27
and other tools, needs more actively to intervene to steer American economic development
towards its true interests.
88
From Opposition Leader to Party Builder
Hamilton’s successes and ever more ambitious proposals only strengthened Madison’s
determination to block the Treasury Secretary’s agenda. The quick sale of bank stock and
rising value of federal securities confirmed Madison’s fears. Not only had the policy benefited
the “Bank-Jobbers,” but “It pretty clearly appears also in what proportions the public debt lies in
the County--What sort of hand hold it, and by whom the people of the U.S. are to be governed.”
In New York, Madison wrote to Jefferson, “The Coffee House is in an eternal buzz with the
gamblers.”
89
Even the Constitution had not been strong enough to fend off Hamilton’s plans.
Very soon after Washington signed the Bank bill over their objections, Madison and
Jefferson set about to organize Hamilton’s opponents. In Congress, the bank battle produced a
better organized opposition bloc of legislators representing southern and peripheral agricultural
areas. In the spring of 1791, Madison and Jefferson took a trip, first to New York City, then up
the Hudson Valley to Lake George, returning through western New England. This trip caused
considerable speculation about a hidden political agenda, allegedly to build political alliances in
New York. It is very likely that Madison and Jefferson met with Hamilton’s adversaries
Chancellor Robert R. Livingston and Aaron Burr in New York City, though there is no evidence
that they met with Governor George Clinton. Overshadowed by all of this political gossip,
however, was Madison’s unambiguous attention to the political economy of northern regions.
Madison’s notes of this trip seem descriptive, but they are close cousins of Madison’s notes on
ancient republics and on banks, which had been prepared for two of his major political battles.
Like those notes, his notes on the 1791 trip provided an empirical basis for political action.
Madison was charting population, trade, commodity and land prices, and the potential benefits
Convention