[Verse 1] January, seventeen-ninety, ink still wet on parchment, Hamilton unrolls the ledger, calls the debt a parlous dragon, Teetering, unpaid, hissing doubt through every state and nation, Seventy-five million owed — he says: don't slay it, tame it, cage it. Twenty-one and a half in state debts tangled in the balance, Assumption is his gambit, turning chaos into alliance. [Chorus] Schulden, Schulden, bezahlt am Nennwert, Pay at par — vertrauen ist das Fundament, Kredit ist König, das Land muss zahlen, Hamilton's Report, die Lektion, die uns stählt. At par we trust, am Nennwert steht der Staat, Funded debt, geboren aus dem Senat. [Verse 2] Jefferson and Madison, uneasy round the table, Hamilton needs the votes, so he spins a quiet fable, Trade the Northern assumption for a Southern river town, Potomac gets the capital — swampland wears a crown. The Compromise of seventeen-ninety, dinner-table diplomacy, A ledger balanced north to south through careful, cool democracy. [Chorus] Schulden, Schulden, bezahlt am Nennwert, Pay at par — vertrauen ist das Fundament, Kredit ist König, das Land muss zahlen, Hamilton's Report, die Lektion, die uns stählt. [Verse 3] Ninety-one, the Bank is chartered, specie locked in vaults of stone, Hard coin anchoring the paper promises the state calls home, Whiskey stills up in the hills feel the new excise's bite, Pennsylvania farmers bristle, tar-torch burning through the night, Ninety-four, the hills erupt — Whiskey Rebellion answers back, Federal troops ride out to prove the young Republic holds the track. [Bridge] Ninety-two, Duer speculates, the bubble starts to burst, Panic hits the Street in March, the bank runs at their worst, Hamilton steps in like a sentinel at midnight's gate, Buying bonds, lending specie — calm the trembling, tip the scale, Sylla calls it revolution, quiet, financial, true, Lender of last resort, before the phrase itself was due. [Verse 4] Ninety-one, December, Report on Manufactures laid down bold, Tariffs, bounties, factories — a vision not yet told, Jefferson dreams of yeoman farmers, soil beneath the plow, Hamilton sees furnaces and mills upon the water now, Two Americas debated, agrarian versus industrial creed, The argument still echoes in the nation's every need. [Chorus] Schulden, Schulden, bezahlt am Nennwert, Pay at par — vertrauen ist das Fundament, Kredit ist König, das Land muss zahlen, Hamilton's Report, die Lektion, die uns stählt. [Outro] Es ist kein neues Lied — borrowed from the British score, Funded debt, die alte Melodie, sung now on this new shore, Schulden, Schulden, bezahlt am Nennwert, Vertrauen ist das Fundament, für immer mehr, From London's ledger to the Potomac's muddy bank, Hamilton transplanted credit — and the Republic found its rank.
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