Hamilton’s reports to the public were commonly referred to as unconstitutional, but through thorough analysis of the Constitution it can be proved otherwise.

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The ragged settlers of an empty continent rebelled against a distant tyrannical government that attempted to impose an unfair tax, when America was 15 years old.

By 1865 federal power, economic, military, and political, was markedly greater than it had been in 1815. Although during much of the antebellum period the drive towards federal power was slow at best and experienced serious setbacks, events leading up to the Civil War fueled the polarization of American politics and society, with concepts of federal power and states’ rights becoming inexorably entangled in the nation’s fate.