n they were removed to Washington
in the District of Columbia.

%224. The Bank of the United States.%--The troublesome questions of
funding and assumption thus disposed of, Congress called on Hamilton for
a report on the further support of public credit, and when it met in the
session of 1790-91, received a plan for a great National Bank, with a
capital of $10,000,000. The United States was to raise $2,000,000; the
rest was to be subscribed for by the people. The bank was to keep the
public revenues, was to aid the government in making payments all over
the country. To do this, power was given to the parent bank (which must
be at Philadelphia) to establish branches in the chief cities and towns,
and to issue bank bills which should be received all over the United
States for public lands, taxes, duties, postage, and in payment of any
debt due the government. Great opposition was made; but the charter was
granted for twenty years, and in 1791 the Bank of the United States
began business.

The effect of these two measures, funding the debt and establishing a
bank, was immediate. Confidence and credit were restored. Money that the
people had long been hiding away was brought out and invested in all
sorts of new enterprises, such as banks, canal companies, manufacturing
companies, and turnpike companies.

[Illustration: The first Bank of the United States]

%225. "Federalists" and "Republicans."%--When the Constitution was
before the people for acceptance or rejection in 1788, they were divided
into two bodies. Those who wanted a strong and vigorous federal
government, who wanted Congress to have plenty of power to regulate
trade, pay the debts of the country, and raise revenue, supported the
Constitution just as it was and were called "Federalists."

Others, who wanted the old Articles of Confederation preserved and
amended so as to give Congress a revenue and only a little more power,
opposed the Constitution and wanted it altered. To please these
"Anti-Federalists," as they were a large part of the people, Congress,
in 1789, drew up twelve amendments to the Constitution and sent them to
the states.

With the ratification of ten of these amendments, opposition to the
Constitution ceased. But as soon as Congress began to pass laws,
difference of opinion as to the expediency of them, and even as to the
right of Congress to pass them, divided the people again into two
parties, and sent a good many Federalists into the