Jefferson and Hamilton by John Ferling Read Free Book Online Page A

fundamental differences that separated Jefferson and Hamilton: faith in democracy, commitment to civil liberties, trust in the wholesomeness of market forces, the availability of individual opportunities and security, toleration of dissent, the scope of the military, and above all, the depth and breadth of government intrusiveness.
    Jefferson’s and Hamilton’s standing in the minds of Americans has hardly been constant. For decades following Jefferson’s election to the presidency in 1800, a contest that spelled political ruin for Hamilton, the Virginian captured the hearts of Americans. All the while, Hamilton slid, if not into oblivion, at least into the dark shadows of history. The Democratic-Republican Party, or Democratic Party, as it was known by the 1820s, had been Jefferson’s, and it was largely predominant until the mid-nineteenth century. A succession of Democratic presidents kept alive the memory of Jefferson as theauthor of the American creed—which he had articulated in the Declaration of Independence—while portraying their administrations as locked in battle against latter-day Hamiltonians. Andrew Jackson, who was often called the “second Jefferson,” saw American history as a struggle between those who feared the people and those who resisted “the selfishness of rulers independent” of the people. Jackson called his foes “the Monarchical party,” as had Jefferson, and he depicted his administration as battling the anti-democratic tools of wealthy merchants and financiers. Jacksonians toasted the “PLANTER – JEFFERSON” for sowing the “Democratic Tree of Liberty,” which they insisted Jackson had brought to “blossom like the Rose.” 4
    But a great shift occurred in the second half of the nineteenth century. The reputation of Jefferson, a Southerner and a slave owner, suffered nearly mortal wounds in the hearts of many Americans in the wake of Southern secession, civil war, and the repudiation of slavery. The standing of Hamilton, who had been a proponent of a strong national government, soared, and he ascended even higher in America’s pantheon of heroes as the country entered the Industrial Age later in the century. While treasury secretary, Hamilton had offered an alternative to Jefferson’s agrarianism, ultimately making possible the explosive growth of the American economy. As the century ended, Hamilton was touted as the creator of modern capitalism and the first American businessman, and in 1900, when New York University established a Hall of Fame to honor eminent Americans, Hamilton was the first inductee. 5
    Industrialization was a double-edged sword. It provided new social, cultural, and material opportunities, but wealth and power were soon concentrated in fewer and fewer hands. Giant corporations and important financiers exercised nearly unmatched political clout, while unprecedented numbers of Americans lived in squalor and coped with dangerous and exploitive working conditions. Jefferson’s reputation rebounded, especially in the South and the Great Plains, home to farmers who saw themselves as victims of railroads, tariffs, and the fiscal policies of a national government in the grasp of corporate and financial giants. Jefferson’s image took on renewed luster among those who feared his vision of an Arcadian America was vanishing before new hordes of Hamiltonians. William Jennings Bryan, the foremost spokesman for the oppressed farmers, was saluted in the 1890s as “the Jefferson of today.” In hundreds of speeches, Bryan exhorted his followers to espouse “Jeffersonian principles with Jacksonian courage.” He proclaimed that Jefferson had stood for “equal rights for all, special privileges for none.” Others who resisted privilege, monopolies, and centralized authority reminded their followers of Jefferson’s “sympathy with popular rights” and his beliefthat “all civil power should be … exercised that the interest and happiness of the great mass of