

The First Congress
How James Madison, George Washington, and a Group of Extraordinary Men Invented the Government
Author: Fergus M. Bordewich
Narrator: Sean Runnette
Unabridged: 12 hr 59 min
Format: Digital Audiobook Download
Publisher: Tantor Media
Published: 05/12/2016
Categories: Nonfiction, History, Political Science, History & Theory, Us History
Synopsis
The Constitution was a broad set of principles. It was left to the members of the First Congress and President George Washington to create the machinery that would make the government work. Fortunately, James Madison, John Adams, Alexander Hamilton, and others less well known today, rose to the occasion. During two years of often fierce political struggle, they passed the first ten amendments to the Constitution; they resolved bitter regional rivalries to choose the site of the new national capital; they set in place the procedure for admitting new states to the union; and much more. But the First Congress also confronted some issues that remain to this day: the conflict between states' rights and the powers of national government; the proper balance between legislative and executive power; the respective roles of the federal and state judiciaries; and funding the central government.