a strong Government requires money to operate, and that comes from taxes. Hamilton's assignment as Secretary of the Treasury was to put the new Government on a secure financial footing. This was a huge responsibility, because the Government was in debt from its first day. The new Constitution required the Federal Government to assume the National debt—incurred to finance the Revolutionary War. The Articles of Confederation had proven inadequate to deal with this debt because they did not authorize Congress to tax the people directly. Under the Articles, Congress could only requisition money from the States, which sometimes complied and sometimes did not.