Analyze Hamilton's plans for the economy and the opposition to them

Hamilton's plan called Assumption was opposed because his friends stood to make fortunes off the new government by speculation. The plan was for the federal government to assume the $25 million debts of the states from the Revolution, and to pay them off at face value.

1. Wealth would be redistributed from farmers to merchants, and from the South to the North.

2. Investors who purchased the bonds would make huge profits at everyone else's expense.

3. The cost would fall on farmers who would have to pay excise taxes and higher tariffs.

But Thomas Jefferson believed that this plan gave more power to the government than the Constitution permits.