You're listening to an Airwave Media podcast.

As close as I can estimate, there are about 1,000 federal employees, civil and military

by, let's say, January 1, 1790.

And George Washington was convinced that that number was insufficient to the needs of the

country because the number of personnel grew throughout his administration

didn't double, but it probably grew by around 30 to 40 percent before he left office in

1797. The principal areas of growth, there's a substantive growth in the Army, there's a big

percentage growth in the number of postmasters.

That number sort of doubles every eight years or so throughout the early American Republic.

And there was a steady growth in the number of civil personnel. Hello and welcome to episode 420 of Ben Franklin's World, the podcast dedicated to helping you

learn more about how the people and events of our early American past have shaped the present-day world we live in.

And I'm your host, Liz Covert.

When we think about the founding of the United States,

we often focus on the Constitution, the founding fathers, and those first landmark elections.

But how did the United States actually go about building its federal government?

That entire apparatus of state that could

collect revenue, manage international diplomacy, provide law and order, and extend its reach

across a rapidly expanding nation. Who were the people who made that government work? And how did

their service to the nation shape what it meant to be an American citizen? Peter Castor, a professor

of history and American

Cultural Studies at Washington University in St. Louis, and the founder of the Creating a Federal

Government 1789 to 1829 digital project, joins us to explore this remarkable and often overlooked story

...