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The First Congress: How James Madison, George Washington, and a Group of Extraordinary Men Invented the Government

Amazon.com Price:  $9.90 (as of 23/04/2019 18:09 PST- Details)

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Description

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

The First Congress may have been crucial in American history because it established how our government would work. The Constitution was once a broad set of principles that left undefined the machinery of government. Fortunately, far-sighted, brilliant, and made up our minds 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 writer 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 deal with the infant republic’s finances; created the first cabinet positions and the federal court system; and lots of other achievements. But it have shyed away from the subject of slavery, which was once too contentious to get to the bottom of.

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

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