Adoption By Congress
Though Congress refused to accept Hamilton's proposals in 1791, due to opposition from James Madison and his supporters, much of Hamilton's third report would later be adopted by the United States Congress despite continued opposition to the support of industry through subsidy. Both sides agreed that manufacturing independence was desirable and necessary but disagreed on how to obtain it. The Jeffersonian Democratic-Republican Party's main objection to subsidy was their fear that subsidy would lead to corruption and favoritism of certain sections of the new nation over others; namely the north over the agrarian south. This divide (north vs. south) would come up again and again in issues of economic policy until the outbreak of the American Civil War.
It is often thought that Hamilton's report was completely ignored, but in fact "Hamilton worked to ensure that Congress enacted virtually every tariff recommendation in the report within five months of its delivery." Hamilton's revenue-based trade policy, with its more moderate tariffs, meant that, by 1794, manufacturers had switched their support from the Federalists to the Republicans.
Read more about this topic: Report On Manufactures
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