Following the ratification of the Constitution, the U.S. Treasury Department became the central force of American state-building. This institution tasked itself with the creation of a strong federal government with a robust taxation system and a powerful standing army supporting the government and defending the nation. This dissertation examines four areas that the Treasury officials themselves indicated as crucial – customs, excise, federal military, and the debt funding system. The income from the first two was to sustain the latter two, and all four of these issues caused heated contention between the Treasury Department on one side and business owners, Anti-Federalists, and common Americans on the other. The points of contention between these forces became the sites of negotiation of federal authority over states and people.