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A review by wescovington
The First Congress: How James Madison, George Washington, and a Group of Extraordinary Men Invented the Government by Fergus M. Bordewich
4.0
As someone predisposed to liking just about any book on the Federalist period, I was not disappointed in this book. Bordewich does a very good job in bringing alive a topic that could be very dry and is surprisingly hard to find documentation about.
When the First Congress under the Constitution met in New York City in 1789, it did not get off to a fast start. It took a few weeks for enough people to show up to have a quorum. No one was quite sure when George Washington would show up to be sworn in as President (John Adams was already on the job as Vice President). Nobody really knew what to do.
Thankfully, James Madison was in the House of Representatives at the time. He was the man with an idea of what to do and got things going. (He was not the first Speaker of the House, that was Frederick Muhlenberg of Pennsylvania and he really didn't do much.)
The First Congress had a lot of things to do, such as, come up with a Bill of Rights, set up the Judiciary, figure out what to call the President (this was a big deal), pick a site for the capital, and figure out how to finance the new government. The last task proved to be the most contentious and it ended up giving us political parties.
My favorite anecdote in the book was President Washington walking over to the Senate, arriving unannounced, and demanding to know who didn't approve of one of his appointees. It was a Georgia senator who had blocked that nomination. Presidents do that anymore, but it would be fun to seem them try it again.
When the First Congress under the Constitution met in New York City in 1789, it did not get off to a fast start. It took a few weeks for enough people to show up to have a quorum. No one was quite sure when George Washington would show up to be sworn in as President (John Adams was already on the job as Vice President). Nobody really knew what to do.
Thankfully, James Madison was in the House of Representatives at the time. He was the man with an idea of what to do and got things going. (He was not the first Speaker of the House, that was Frederick Muhlenberg of Pennsylvania and he really didn't do much.)
The First Congress had a lot of things to do, such as, come up with a Bill of Rights, set up the Judiciary, figure out what to call the President (this was a big deal), pick a site for the capital, and figure out how to finance the new government. The last task proved to be the most contentious and it ended up giving us political parties.
My favorite anecdote in the book was President Washington walking over to the Senate, arriving unannounced, and demanding to know who didn't approve of one of his appointees. It was a Georgia senator who had blocked that nomination. Presidents do that anymore, but it would be fun to seem them try it again.