The general's table at Mount Vernon

Washington has brought his secretaries and their allies down to Mount Vernon for a few days away from the capital. The house is full, the farms are in order, and the talk turns, as it always does, to money: whether the federal government should take on the states' war debts and what kind of bank the country needs.

Hamilton makes the case for assumption and a national bank; Jefferson and Madison object that it will concentrate power in the north and enrich speculators. Adams, who has little patience for either faction, reminds them that the republic is young and its credit fragile. Washington says little and listens to all of them. The table is set with glazed ham, a pot roast, cornbread, succotash, chess pie, and mulled cider, and the argument is carried on long after the plates are cleared.