Well Hamilton sure as heck wasn't concerned about clearing the National Debt.
Hamilton regarded the national debt as actually being a national blessing because he felt it would strengthen the bond between society and their government. The more creditors to whom the government owed money, the more people there would be with a personal stake in the success of his ambitious enterprise. In other words, there would be more people getting involved in the government. These people would be happy to loan the government some money to pay off the national debt. (Which included the state debts) The national debt made society unite with the government. Instead of the national debt hurting the government, it ended up cementing the union. They were working together to pay off the national debt.
Hamilton was nutz.
It was Jefferson's tax policy that paid off the debt and facilitated independence, westward expansion and growth (Louisiana Purchase).
"The prohibiting duties we lay on all articles of foreign manufacture which prudence requires us to establish at home, with the patriotic determination of every good citizen to use no foreign article which can be made within ourselves without regard to difference of price, secures us against a relapse into foreign dependency."
--Thomas Jefferson to Jean Baptiste Say, 1815.
"And I sincerely believe, with you, that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies; and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale."-- Thomas Jefferson to John Taylor, May 28, 1816
"I am not among those who fear the people. They, and not the rich, are our dependence for continued freedom. And to preserve their independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our election between economy and liberty, or profusion and servitude."--Thomas Jefferson to Samuel Kercheval, July 12, 1816