Jefferson vs. Hamilton: Confrontations That Shaped a Nation

April 13, 1743 Albemarle County in the English colony of Virginia was the start of an American historical giant. doubting Thomas Jefferson was born in affluence to his father, Peter Jefferson, a rising young planter in the Virginia colony, and his m early(a), Jane Randolph, who held a high status within the colony as well.Due to his fathers prosperity Jefferson was afforded the authoritative best in the charges of education, starting with private tutors at the age of five, then moving on to learn how to read Greek and Roman in t present original text and finally taking his studies to the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg which he would think is what probably fixed the destinies of my life pg 5. On the separate position of the spectrum, a few years later another huge American historical figure is born. presumptively on January 11, 1755, Alexander Hamilton the bastard son of his father, James Hamilton, a Scotsman of a well-k right offn family besides never flourished o n his own, and his mother, Rachel Fawcett Lavien, who had left her husband, John Lavien, to live with James Hamilton. There is very little said to the highest degree Hamiltons early life just that his father drifted away and his mother passed in 1768.Lacking wealth, Hamiltons educational opportunities in his young life were nonexistent, this is not to say though that his youth was wasted it was here that he gained a vast k without delayledge of business and finance that he would later use in his service to P nonmigratory George Washington. Even in their early lives it was easy to see the great dissimilarities between these ii patriarchs, now I will discuss further more issues that Jefferson and Hamilton shared some differences of opinions.During the Philadelphia formula of 1787, which we now refer to as the Constitutional Convention, James Madison, representative from Virginia, in his notes of Hamiltons lengthy speech on June 18, 1787 he writes, Mr. Hamilton, had been hitherto si lent on the business before the Convention pg 17 Madison had added it to Hamiltons char crooker to be so, suggesting that it was out of respect of the men who were superior in age, abilities, and experience to him, merely in addition making it clear that the matters before the convention were far too important for Hamilton to remain that way.Hamilton expressed dissatisfaction with some(prenominal) of the plans brought forward to the convention. The Virginia plan, which was a proposal to completely abandon the Articles of Confederation, and replace it with a bicameral national legislature, an executive director branch selected by the legislature, a judiciary, and a council of revision with the power veto, and the New jersey plan, which suggested to keep the Articles of Confederation, but revise it to give Congress the power to tax, regulate commerce, and choose plural executive and members of a coercive court. Hamilton felt both these plans lacked a strong central government.He was specifically displeased with the New Jersey plan being fully convinced Madison writes that no amendment of the Confederation, leaving the States in possession of their sovereignty could possibly answer the purpose. pg 18-19. He feared that either of these plans would leave the newly founded bucolic weakened and would ultimately demolish the confederation pg 20. Finally, though Hamilton would given the federal government more power, he supported what was to be and is now the Constitution of the United States of America and he became one of its leading supporters during the ratification process.Though Jefferson was unable to matrimony the convention due to his duties in France as the United States Minister, he larn of its resolution in November 1787, from a copy sent to him by John Adams. After receiving a letter from Madison explaining the proceedings of the convention he articulated his likes and dislikes of the Constitution. Jefferson liked the organization of the governm ent into legislative, Judiciary and Executive pg 23 and the powers given to each(prenominal) branch.Among his dislikes, the greatest seeming to be the omission of a bill of rights providing clearly and without the aid of sophisms pg 23 the freedoms he felt inalienable to the human race. During the French Revolutionary war in 1789, Jefferson and Hamilton found each other on opposing sides once again. Jefferson felt that while the violence in the revolt was deplorable but he would keep up seen half the earth desolated. pg 109 than to see the cause of liberty fail, emotion that the liberty of the unit earth was depending on the issues of the contest. pg 109. While Hamilton, disagreed almost wholly on Jeffersons justification for the violence in France. He as a whizz to mankind and to liberty pg 106-107 rejoiced in the efforts made by marquess de Lafayette, General of the French Revolutionary National Guard and after serving with Hamilton in 1781 a friend of his as well, but feared the steps in motion to gain the freedom that Lafayette and all of France desired. It was said that Hamilton never commented on the French revolution without it bringing the horror, abhorrence, and repulsion to his mind.In the presidential election in 1800, Hamilton not being a native born citizen could never run for the presidency, but this didnt stop him from doing a lot of work in the background to protect his big government federalist views. When he first learned of the federalists loss in New York he wrote a letter to Theodore Sedgwick urging him and the other federalists in the legislature to support Adams and Pinckney, equally pg 130 skin senses that it was their only shot at a federalist for president.Hamilton went as far as to contact John Jay, federalist and the current governor of New York, to call a superfluous session of the federally run legislature knowing that there were many objections to this proposal but feeling that the reasons for (the special session) outweig h the objections pg 131. When it came time to vote the results ended as Jefferson 73, Burr 73, Adams 65, Pinckney 64, and John Jay 1. Hamilton now had a much different fight to make, while Jefferson was less than desirable as a candidate, Aaron Burr was an unbelievable choice in Hamiltons mind.Knowing now that it either was going to be Burr or Jefferson, Hamilton started contacting people persuading them to vote Jefferson over Burr because Jefferson is to be preferred. He is by far not so dangerous a man and he has pretensions to his character. pg 133. In April 1802, Spain had retroceded Louisiana to France, giving the French a invaluable spot on the continent with the Mississippi river connecting the south U. S. to the rest of the commercial U. S. The big turning bakshish was in October of 1802 when Spain invalidates the United States use of the ports on the river.Jefferson seemed to be very torn by this predicament having been the U. S. rector to France a few years previously saying this is not a state of things we seek or desire. pg 159. On April 30, 1803 James Monroe, a diplomat to France, left prepared to offer France up to fifty million livres, upon arrival he and Robert R. Livingston initialed an agreement that ceded all of Louisiana to the United States for $15 Million, the settling of which is looked on as the peak of Jeffersons first term as president. Hamilton had a lot to say about this bribe feeling that Spains direct nfraction of an important article of (Spain and the U. S. ) treaty pg 164 was a call for war and should we have thought it advisable to terminate hostilities by a purchase, we might then have done it on almost our own terms pg 164. In 1798 Congress was well on the way to signing into integrity two acts that they felt at the time were for internal security of the U. S. The naturalization act and a revolution act, the idea behind the naturalization act was the president reserved the right to deport any resident alien he deemed dangerous, or if the U. S. was at war with an aliens home country.The sedition act made it a crime to combine, conspire or to oppose any lawful measure of the government, it also made it punishable to write, say, or publish anything to defame the president, Congress or the government of the U. S. Jefferson saw these acts as a slap in the face to the constitution feeling like it was an experiment on the American mind to see how far it will bear an avowed violation of the constitution. pg 115. Hamilton felt just a strongly about these acts in his letter to Theodore Sedgwick he asks What, My Dear Sir, are you going to do with Virginia? pg 118 after he learns of Virginias protest to the acts. He felt as congress did that the acts were for the best of the country feeling that the government will not be the dupes of an insidious plan to disunite the people of America pg 119. To say that Jefferson and Hamilton were diametrically opposed on all subjects some would say is an over simplifi cation, while the two disagreed on many topics there were also many things that they could come together in agreement on.The biggest example was the way both men looked at the Constitution, not to say that it was perfect in either mans eyes but it was definitely an area where they came to a very nice compromise with each others beliefs about how this country should be run. Both of these men fought hard and struggled against opposing views to make this country what it is today, there is no telling what our present would look like without these two gentlemen who did their best to make this a free nation.