First Report on the Public Credit

First Report on the Public Credit

The First Report on the Public Credit was one of four major reports on fiscal and economic policy submitted by Founding Father and first US Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton on the request of Congress.^[1] The report analyzed the financial standing of the United States and made recommendations to reorganize the national debt and to establish the public credit.^[2] Commissioned by the US House of Representatives on September 21, 1789, the report was presented on January 9, 1790,^[3] at the second session of the 1st US Congress.^[4]

The 40,000-word document^[5] called for full federal payment at face value to holders of government securities ("redemption") and the federal government to assume funding of all state debt ("assumption").^[3] The political stalemate^[6] in Congress that ensued led to the Compromise of 1790, which located the permanent US capital on the Potomac River ("residency").

The Federalists' success in winning approval for Hamilton's reforms led to the emergence of an opposition party, the Democratic-Republicans^[7] and set the stage for political struggles that would persist for decades in American politics.^[8]