Financial History Issue 121 (Spring 2017) | Page 27

By Michael Anthony Kirsch
Alexander Hamilton’s role as chief
founder of our financial system has
become an object of study and appre-
ciation in recent years. Among his most
notable accomplishments, Hamilton mas-
terfully dealt with the problem of Amer-
ica’s seemingly insurmountable Revolu-
tionary War debt, while turning that debt
into the basis of a strong financial system.
Many of Hamilton’s achievements as Sec-
retary of the Treasury are becoming well
known, as is the fact that Hamilton had
already developed many of the elements of
his financial program carried out as Sec-
retary during the early 1780s. But among
these early writings, Hamilton’s important
addresses as a member of the Continental
Congress in 1782 and 1783 are rarely noted,
even though some of them clearly fore-
shadow his most consequential repo