Beginning in the early 1780’s, and continuing through the ratification of the U.S. Constitution, in 1788, James Madison of Virginia and Alexander Hamilton of New York worked relentlessly as a team. Together they dragged the country kicking and screaming toward the creation of a national government that they hoped would defeat democratic inroads on political power, made by ordinary people in the 1770’s and 80’s, and vitiate the legislative powers of the separate states, which had been lax, at best, in opposing such impulses. In 1789, when the first U.S. government went into operation in New York City, the partners hadn’t gotten all they’d wanted—the state legislatures still existed—but they’d gotten a lot, and as Treasury secretary, Hamilton went into action to bring about a system that he and Madison had long been working toward.