The First Congress tells the dramatic story of the two remarkable years when George Washington, James Madison, and their dedicated colleagues struggled to successfully create our government, an achievement that has lasted to the present day. The Constitution was a broad set of principles. It was left to the members of the First Congress and President George Washington to create the machinery that would make the government work. Fortunately, James Madison, John Adams, Alexander Hamilton, and others less well known today, rose to the occasion. During two years of often fierce political struggle, they passed the first ten amendments to the Constitution; they resolved bitter regional rivalries to choose the site of the new national capital; they set in place the procedure for admitting new states to the union; and much more. But the First Congress also confronted some issues that remain to this day: the conflict between states' rights and the powers of national government; the proper balance between legislative and executive power; the respective roles of the federal and state judiciaries; and funding the central government. Other issues, such as slavery, would fester for decades before being resolved.

Fergus M. Bordewich is the author of several books, among them "Washington: The Making of the American Capital" and "Bound for Canaan," a national history of the Underground Railroad. His articles have appeared in many magazines and newspapers. He lives in San Francisco.