Jeffersonians vs. Jacksonians

The Washington administration was the first to bring together in the

cabinet of the United States, the Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson and the

Secretary of Treasury Alexander Hamilton.   Jefferson and Hamilton began to

take different views when the government began to address the issue of the

old war debts and the worthless paper money left over from the days of the

Confederation.   Hamilton suggested   that the government should create the

Bank of the United States, which would be a public-private partnership with

both government and private investors.   The Bank of the United States was to

handle the government's banking needs. Jefferson protested because this was

not allowed by the Constitution.   Hamilton opposed the view of Jefferson and

stated that   the Constitution's   writers could not have predicted the need of

a bank for the United States. Hamilton said that the right to create the Bank

of the United States was stated in the "elastic" or the "necessary and

proper" clause in which the Constitution gave the government the power to

pass laws that were necessary for the welfare of the nation. " This began the

argument between the "strict constructionists" (Jefferson) who believed in

the strict interpretation of the Constitution   by not going an inch beyond

its clearly expressed provisions, and the "loose constructionists"

(Hamilton) who wished to reason out all sorts of   implications from what it

said". Hamilton and Jefferson began to disagree more and more. Hamilton wrote

nasty anonymous articles in John Fenno's Gazette of the United States and

Jefferson responded to him in Philip Freneau's National Gazette. Jefferson's

Notes of the State of Virginia in 1787   stated that rural life was beneficial

to the government because cities and other areas of large population created

poverty, disease, and   corruption. Jefferson believed that the small farmers

where the backbone of the United States. While in the Report on... [continues]

Read full essay