The Dinner Party Compromise:

The Negotiation That Transformed Our Nation

Arjun Sarup, Devan Shah, and John Majsak

Junior Division

Group Website

Student Composed Words:

Multimedia: 3:54

Process Paper Word Count: 476

 We discovered our topic through the inspirational musical ​Hamilton​ written by Lin

Manuel-Miranda. The musical highlighted difficulties faced by Alexander Hamilton in his

attempts to strengthen the federal government of the newly-made American Nation. It was hard

to imagine how one person could push so many reforms and help the nation in so many different

ways. In the end, we focused on one of his biggest achievements, which was trying to pay off the

US debt after the Revolutionary War. As we continued researching, we learned more of

Hamilton’s difficulties and were further moved by what he did. Such important people are rare in

American history, so we choose our topic to honor a person who achieved little recognition

despite the successful efforts he led.

Our research started online with a selection of the extant letters by Thomas Jefferson.

Jefferson was an avid writer and we sifted through dozens of his letters pertaining to Hamilton’s

Financial Plan. We used Hamilton’s own documents from the Library of Congress website to

further understand his financial plan. A member of our group was able to get us an interview

with the well-known professor Dr. Diane Heith, Ph. D., who furthered our understanding of the

topic. In addition, some of us went to the Philadelphia Mint and Federal Reserve where we

learned more about the many compromises and conflicts that were required for the creation of

those institutions. It was through these sources that we learned that the people who participated

in this compromise were each extremely important in their own way.

 There was a lively debate over which form our project should take. We thought about

doing a play but only one of us has the experience necessary. One member of our group,

however, was familiar with using Weebly on account of participating in NHD last year. We also

agreed a website would more clearly present our vision than other forms of presentation such as

a documentary or exhibit, while also providing a fair amount of interactivity. Before we started

on building the website, we planned thoroughly about who should take which roles in producing

the website. Eventually, we were prepared enough to create the project. All of us continued to

add content, increase visual appeal, and make the website more interactive until the website met

our high standards.

When choosing our topic, all of us were impressed by how well Hamilton’s ideas and

their execution blended in with the theme of Conflict and Compromise. Hamilton’s Financial

Plan benefited the northern states and would hurt the southern states to some extent. Thomas

Jefferson and James Madison were two important politicians who didn’t want a plan that could

hurt their state of Virginia. After much conflict between the two parties, Jefferson proposed a

meeting where the groups negotiated and finally compromised on an ingenious solution that

would help both sides.