Volumes 12 and 13 of this highly acclaimed documentary edition cover the first Congress's second session, from January to August 1790. Among other important issues in this critical period, Congress debated Hamilton's report on the public credit, federal assumption of state Revolutionary War debts, and antislavery petitions from Pennsylvania Quakers. The editors once more have assembled the most complete and reliable text of the debates by examining a variety of sources: stenographer Thomas Lloyd's shorthand notes, his Congressional Register, and contemporary newspaper accounts.

CONTENTS: v.1. Senate legislative journal.

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.

Rich in both information and opinion, the book makes an engrossing reading.

The newest volumes in a distinguished series presents the U.S. government's official reaction towards the plight of those who suffered to secure independence, but they also tell the fascinating stories of individual Revolutionary War soldiers. The petition histories in volume VIII throw light on the public's expectations of its new federal government and illustrate how the broad national concerns Americans brought before Congress in its first years of operation continue to resonate in the national political dialogue. The second part of this volume provides a wealth of new source materials on many issues of congressional protocol and procedures, such as rules, printing, staffing, a library for Congress, journal and record keeping, and other precedent-setting matters.

The newest volumes in a distinguished series presents the U.S. government's official reaction towards the plight of those who suffered to secure independence, but they also tell the fascinating stories of individual Revolutionary War soldiers. The petition histories in volume VIII throw light on the public's expectations of its new federal government and illustrate how the broad national concerns Americans brought before Congress in its first years of operation continue to resonate in the national political dialogue. The second part of this volume provides a wealth of new source materials on many issues of congressional protocol and procedures, such as rules, printing, staffing, a library for Congress, journal and record keeping, and other precedent-setting matters.