Remaking America by George Shollenberger, Idea XXXXXXXIII (Economies for the USA, V)
To maintain the Union after July 4, 1776, the colonists had to prepare for war with England. During this quiet period, the Second Continental Congress became the U.S. government. As godly persons, the members of Congress tried to obtain peace. But they had no success. The Revolutionary War started and ended on January 14, 1785 with the Treaty of Paris. The Second Continental Congress maintained government until the Constitution was ratified in 1788. Then, George Washington became the first President in 1789. Like other colonists, he conducted farm research at Mt. Vernon to feed the people of the Union at lower costs. So the development of new sciences and technologies was a major policy of the new self-governing nation.
To support this policy, financial order and credit had to be established. The First Bank of the United States was thus proposed by Alexander Hamilton. It was opened in 1791 and closed in 1811. However, increased inflation, due to the influx of foreign specie, and the War of 1812 led Second Bank of the United States. It was opened in 1816 by President Madison. Its period was also twenty years.
But, the development of lower cost productions became a problem when John Adams became president. As president, he wanted to stop the growth of a rich class. Accordingly, he became an ant-federalist. The third president, Thomas Jefferson thought that the Union could become a nation of farms. Thus, he sided with Adams.
The nation’s free traders and Southern plantation owners viewed the Union as a producing and trading nation. They opened another developmental problem --- cheap labor with slavery. However, President Lincoln disagreed with slavery saying that the Declaration of Independence does not mean that only English Men are created equal. Although President Lincoln saved the Union with the Civil War, the further development of the Union was stopped when Lincoln was assassinated.
After Lincoln, presidential attempts to develop the Union in the 1860s have been limited to President Roosevelt’s fight against inflation and unemployment and creating social security in the 1930s, President Kennedy’s 196o space programs, President Nixon’s 1970 social initiatives, President Clinton’s 1990 governmental debt reductions, and President Obama’s 2009 infrastructures.
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