After the states agreed to ratify the Constitution, George Washington became the country’s first president. He asked Hamilton to be the first Secretary of the Treasury. The role of Secretary of the Treasury was critical in the early days of the new nation. America’s most urgent problem was figuring out ways to pay its debts. The country had borrowed or promised a lot of money during the Revolutionary War. Hamilton proposed a national bank. Congress approved the idea in 1791. The bank had $10 million in capital. It could lend the government money and pay off state debts. Hamilton’s system also created a federal system to collect taxes. But not everyone accepted Hamilton’s views. Many of President Washington’s advisors called his cabinet opposed Hamilton. Opponents expressed many objections to Hamilton’s Bank of the United States. Generally, members of Congress from the northern states supported the idea, while those from southern states opposed it. Another political leader, Thomas Jefferson, said the Bank exceeded the powers of the Constitution. Hamilton defended the Bank. He argued for a broad interpretation of the Constitution. He thought it permitted the federal government to do what it needed to do to strengthen the country’s economic system. Hamilton largely won his political arguments.