Hamilton & Jefferson

Hamilton & Jefferson
By John A. Braithwaite
During the Revolutionary-Federalist Era, politics, parties, programs, policies, and
people made an enormous difference in how the new nation should be structured and run.
Examine the documents and then assess the importance of Alexander Hamilton and Thomas
Jefferson during the period 1775-1800 in the establishment of the new nation. Whose
interpretation of the Constitution prevailed?
Document A:
Source: The Constitution of the United States. Article I, Section 8, Clause 18
“To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the forgoing powers, and all other
powers vested by this Constitution in the government of the United States, or in any department or officer thereof.”
Document B:
Source: H.C. Hodge, The Works of Alexander Hamilton
“The new Constitution has in favor of its success these circumstances:
1. A very great influence from the person who framed it, particularly in the universal popularity of General Washington.
2. The good will of the commercial interest throughout the states
3. The good will of most men of property in the several states
4. The hopes of the creditors of the United States, that has a general government possessing the means of doing it will
pay the debt of the Union
“The new Constitution has against its success the following:
1. The dissent of two or three important men in the convention
2. The influence of many inconsiderable men in possession of considerable offices under the state governments.
3. The influence of some considerable men who, partly from their motive, seek their own aggrandizement. . .will
oppose the new Constitution
“In this view of the subject, it is difficult to form any judgment whether the plan will be adopted or rejected. If it does not
finally obtain adoption, it is probable that the discussion of the question will beget such struggles, animosities, and hates in
the community that the circumstances conspiring with the real necessity of an essential change in our present situation, will
produce. . . .civil war!”
Document C:
Source: Hamilton On Popular Rule
All communities divided themselves into the few and the many. The first are the rich and well born; the other, the mass of
the people. The people are turbulent and changing; they seldom judge or determine right. Give therefore to the first class a
distinct, permanent share in the government.
Can a democratic assembly . . . pursue the public good? Nothing but a permanent body can check the imprudence of
democracy. Their turbulent and uncontrolling disposition requires checks.
Take mankind in general, they are vicious—their passions may be operated upon. . .Take mankind as they are, and
what are they governed by? Their passions. Our prevailing passions are ambition and interest; and it will be the duty of a
wise government to avail itself of those passions, in order to make them subservient to the public good.
1
Document D:
Source: Thomas Jefferson On Popular Rule
“Those who labor in the earth are the chosen people of God, if ever he had a chosen people, who breaths he has made
his particular deposit for substantial and genuine virtue.” (1784)
“Men. . .are naturally divided into two parties. Those who fear and distrust the people. . .those who identify themselves
with the people, have confidence in them, cherish and consider them as honest and safe. . . .depository of the public interest.
(1824)
“Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers. . .alone. The people themselves are its only true depositories.
“When the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government. . . .
“I have great confidence in the common sense of mankind in general. (1800)
“My most earnest wish is to see the republican element of popular control pushed to the maximum of its practicable
exercise. I shall then believe that our government may be pure and perpetual.” (1816)
Document E:
Source: The Basic Ideas of Alexander Hamilton, Clash Over States Rights
“A firm Union will be of the utmost moment to the peace and liberty of the states, a barrier against domestic faction and
insurrection.” (1787)
“A state government will never be the rival power of the general government.”
“As to the destruction of state governments, the great and real anxiety is to be able to preserve the national (government)
from the too potent and counteracting influences of those state governments.”
“Hence, a disposition on my part towards a liberal construction of the powers of the national government, and to erect
every fence to guard it from depredations which is, in my opinion, consistent with constitutional propriety. As to any
combination to prostrate the state governments, I disavow and deny it.”
Document F:
Source: Statements of Jefferson. Clash Over States Rights
“I am not a friend to a very energetic government. It is always oppressive. It places the governors indeed more at
their ease, at the expense of the people.” (1787)
“If ever this vast country is brought under a single government, it will be one of most extensive corruption.” (1802)
“Our country is too large to have all its affairs directed by a single government. The true theory of our government of
our Constitution (strict construction) is surely the wisest and best—that the states are independent as to everything within
themselves, and united to every respecting foreign nations. Let the general government be reduced to foreign concerns
only, and let our affairs be disentangled from those of all other nations. . . .And our general government may be reduced
to a very simple organization and very inexpensive one: a few plain duties to be performed by a few servants.” (1800)
Document G:
Source: Gordon Wood, The Creation of the American Republic 1776-1787.
Does the proposed Constitution protect the people's liberty?
YES: Federalist Alexander Hamilton: "Here, in strictness, the people surrender nothing; and as they retain everything they
have no need of particular reservations.... Bills of rights, in the sense and to the extent in which they are contended for, are
not only unnecessary in the proposed Constitution, but would even be dangerous.... Why declare that things not be done
which there is no power to do? ... The truth is ... that the Constitution is itself, in every rational sense, and to every useful
purpose, a BILL OF RIGHTS."
NO:
Anti federalist George Mason of Virginia: "There is no declaration of rights: and the laws of the general government
being paramount to the laws and constitutions of the several states, the declarations of rights, in the separate states, are no
security. Nor are the people secured even in the enjoyment of the benefit of the common law, which stands here upon no
other foundations than its having been adopted by the respective acts forming the constitutions of the several states."
2
Document H:
Source: Thomas Jefferson, Notes on Virginia. 1781-1782.
Is it best then that all our citizens should be employed in its improvement, or that one half should be called off from
that to exercise manufacturers and handicraft arts for the other? Those who labor in the earth are the chosen people. . .
.Corruption of morals in the mass of cultivators is a phenomenon of which no age nor has nation furnished an example. It
is a mark set on those, who, not looking up to heaven, to their own soil and industry, as does the husbandman, for their
subsistence, depend for it on casualties and caprice of customers. . . While we have land to labor then, let us never wish
to see our citizens occupied at a workbench, or twirling a distaff. . .The mobs of great cities add just so much to the
support of pure government, as sores do the strength of the human body. It is the manner and spirit of a people which
preserved a republic in vigor. Degeneracy in this is canker which soon sets to the heart of its laws and constitutions.
Document I:
Source: Alexander Hamilton, Report on Manufactures. December 5, 1791.
“. . . The trade of a country, which is both manufacturing and agricultural, will be more lucrative and prosperous than
that of a country which is merely agricultural. . .The importations of manufactured supplies seem invariably to drain the
merely agricultural people of their wealth.
“Since the Revolution, the States in which manufacturers have most increased, have recovered fastest from the
injuries of the late war, and abound most in pecuniary (financial) resources. . . .
“The possession of these is necessary. . .to the safety as well as to the welfare of the society. The want of either is
the want of an important organ of political life and motion; it must severely feel the effects of any such deficiency.
“It is not uncommon to meet with an opinion, that though the promotion of manufactures may be the interest of a part
of the Union, it is contrary to that of another part. The Northern and Southern regions are sometimes represented as
having adverse interests in this respect.
“The idea of an opposition between those two interests, si the common error of the early periods of every country; but
experience gradually dissipates it. Indeed, they are perceived so often to succor and befriend each other, that they come
at length to be considered as one. . . .
“Ideas of contrary interests between the Northern and Southern regions of the Union are, in the main, as unfounded
as they are mischievous. . . .Mutual wants constitute one of the strongest links of political connection. . . .
“If, then, it satisfactorily appears, that it is the interest of the United States, generally, to encourage manufactures, it
merits particular attention, that there are circumstances which render the present a critical moment for entering with zeal,
upon the important business.
Document J:
Source: Alexander Hamilton, Speeches to the Convention. June 18 & 22, 1797.
“. . . I believe the government forms the best model the world ever produced, and such has been its progress in the
minds of the many that this truth gradually gains ground. This government has for its object publich strength and
individual security. It is said with us to be unattainable. If it was once formed it would maintain itself. All communities
divide themselves into the few and the many. The first are the rich and well born, the other the mass of the people. The
voice of the people has been said to be the voice of God; and however generally this maxim has been quoted and
believed, it is not true in fact. The people are turbulent and changing, they therefore will ever maintain good government.
Can a democratic assembly, who annually revolved in the mass of the people, be supposed to pursue the public good.
“. . . Take mankind as they are, and what are they governed by? Their passions. There may be in every government
a few choice, choice spirits, who may act from more worthy motives. One great error is that we suppose mankind more
hones than they are. Our prevailing passions are ambition and interest; and will ever by the duty of a wise government to
avail itself of those passions, in order to make them subservient to the public good—for these ever induce us to action.
3
Document K:
Source:
Thomas Jefferson, Notes on Virginia. Vol. II, pp. 206-208,
“For this purpose the reading in the first stage, where they (the great mass of the people) will receive their whole
education, is proposed. . .to be chiefly historical. History, by apprising them of the past, will enable them to judge the
future; it will avail them of the experience of other times and other nations; it will qualify them as judge of the actions and
designs of men. . . .
“Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves therefore are
its safe depositories. And to render them safe, their minds must be improved to a certain degree. This indeed is not all
that is necessary . . . The influence over government must be shared among the people. If every individual which
composed their mass participates of the ultimate authority, the government will be safe.
Document L:
Source:
Jefferson on Strict Construction of the Constitution of the US. Jefferson Writings. Vol. VI,
198 This point of view is based upon the 10th Amendment.
I consider the foundation of the Constitution as laid on this ground—that not delegated to the United States by the
Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states, or to the people. . . . To take a single step beyond
the boundaries thus specifically drawn around the powers of Congress is to take possession of boundless field of power, no
longer susceptible of any definition.
The incorporation of a bank, and the powers assumed by this bill have not, in my opinion, been delegated to the United
States by the Constitution.
Document M:
Source:
Alexander Hamilton on Loose Construction of the Constitution of the US
. . . this general principle is inherent in the very definition of government, and essential to every step of the progress
to be made by that of the United States, namely: That every power vested in a government is in its nature sovereign, and
includes, by force of the term, a right to employ all means requisite and fairly applicable to the attainment of the ends of
such power. . . .
It is not denied that there are implied, as well as expressed powers, and that the former are as effectually
delegated as the latter. . .
Under a conviction that such a relation subsists, the Secretary of the Treasury . . . conceives . . .that the
incorporation of bank is a constitutional measure. . .
Document N:
Source:
Alexander Hamilton vs. Thomas Jefferson—Public Debt
Hamilton
A national debt, if not excessive, will be to us a national blessing.
(1781)
If all the public creditors receive their dues from one source…their interest will be the same. And having the same
interests, they will unite in support of the fiscal arrangements of the government. (1791)
Jefferson
…no man is more ardently intent to see the public debt soon and sacredly paid off than I. This exactly marks the
difference between Colonel Hamilton's views and mine, that I would wish the debt paid tomorrow; he wishes it never to be
paid, but always to be a thing to corrupt and manage the legislature
(1792)
4