isis was passed, the federal constitution was formed,
and Hamilton gave it his zealous support. Yet, to the close of his life,
he considered the constitution too weak to perform the great duties
assigned it.

Hamilton was always frank and unreserved in the expression of his
political views; and immediately after Jefferson's arrival at the seat
of government, the secretary of the treasury pressed upon his attention
the importance of the assumption of the state debts--a measure which had
been rejected. "He observed," says Jefferson in his account of the
matter, "that the members of the administration ought to act in concert;
that though this question was not of my department, yet a common duty
should make it a common concern; that the president was the centre on
which all administrative questions ultimately rested; that, the question
having been lost by a small majority only, it was probable that an
appeal from me to the judgment and discretion of some of my friends
might effect a change in the vote, and the machinery of government, now
suspended, might be again set in motion."

To this Jefferson replied that he was a stranger to the whole matter;
that if the rejection of the proposition really, as Hamilton alleged,
endangered the Union, it was important to reconsider it; and then
proposed that the secretary of the treasury should meet two or three
friends at table the next day to discuss the subject. The dinner and the
discussion took place; and it was "finally agreed," says Jefferson,
"that whatever importance had been attached to the rejection of this
proposition, the preservation of the Union and of concord among the
states was more important, and that therefore it would be better that
the vote of rejection should be rescinded, to effect which, some
members should change their votes."

At that time the question, Where shall the seat of the federal
government be permanently located? was a subject of violent contest, the
people in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia,
wishing it to be in their respective states. Debates had run high upon
the subject in Congress, and the public press had discussed it
vigorously. It being observed at Jefferson's dinner-party that a
reconsideration of the assumption bill, and its adoption, would be "a
bitter pill" to the southern states, it was proposed that "some
concomitant measure should be adopted to sweeten it a little to them."
The location of the seat of gov