Hamilton envisioned a diversified economy of commerce, manufacturing and agriculture supported by public credit, national institutions and close trade with Britain. He believed energetic government could mobilize capital, build infrastructure and secure independence in a competitive world.
JEFFERSON’S AMERICA
Jefferson idealized an expansive republic of independent farmers, feared concentrated finance and favored strict construction of federal power. He sympathized with revolutionary France and suspected that Hamilton’s program imitated Britain’s hierarchy. Yet Jefferson was himself a wealthy Virginia planter whose vision of agrarian liberty depended upon enslaved labor and territorial expansion.
MADISON AND THE EMERGING OPPOSITION
James Madison, once a leading advocate of the Constitution, joined Jefferson in opposing Hamilton’s program. Newspapers allied with each side spread arguments and accusations. Political societies organized. The founders had often condemned parties as factions, yet conflicts over policy, constitutional meaning and foreign relations produced the first party system: Federalists and Democratic-Republicans.
“Political parties were not written into the Constitution. Political disagreement wrote them into American life.”
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