISBN 10: 0801850150 / ISBN 13: 9780801850158

Published by Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996

About this Item

Seller Inventory # 262950-n

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Debates in the House of Representatives : Third Session : December 1790-March 1791 : Biographies of Members
• Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
• Publication Date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0801850150
• ISBN 13: 9780801850158
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

Volume XIV of this widely acclaimed series takes us to the third session of Congress in December 1790, when for the first time under the new Constitution Congress took up quarters at Philadelphia. House and Senate met in cramped Congress Hall, which, in tacit comment on the fragility of the new federal government, the nearby Pennsylvania State House overshadowed.

During this session Congress debated the federal courts, state militias and the U.S. military, the postal system, navigation bills, and other issues fundamental to the new order―which had already begun to raise suspicions. The Virginia delegation denounced federal assumption of state debts. Congress heatedly discussed Alexander Hamilton's proposed national bank―including whether the Constitution implied federal authority to establish one. Congress followed the secretary of the treasury in placing an excise tax on distilled spirits, a measure that soon led to open rebellion in western Pennsylvania.

About the Authors

Charlene Bangs Bickford is the director and coeditor of the Documentary History of the First Federal Congress, 1789–1791.

Kenneth R. Bowling is the coeditor of the Documentary History of the First Federal Congress, 1789–1791

Helen E. Veit is an associate editor of the Documentary History of the First Federal Congress, 1789–1791.