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Alexander Hamilton Thomas Jefferson
Alexander Hamilton Thomas Jefferson
Alexander Hamilton Thomas Jefferson
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The founding fathers had various ideas to form the new constitution and the new government. The first presidential election in American history was won by George Washington through the popular will. Everyone in the Electoral College had voted for Washington for the first place with the hearty approval of the public. Washington received all 69 votes from the Electoral College while John Adams became the Vice President and got 34 votes (Boller P.4). The new government under the new Constitution was led by Mr. President George Washington and Vice President John Adams.
During the formative years of our new government, the interests of the north and south, rich and poor, and industry and agriculture were all put in the same box of dissent until to profoundly different vision for the country erupted. The two main figures part of the Washington administration were the Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton and Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson. Treasury Secretary believed that our new country’s federal government should be more powerful. As an immigrant from the Caribbean, Hamilton came to New York in 1773 at the age of sixteen (Eddins). He joined the Continental Army when the war started, an experience that had completely changed his viewpoint as a young man. He and many others had lived in a state of frustration at how the Continental congress had handled the war effort. The states representative were seen narrow minded, by putting their own interest first whenever asked to provide supplies and money for the army. Jefferson on the other hand didn’t serve in the Continental army but remained in Virginia by serving various parts of that state’s government. Hamilton and Jefferson had complete different background and their points of ...
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...t come from different states (Eddins).
Works Cited
American President: A Reference Resource. Miller Center; University of Virginia. Copyright 2012. February 26th, 2012.
http://millercenter.org/president/jefferson/essays/biography/print
Boller, Paul F. Presidential Campaigns: From George Washington to George W. Bush. January 2004.
Eddins, Geri Z. Choosing Sides: The Rise of Party Politics. February 26th, 2012.
http://www.ourwhitehouse.org/choosingsides.html
Larson, Edward J. A Magnificent Catastrophe. June 2008.
Sage, Henry J. The New Republic: The United States, 1789-1800. February 26th, 2012.
http://www.academicamerican.com/revolution/topics/1790spart1.html#HamiltonFin
Sage, Henry J. The Jeffersonian Republic: The United States 1800 – 1840. February 26th, 2012.
http://www.academicamerican.com/jeffersonjackson/topics/JeffersonianDem.htm#madison
In the book Founding Brothers by Joseph Ellis, the author relates the stories of six crucial historic events that manage to capture the flavor and fervor of the revolutionary generation and its great leaders. While each chapter or story can be read separately and completely understood, they do relate to a broader common theme. One of Ellis' main purposes in writing the book was to illustrate the early stages and tribulations of the American government and its system through his use of well blended stories. The idea that a republican government of this nature was completely unprecedented is emphasized through out the book. Ellis discusses the unique problems that the revolutionary generation experienced as a result of governing under the new concept of a democracy. These problems included- the interpretation of constitutional powers, the regulation of governmental power through checks and balances, the first presidential elections, the surprising emergence of political parties, states rights vs. federal authority, and the issue of slavery in a otherwise free society. Ellis dives even deeper into the subject by exposing the readers to true insight of the major players of the founding generation. The book attempts to capture the ideals of the early revolutionary generation leaders and their conflicting political viewpoints. The personalities of Hamilton, Burr, Adams, Washington, Madison, and Jefferson are presented in great detail. Ellis exposes the reality of the internal and partisan conflict endured by each of these figures in relation to each other. Ellis emphasizes that despite these difficult hurdles, the young American nation survived its early stages because of its great collection of charismatic leaders and their ability to ...
Sidney M. Milkis, Michael Nelson. The American Presidency Origins & Development, 1776-2011. Washington DC: CQ Press, 2008.
In the year of 1800, Jefferson ran for the second time averse to former president, John Adams but unlike the previous election, John Adams wins the presidency, Jefferson was able to defeat John Adams. The Adams lost the election due to passing the Alien and Sedition Acts, Considered unconstitutional laws because the Acts took away the first amendment, freedom of speech. Jefferson was a more promising choice as he promised to have a “Republican Revolution”, Jefferson promised to help the yeoman farmer and decrease the Federal debt the United States had at the time period. Jefferson’s presidency was to a certain extent a “Republican Revolution” and to a certain extent it was a Federalist Continuation.
Morgan, Edmund S. The birth of the Republic, 1763-89. Chicago London. The University of Chicago Press.1956.
“Jeffersons Influence on the United States -Program No. 35.” VOA Learning English. n.p. n.d. Web. 25 March 2014.
During the period 1800-1817, the Jeffersonians to a great extent compromised their political principles and essentially “out Federalized the Federalists”. While traditional Jeffersonian Republicanism advocated a strict interpretation of the Constitution and an emphasis on an agrarian economic system, the actual policies of Presidents Thomas Jefferson and James Madison were markedly different from their theoretical principles. This obvious compromise of Jeffersonian principles is evident in the Federal government’s assumption of broad-based political powers and institution of capitalistic Hamiltonian economic reforms, both of which stemmed from Jefferson and Madison’s adoption of broad constructionist policies.
Of the many figures in American History, Alexander Hamilton has proven himself one of the most versatile and influential. His policies and ideals have helped the United States blossom into a prosperous world power. Through his power as secretary of Treasury and his convincing intellectual efforts, he was able to dominate the nations early political environment. Hamilton’s patriotic endeavors have proven themselves to be durable and in the best interests of the United States.
Alexander Hamilton was born a bastard child in the West Indies and demonstrated great intellectual potential at an early age. He was sent to New York City for schooling and studied at King’s College, now Columbia University. His vision of America took a more capitalistic tone and “he was determined to transform an economically weak and fractious cluster of states into a powerful global force” (Tindall & Shi, 2010). Hamilton advocated a strong central government. He was bold and persuasive and his philosophies quite extraordinary for his time.
... Congress, Thomas Jefferson Papers Series 1. General Correspondence. 1651-1827. <http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/mtjhtml/mtjhome.html> [10 December 2003]; also reprinted at <http://etext.virginia.edu/jefferson/quotations/jeff1650.htm > [10 December 2003] & <http://members.tripod.com/~candst/tnppage/qjeffson.htm> [10 December 2003]
Understanding and evaluating presidents’ performance often poses challenges for political experts. The nation votes one president at the time and each presidency faces different tests. The environments surrounding a presidency have a tremendous impact on the success and failure of that presidency. In addition, the president exercises his power through a check and balance system embody in the Constitution. As stated in (Collier 1959), the Constitution created a government of “separated institutions sharing power.” As a result, a president works with others institutions of the government to shape the nation’s agenda. Thus, determining a presidential performance becomes difficult, especially when it comes to comparing the performance among presidencies.
Miller Center. (2009, May). American President: A reference resource. Retrieved November 2, 2011, from University of Virgina: http://millercenter.org/president/eisenhower/essays/biography/print
However, the author 's interpretations of Jefferson 's decisions and their connection to modern politics are intriguing, to say the least. In 1774, Jefferson penned A Summary View of the Rights of British America and, later, in 1775, drafted the Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms (Ellis 32-44). According to Ellis, the documents act as proof that Jefferson was insensitive to the constitutional complexities a Revolution held as his interpretation of otherwise important matters revolved around his “pattern of juvenile romanticism” (38). Evidently, the American colonies’ desire for independence from the mother country was a momentous decision that affected all thirteen colonies. However, in Ellis’ arguments, Thomas Jefferson’s writing at the time showed either his failure to acknowledge the severity of the situation or his disregard of the same. Accordingly, as written in the American Sphinx, Jefferson’s mannerisms in the first Continental Congress and Virginia evokes the picture of an adolescent instead of the thirty-year-old man he was at the time (Ellis 38). It is no wonder Ellis observes Thomas Jefferson as a founding father who was not only “wildly idealistic” but also possessed “extraordinary naivete” while advocating the notions of a Jeffersonian utopia that unrestrained
Richard E. Neustadt, the author of Presidential Power, addresses the politics of leadership and how the citizens of the United States rate the performance of the president's term. We measure his leadership by saying that he is either "weak or "strong" and Neustadt argues that we have the right to do so, because his office has become the focal point of politics and policy in our political system. Neustadt brings to light three main points: how we measure the president, his strategy of presidential influence, and how to study them both. Today we deal with the President himself and his influence on government action. The president now includes about 2000 men and women, the president is only one of them, but his performance can not be measured without focusing on himself.
“[T]he man on the ten-dollar bill is the father of the American treasury system, a signer of the Constitution, one of the primary authors of the Federalist Papers, and the loser of the infamous duel with Vice President Aaron Burr. Alexander Hamilton's earlier career as a Continental Army officer is less well known. Yet Hamilton's first experience in public service is important, not only because it was the springboard to his later career, but because it also deeply influenced his values and thinking” (Hamilton).
Lowi, Theodore J. (1985). The personal President: Power invested promise unfulfilled. Ithaca, New York: Cornell