The First Congress

How James Madison, George Washington, and a Group of Extraordinary Men Invented the Government

Fergus M. Bordewich

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN:
  9781451692112
• eBook ISBN:
  9781451692136
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Early American History
• Index: History

This “fascinating” (Chicago Tribune), “lively” (The New York Times) history tells how the First Congress and the Washington administration created one of the most productive and far-reaching governments in American history—“gracefully written…and well worth reading” (The Wall Street Journal).

The First Congress may have been the most important in American history because it established how our government would work. The Constitution was a broad set of principles that left undefined the machinery of government. Fortunately, far-sighted, brilliant, and determined men such as Washington, Madison, Adams, Hamilton, and Jefferson (and others less well known today) labored to create a functioning government.

In The First Congress, award-winning author Fergus Bordewich brings to life the achievements of the First Congress: it debated and passed the first ten amendments to the Constitution, which we know as the Bill of Rights; admitted North Carolina and Rhode Island to the union when they belatedly ratified the Constitution, then admitted two new states, Kentucky and Vermont, establishing the procedure for admitting new states on equal terms with the original thirteen; chose the site of the national capital, a new city to be built on the Potomac; created a national bank to handle the infant republic’s finances; created the first cabinet positions and the federal court system; and many other achievements. But it avoided the subject of slavery, which was too contentious to resolve.

The First Congress takes us back to the days when the future of our country was by no means assured and makes “an intricate story clear and fascinating” (The Washington Post).

Table of contents

• Cover
• Dedication
• Epigraph
• Members of the First Federal Congress
• Introduction: Nebuchadnezzar’s Monster
• Chapter 1: An Ocean Always Turbulent
• Chapter 2: The Fostering Hand of Government
• Chapter 3: A New Era
• Chapter 4: Pomp and Quiddling
• Chapter 5: A Very Perplexing Business
• Chapter 6: A Great and Delicate Subject
• Chapter 7: Vile Politicks
• Chapter 8: Propositions of a Doubtful Nature
• Chapter 9: Paper Guarantees
• Chapter 10: A Centre Without Parallel
• Chapter 11: Interlude I
• Chapter 12: The Labyrinth of Finance
• Chapter 13: A Gross National Iniquity
• Chapter 14: The Trumpet of Sedition
• Chapter 15: Cabals, Meetings, Plots, and Counterplots
• Chapter 16: A Southern Position
• Chapter 17: Indians
• Chapter 18: Interlude II
• Chapter 19: Freedom’s Fav’rite Seat
• Chapter 20: A Most Mischievous Engine
• Epilogue: American Dawn
• Afterword
• Photographs
• Acknowledgments
• About Fergus M. Bordewich
• ‘The Looming Conflict’ by Fergus M. Bordewich
• Notes
• Selected Bibliography
• Index
• Copyright