What role did the Constitutions authors foresee for the Federal Government?
The answer to that question would depend on who you asked, as the agreement they came to was not universal among them. Alexander Hamilton for example was an ardent Federalist who believed in a strong national defense, wanted to create a national navy with direct federal involvement in the economy. He created our first national tax system as Secretary of the Treasury and some say he wouldn’t have minded if George Washington had been appointed King. Thomas Jefferson, on the other hand, an anti-federalist, saw a much more limited authority for the government, and he and Madison supported the Bill of Rights which placed many of those limits. Patrick Henry was terrified of any federal government at all, and opposed giving them the authority to tax or raise an army. In general, the mainstream of the convention delegates wanted to have a government that could pay the nation’s bills, provide some stability economically, and guard the frontier and the coast against potential enemies.
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