Both Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton

Both Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton were immensely influential in the fabrication of the new nation. Jefferson admired farming and the simple, rural life. He hoped that America would remain an agrarian nation. He advocated states' rights and condemned the possibility of a federal army. Jefferson favored amiable relations with France and deterred any relations with Britain. On the other hand, Hamilton encouraged trade, finance and manufacturing in order to supplement agriculture. He favored a strong federal government with a professional federal army. Hamilton viewed Britain as an excellent trading partner and promoted relations. These two strongly contrasting opinions led to a political conflict, which was not short-lived. It grew and developed to become the civil war. The opinions of Alexander Hamilton were victorious in having a greater impact on the policies of the new nation.

Thomas Jefferson was born in Virginia twelve years prior to Hamilton. Jefferson strongly opposed any sort of centralized government, aiding in his fervent fabrication of the Declaration of Independence. Escaping the clutches of British monarchy and developing a constitution emphasizing states' rights satisfied Jefferson's ideals. He saw no reason for change; his extremely liberal views became conservative.

Alexander Hamilton advocated the next generation of revolution. This entailed a loose interpretation of the constitution and the promotion of centralized government. As the Secretary of Treasury Hamilton planned to bolster the nation's credit as well as unify the nation's economy. Hamilton observed the agrarianism of the country as a constant to be built off of. Support for manufacturing, trade and finance would supplement the agrarian nation. He proposed the Bank of the United States, which could print paper money thus providing a stable national currency. The bank was initially funded by ten million dollars worth of stock. Of that, the Government owned two million and the remaining eight million was available to the public. The large corporations would support the government and vise versa. The money exchanged between the government and the large corporations was expected to "trickle down" to the lower classes.

Jefferson met nearly all of Hamilton's financial plans with resistance during Hamilton's term as Secretary of Treasury. However, once Jefferson was inaugurated as president he made minimal adjustments to Hamilton's programs. The Alien and Sedition acts, which Jefferson opposed, naturally expired under Jefferson's presidency. Jefferson and the supporting anti-federalists were forced to compromise with the opposing Federalists. This was the beginning of the disassembling of the Federalist Party and the division of the democratic-republicans.

Today we can feel the effects of Hamilton's policies. The economy's recent plunge called for the government's