The Debate1787-1820

Enlightenment influence Believed in the people Agriculture led to profit

(European Wars) Check against Hamilton big

government / centralization “expense of each person” Cut the debt

Country was young and weak Economic plans to unify the

nation and ensure place in international community

Loose/personal (implied) constitutional interpretation (Article I, Sect. 8)

Industry and manufacturing is the future

Did Hamilton’s fiscal plan profit some at the expense of others?Was it worth it?

Is carrying a national debt in the interest of the nation?

Does Congress have the right to create a federal bank?

Should America focus on agriculture, which it had in the past, or should it develop its trade and manufacturing?

Do states have the right to judge the legitimacy of national laws?

Essential Questions

Social and Economic Hierarchy

Macroeconomic Policy

Constitutional Interpretation

What Kind of America?

Federal Versus State Power

1787-1820

Which Political Leader Was More Important?

Is there a RIGHT answer?

Ideological bias Confirmation bias Hindsight bias

1787-1820

Hamilton’s Fiscal Solution

Did Hamilton’s fiscal plan profit some at the expense of others?Was it worth it?

Primarily the north and wealthy

Paid by all(sort of)

1787-1820

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 fiscal arrangements of the government.

It is equally evident that to be able to borrow upon good terms, it is essential that the credit of a nation should be well established.

As to Taxes, they are evidently inseparable from Government. It is impossible without them to pay the debts of the nation, to protect it from foreign danger, or to secure individuals from lawless violence and rapine.

Give therefore to the first class a distinct, permanent share in the government. They will check the unsteadiness of the second…they therefore will ever maintain good government.

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.

[T]he principle of spending money to be paid by posterity under the name of funding is but swindling futurity on a large scale.

The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.

If we run into such debts, as that we must be taxed in our meat and in our drink…as the people of England are…we must live, as they now do, on oatmeal and potatoes; have no time to think, no means of calling the mis-managers to account…

Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers…alone. The people themselves are its only safe depositories.

1787-1820 Hamilton’s Fiscal Solution

1787-1820 Hamilton’s Fiscal Solution

Social and Economic EqualityToday

What would Jefferson versus Hamilton have thought?

Social and Economic Equality

Which spectrum would Jefferson versus Hamilton have wanted?

Today

Social and Economic Equality

What would Jefferson versus Hamilton have thought?

Today

National Debt and Macroeconomic Policy 1789-2010

Is carrying a national debt in the interest of the nation?

A national debt, if it is not excessive, will be to us a national blessing.

No man is more ardently intent to see the public debt soon and sacredly paid off than I am.

National Bank and Constitutional Interpretation

Hamilton

Jefferson

Necessary and proper implies whatever the government needs to do to solve problems

Necessary and proper means whatever is absolutely necessary

Does Congress have the right to create a federal bank?

1787-1820

Constitutional InterpretationToday

What Kind of America?

Should America focus on agriculture, which it had in the past, or should it develop its trade and manufacturing?

1787-1820

Hamilton’s scheme worked “brilliantly”

European markets also brought prosperity to American agriculture

Between 1790-1810, farm families settle as much land as they had settled during the entire colonial period (conflict over land rights)

Jefferson takes office in 1801 and pursues policies that make it easier for farm families to acquire land

Louisiana Purchase Lewis and Clark Favorable farm policies maintained

Republic Party’s dominance in South and West

Federal Versus State Power1796-1800

1798 Coercive Laws : “He that is not for us is against us” 1798-99: Virginia and Kentucky Resolves Revolution of 1800

Hamilton supports Jefferson Judiciary stacked with Federalists (Marshall’s Legacy)

Marshall asserts Court’s authority -- challenges state power

Congress refuses to extend Alien and Sedition Acts and amends Naturalization Act

Do states have the right to judge the legitimacy of national laws?

Federal Versus States Power1796-1800

Did Hamilton’s fiscal plan profit some at the expense of others?Was it worth it?

Is carrying a national debt in the interest of the nation?

Does Congress have the right to create a federal bank?

Should America focus on agriculture, which it had in the past, or should it develop its trade and manufacturing?

Do states have the right to judge the legitimacy of national laws?

Essential Questions

Social and Economic Hierarchy

Macroeconomic Policy

Constitutional Interpretation

What Kind of America?

Federal Versus State Power

1787-1820