“Factions” DBQ The development in separate political parties in the late 18th century was one of the defining occurrences in American history. This division in opinion over how the government should be run began at the time of the ratification of the Constitution (A). Many of those who signed the Constitution believed that America would be united as a one-party state. Alexander Hamilton, the secretary of the treasury, though, had other ideas. He was the leader of the organized political faction known as the Federalists, and thus separated himself from the Republicans/Jeffersonians/Anti-Federalists, the party headed by Thomas Jefferson that opposed Federalism.
Mostly the Anti-Federalists thought that the Constitution created too strong of a central government. They felt that the Constitution did not create a Federal government, but a single national government. They were afraid that the power of the states would be lost and that the people would lose their individual rights because a few individuals would take over. As a result, they proposed The Bill of Rights, to make sure the citizens were protected by the law. They believed that no Bill of Rights would be equal to no check on our
To conclude Jefferson did not want a strong central government. To sum it up Jefferson and Hamilton have a very different view of how the country should be run. One wants a strong central government and one
The Articles played an important role by proving a strong central government was not to be feared, it was a necessity. Following the Revolution, Americans desired to be free from burdensome taxes, to have a market economy and, most of all, not to be manipulated by a distant head of state. The former colonies existed as 13 individual republics, only tenuously as a union. The Constitution, which would not be written until 1787, declared supremacy over state laws, let the federal government tax the people and gave power to an executive. Because of this sharp contrast in ideology, it is clear the Constitution would not have been ratified immediately after the Revolution.
Both federalists believed the new Constitution would help with providing protection, the general welfare of the people and enforcing the laws. (Doc 1 & 3) Two men, Patrick Henry and Amos Singletree, were both antifederalist and opposed the Constitution. Patrick opposed the Constitution because he believed the states would lose power. He thought it was too late to try to fix something that separated America from Great Britain. Amos Singletree believed the men who drafted the constitution are using it as an excuse to gain more power and money for themselves.
In order for America to become an industrial power he wanted the strong central government to run the business and industries. During that time some people wished to only pay part of the national debt but Hamilton did not. He believed that the debt should be paid completely. To be able to pay the national debt he believed it was important to establish a national bank to establish good national credit (Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson). When he proposed the creation of the national debt the anti-federalist protested against this idea because in the Constitution it never stated anything about a bank.
However, even though the parties’ beliefs greatly differed there were some similarities between them. The Jacksonian Democrats and the Whigs had varying political platforms which appealed to different people. The Jacksonian Democrats believed that the powers of the federal government had to be limited. Similar to the Jeffersonians they followed a strict view of the constitution believing that state rights were more important than federal rights. The Whig Party on the other hand opposed the ideology of the Jackson Democrats and wanted more federal power.
He brought to public life a love of efficiency, order and organization. In response to the call of the House of Representatives for a plan for the "adequate support of public credit," he lay down and supported principles not only of the public economy, but of effective government Jefferson advocated a decentralized agrarian republic. He recognized the value of a strong central government in foreign relations, but he did not want it strong in other respects. Hamilton's great aim was more efficient organization, whereas Jefferson once said "I am not a friend to a very energetic government." Hamilton feared anarchy and thought in terms of order; Jefferson feared tyranny and thought in terms of freedom Hamilton pointed out that America must have credit for industrial development, commercial activity and the operations of government.
A fundamental difference in the ideas of the Americans sprang from their views in regard to National and State rights. Some of them regarded the State as the ultimate unit. Others insisted that the Nation was sovereign. These two conflicting views run through American history down to the Civil War, and even in Washington’s time they existed in outline. Washington himself was a Federalist, believing that the Federation of the former Colonies should be made as compact and strongly knit as possible.
Faction, a problem could not avoid in American society because of the vast different opinions. In favor of republican, James Madison emphasized that the strong Constitution has the control to deal with violence and aggression caused by faction which those in favor of democracy could not because of its instability government. Furthermore, in the federalist no.51 he stated that the Constitution’s separation of power also helps mitigate the problem of factionalism. Believing in pluralist theory that power is relatively broadly distributed among many more or less organized interest groups in society, and the fear of majoritarian rule, James Madison one more time convinced that the Constitution will mitigate the problem of factionalism by diving