Federalist Party
"Seldom in the nation's history has there been a period so extraordinary in accomplishment as the first decade under the Constitution...."
This paper is going to be a step by step evaluation of arguably the most important decade in American History. The time period covered in this paper is 1789-1801. These are the years in which the Federalists had the most influence in the new government. They accomplished an amazing amount in these 12 years.
The Federalist Party was one of the first political organizations in the United States. The members of this party supported a strong central government, a large peacetime army and navy, and a stable financial system.
Although the first president, George Washington, was not a Federalist, his Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton, was the developer and leader of the Federalist party. Hamilton believed in a loose interpretation of the Constitution so that the central government could become more powerful. Also Hamilton, along with the other party members, believed that commerce and manufacturing were more important than agriculture.
Financial Dilemma During the first two years of the new federal government the biggest problem was that of raising money. At first the Congress adopted a small tariff on imports. This was a start but not nearly enough. The government needed this money to maintain its own existence and to be able to pay of the debt. The existence of the government was a necessity, but there was a lot of discussion as to whether the debt should be payed off.
The mare magnitude of the debt seemed to compel some measure of avoidance. In 1789, the national debt totaled more than $50 million, $11,700,000 of which was owed to France and Spain and the private bankers of Netherlands, while $40 million was in the form of securities held by citizens of the United States. The interests owed to the bankers were being payed off by loans from the bankers themselves. The government didn't even have enough money to pay the Barbary corsairs for release of captive sailors!
When Congress couldn't come up with a solution that was satisfactory, they turned to Alexander Hamilton with the dilemma. He soon proceeded to draw up a full report entitled "Report on Public Credit." In this paper Hamilton proceeded to show that the only way for a new government to establish credit was to deal honestly with its creditors -for in many cases they would be the people to whom the government must look to for future loans.
Eric Foner claims the definition of Federalism refers to the relationship between the national government and the states. Unlike the Constitution, the Articles of Confederation came with many weaknesses. Some provided by our powerpoint include that the Federal government had no power to make the states obey the Articles and laws that were passed by the legislature. The states also had the power to tax, and the opportunity to print their own money. Our powerpoint focuses on the $10 million Congress owed to other countries, as well as the $40 million it owed to the American veterans. The Constitution differed. Foner states that not only did the Constitution enhance national authority, but it also permitted Congress to levy taxes, conduct commerce, confirm war, deal with the foreign nations and Indians, and rent and help the “general welfare”. According to the powerpoint, Federalists focused on the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation.
The Republican Party attracted more of the common people while the Federalist Party drew support from the aristocracy. Although neither side was willing to admit to it, these institutions were known as the "first party system." Both parties stance on who should have more power in the government contributed to the largely divers views of the common man and the wealthy man.
The Independent Journal published the first Federalist essay in 1787, closely following the Constitutional Convention. This was one of 85 essays that were all soon published in support of the Constitution. The essays were all published under the alias name “Publius.” All essays were compiled into a single volume titled The Federalist Papers. The Federalist Papers is considered a significant illustration of American political philosophy under the Articles of Confederation, which were adopted by the Continental Congress. The Articles set up the first legislative system that unified the thirteen states that battled in the American Revolution. A major theme that was discussed in the essays centers around the idea that the United States could not continue to endure under the Articles of Confederation and the weaknesses that accompany it. The Articles gave states the authority to create their own laws, however they were unsuccessful in creating a strong government. The essay suggested that immediate action be taken to prevent the impending anarchy that would ensue under these Articles.
The political views of the federalist and the republicans towards the government of the United States of America were different. The republicans stressed equality of rights among citizens allowing people to govern themselves. The federalists believed in a stronger government one in which was sovereign and had superior power over the local governments.
This causes us to think, (for once), what the gay men did was wrong by donating their blood, but we cannot point fingers and judge them if we would have done the same.
The national debt is usually a frightening topic citizens of any country, however, in the United States, twenty trillion dollars of national debt is one of the major fears of the economy. Along with this fear comes every politician claiming to be the person to lower this astronomical debt to ease concerns in the modern American economy. In Hamilton’s Blessing, John Steele Gordon tries to alleviate these concerns by showing a plethora of benefits and good the debt has been able to do throughout the history of the United States. The central premise of the book and the main guideline for John Steele Gordon’s thinking is that the debt was used to save the Union in the 1860’s, the American economy in the 1930’s, and the wellbeing of mankind during
The US has been in and out of debt countless times throughout history, going as far back as the Civil War. However, debt did not become a truly relevant problem until much later, in the 1980s (Budget Deficits). Up to that point, large budget deficits were generally only allowed during wartime, but this pattern ended after the Great Depression. Roosevelt’s New Deal meant that the government spent much more than it previously did, even after the economy improved (Budget De...
In 1789, the First Amendment established that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion…” This meant the Federal and State Governments could not be partial or show support for any certain denomination or religious organization. However, throughout the history of the United States the controversial question over the relationship between church and state has always been called into question in establishing a one religion government. The main focus of the inquiry is to decide whether to keep the establishment clause or to tear it down and move towards a theocratic system. One side of the debate is the group against the separation of Church and State, who believe that if America was a more religious nation that it would become more moral as well as bring everyone in agreement with national decision making. Therefore the belief is that the United State would become more unified in an already corrupt system. On the other hand, the side for separation argues that the distance between established religion and national government is inherently necessary to keep maintain: religious tolerance, prevent biases, and prejudices, along with any sort of religious freedom in country that has thousands of different organized religions.
After James Monroe’s second term as the fifth president of the United States ended, preparations were already underway for the next election to determine who would become the president. There were four prominent candidates running. They were Henry Clay, John Quincy Adams, William H. Crawford, and Andrew Jackson. John C. Calhoun, who was Secretary of War under Monroe, was originally thinking of running as president but dropped out in the hope of becoming Vice President. Clay was the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, Adams was the Secretary of State under President Monroe, Crawford was most notably Secretary of the Treasury under Monroe, and Jackson was a war hero during the War of 1812. For the first time, none of the men who were running for office identified as Federalists. A Federalist is someone who believes in a strong central government. All four men said that they were Democratic-Republicans. The Democratic-Republicans, who were also known as the Republican party, generally opposed the viewpoints that the Federalists held. They believed in states’ rights; that is that the states should be more powerful than the National government....
The First Party System consisted of Federalists versus Republican-Democrats (Republicans) from 1789 to 1816. This system can be considered to have developed as a result of the factions in the George Washington administration. The two factions were Alexander Hamilton and John Adams with Federalists and Thomas Jefferson and James Madison with the Republican Party. The Federalists argued for a strong national government, to push for aggressive economic development with a greater emphasis on farmers and states’ rights. They preferred to practice loose constructionism (loose interpretations of the Constitution) to argue that government power should be used to promote economic development through the creation of a national bank, federally financed roads, harbors, and bridges. Federalists believed that America’s economic future depended on the cultivation of strong commercial ties with Great Britain. The Republicans on the other hand wanted a small and weak national government to leave the citizens mostly free of taxation and government interference. Unlike the Federalists, the Republicans supported a philosophy of strict constructionism (strict interpretation of the Constitution) in order to avoid the economy benefitting only a few wealthy northeasterners. They also believed that agriculture, instead of manufacturing, should remain the country’s economic base and so they opposed closer relationships with Great B...
The role of government as a according to the Federalists They support a stronger federal government. They felt that people can't govern themselves and that a nation must have a way to get rid of debts.
On January 8th, 1835, a senator stood up to declare that the national debt had been paid(for now)(“npr.org”). This was a enormous moment in his presidency and U.S. history. This was an important thing to Andrew Jackson who hated debt, and though it was immoral(“npr.org”). At the start of his presidency, he disbanded the national banks, he hated the banks more than the debt. To begin the process of removing debt, Andrew Jackson blocked every bill to spend money(“npr.org”). After that, he began selling all of the land in the west because, there was a large demand as the country was expanding(“waltercoffey.com”). After Andrew Jackson was able to remove the debt, he was said, “Let us commemorate the payment of the public debt as an event that gives us increased power as a nation and reflects luster on our Federal Union.(Encyclopedia of Presidents)” However, this perpetual bliss could not last forever. Since the banks had been removed, Jackson had nowhere to put the money, so he gave it to the states(“npr.org”).The states then started printing massive ammounts of money, which caused the economy to enflate drastically(“npr.org”). In an effort to slow this down, Jackson required that all government land sales be done with gold or silver(“npr.org”). However, this caused the economy to crash. After that, we went into a depression, which we were only able to get out
Functionalism assumes that society is essentially a system of parts that work together for the benefit of the group (Harper, 44). That it 's system is built around imperatives that perpetuate its existence: “the replacement of individuals, socialization, production of goods and services, provision of social order, and maintenance of common symbols, values, and motivation”. One way to think of this is that of a single cell organism with parts that operate and function for the survival and growth of that cell. In regards to social change when the social order is disturbed with things such as conflict, equality, or innovation strain can result (Harper, 45). In dealing with the strain, under Parsons evolutionary theory of change, society can revert to a previous equilibrium, system maintenance. They can change or develop new procedures, roles, and structures, structural differentiation. Or they can go through adaptive upgrading where by they
Wills, G. (Ed.). (1982). Introduction. The Federalist papers by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay. (pp. vii – xxiv). New York: Bantam.
The functionalist paradigm focuses on the integration of society, and how society how its own groups which has their own functions to help improve the peoples lives. Functionalist paradigm fits in the category of macro-sociology, because it focuses on the patterns that shape an entire society. Functionalists believe that society is maintained through the thought of trust and consensus on moral values for ideal behavior. Working together will result in a stable social environment that will create equality. Conflicts or dysfunctions will be view as a disease in the social system. Social conflict paradigm believes that society is divided into many groups that have their own goals, and that certain parts of the world have the luck of benefiting economic dominan...