James

“James Wilkinson, an ex–Revolutionary War officer, and tried to convince them that the future of Americans in the West belonged to Spain. Spain offered trading licenses to Kentucky settlers, negotiated with leaders in Tennessee, and sought to attract Americans to settle in Spanish territory. Spain even enlisted Wilkinson as a paid agent of its government. Wilkinson secretly swore allegiance to the Spanish crown and for fifteen years received $2,000 a year as Agent 13 of the Spanish government, an arrangement not authenticated until the twentieth century.”
― Gordon S. Wood, Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789-1815

“Hamilton used the sinking fund to maintain the confidence of creditors in the government’s securities; he had no intention of paying off the outstanding principal of the debt. Retiring the debt would only destroy its usefulness as money and as a means of attaching investors to the federal government.”
― Gordon S. Wood, Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789-1815

“These critics thought that the general commercialization of English life, including the rise of trading companies, banks, stock markets, speculators, and new moneyed men, had undermined traditional values and threatened England with ruin. The monarchy and its minions had used patronage, the national debt, and the Bank of England to corrupt the society, including the House of Commons, and to build up the executive bureaucracy at the expense of the people’s liberties, usually for the purpose of waging war.”
― Gordon S. Wood, Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789-1815

“As William Plumer of New Hampshire complained, “It is impossible to censure measures without condemning men.”
― Gordon S. Wood, Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789-1815