The First Congress: How James Madison, George Washington, and a Group of Extraordinary Men Invented the GovernmentThe little known story of perhaps the most productive Congress in US history, the First Federal Congress of 17891791. The First Congress was the most important in US history, says prizewinning author and historian Fergus Bordewich, because it established how our government would actually function. Had it failedas many at the time feared it wouldits possible that the United States as we know it would not exist today. The Constitution was a broad set of