StellarThe Washington Administration's First Actions
Because Washington was a popular war hero, he was unanimously elected president. Washington also decided to appoint a cabinet to advise him on important affairs, the most prominent of which were Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton and Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson. Because states were still in debt from money borrowed during the war, Hamilton proposed that the federal government assume those debts, as well as create a National Bank to simulate the American economy. However, Jefferson and his faction opposed such a plan, claiming that it was unconstitutional and that it decreased the power of the state governments. Eventually, a compromise was reached, in which the national bank and debt assumption would take place in exchange for the capital to be moved to the South in Washington D.C.