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Hamilton's Blessing: The Extraordinary Life and Times of Our National Debt That was published in '97 and required reading for the Econ and PolSci classes I had to take after my freshman year of college. "How the fuck do you pay for all of this bullshit?" is what that book is all about.

The US has a long history of actually honoring and always paying debts on time.

The US Treasury wrote cheques which weren't backed by anything but "the full faith and credit" of the US Government.

Russia was not getting anything which could be called an "invasion fleet" out of the Baltic Sea, Black Sea, Arctic, or Far East which could even threaten Martinique back then so if the US gave Martinique to the Poles the only real threat they would have faced would have been France or Britain...

Jefferson wasn't sure if buying territory from a foreign power was constitutional and reluctantly submitted it. The Senate saying "yup, that's ok and we approve" meant that the House of Representatives needed to OK $15 million at a time when the Federal budget was about $9 million. Scale that...

For the US to ratify a treaty 2/3 of the Senators present - all of whom have very diverse interests - must agree on something. They don't get a say until the President submits it for their advice and consideration. Good luck with that ...

Jefferson basically wrote the US Declaration of Independence. If he wasn't convinced "we can legally do this" it wasn't going to happen.

Hmm ... If the US buys Martinique along with Louisiana from France and gifts it to Poland the French aren't going to screw with it because Napoleon basically went to the US hat in hand offering Louisiana in exchange for cash when he was broke. If saner British heads (especially in the...