A Magnificent Catastrophe By Edward J. Larson

During the time period of 1801 to 1817, there were multiple issues in the United States ranging from wars to political boundaries. This time period saw the termination of the Federalist party. The conflicts were between two parties called the Jeffersonian Republicans and the Federalists. The Federalist party was officially started by John Adams. John Adams was also a loose constructionist just like all the other Federalists. Federalists were in favor of a strong central government. On the other side, was Thomas Jefferson who was in office from 1801 to 1809. Jefferson started the Jeffersonian Republican party. The Jeffersonians were strict constructionists who believed in states rights. They said that anything that is not stated in

After the colonies gained independence, the founding fathers soon found that becoming a new independent nation was going to be a difficult task. The biggest task was deciding on the division of power in the government. This issue divided the people into two groups, the federalists and the Jeffersonian republicans. Alexander Hamilton led the federalists and Thomas Jefferson led the republicans. These two important men in history would later show how the challenges of becoming a new nation. In this essay I will be analyzing the ideas of Linda K. Kerber’s “The Fears of the Federalists,” to Drew R. McCoy’s “The Fears of the Jeffersonian Republicans.” Furthermore, comparisons will be made about both essays to gain a better understanding of the struggles of government in early America.

By 1817 the great American experiment was in full swing. America was developing into an effective democratic nation. However as the democracy continued to grow, two opposing political parties developed, the Jeffersonian Republicans and the Federalists. The Jeffersonian Republicans believed in strong state governments, a weak central government, and a strict interpretation of the Constitution. The Federalists saw it differently. They opted for a powerful central government with weaker state governments, and a loose interpretation of the Constitution. The seemingly solid divide between Federalist and Republican would begin to blur during the presidencies of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. For, neither Republican president was able lead

America is an incredibly vast, diverse country, and has been this way for hundreds of years. The sheer size of America, even when it was only composed of thirteen states with a total population of nearly three million people (Brutus, essay 1, p. 64), concerned many Americans in the 1780s, due to this inquiry: was America simply too large for a republican style government to work? Many anti-federalists claimed that republics could only work on a small scale, while the federalists believed that having a large republic was the only way to go and would be beneficial to the public good. Before this time, history furnished no examples of a well-functioning republic as big as America, so the federalists and anti federalists were stepping into a completely new untouched territory.

In the late 1700s, the United States had began to split into two factions: Federalists and Antifederalists. Factions are groups of citizens united by a common interest. The reasoning behind the differing views of how the government works across the world was best said by Locke “Men are equal in a natural sense, but society establishes many dimensions that are unequal”. (Barbour and Wright, 2017). In the states, Federalists wanted a strong central government while anti-federalists wanted a weak one. “The Georgians, for example, wanted a strong central authority to provide military protection for their huge, underpopulated state against the Creek Confederacy; Jerseymen and Connecticuters wanted to escape from economic bondage to New York; the Virginians hoped to establish a system which would give that great state its rightful place in the councils of the republic” (Roche, 800). The one thing they agreed on was having George Washington as president. George Washington tried to be a neutral leader of the United States and suggested for the states to stay together rather than divide into factions. “Thomas Jefferson is credited as stating: “North and South will hang together if they have you to hang on””(Jamison, 2016).

Since the creation of the United States Constitution, the many leaders of our nation took different roles in trying to attain perfectionism for their country. From the federalist views of John Adams to the democratic views of Jefferson, America was experiencing the endeavor that was being a young nation in the midst of the 19th century. The emergence of John Quincy Adams in 1820 started an “Era of Good Feelings” with exceptional political advancements and economic achievements. While Jackson’s democratic views were not always what were expected, during his presidency, the country grew national and world attraction. Through periods of boom and bust, political and economic changes in America undeniably helped reshape society between the years 1820 and 1848 with the emergence of new and innovative advancements.

The early years of the Constitution of the United States were full of political strife. The two prominent political ideals were complete opposites. The Jeffersonian Republicans were focused on giving power to the people and maintaining a pastoral economy, while the Federalists supported the control of the government by the elite class, and maintaining “positive” democracy. Both parties feared the influence and effect the other party would have on the public. In Linda K. Kerber's article, “The Fears of the Federalists”, the major concerns Federalists held in the early 19th century are described. Ever since the war with and separation from England, the citizens of America were seen to be continually drive to “patriotic rebellion” as a way to

In the early 1800s, the United States of America was still an infant country trying to figure out the best way to run its government. The Founding Fathers did not want to form a monarchy like in Great Britain, so they wanted to form some form of representative government. There were two main theories of how representative government should be run: democracy and republicanism. Democracy is the direct government by the people, where the citizens of the country vote directly for the government officials, who should be common people, no matter how esteemed the office. Republicanism is a more controlled form of democracy, where the citizens vote for representatives who then vote for the more esteemed positions in the government, such as the President

Whose side would you have been on in the 1790s, Thomas Jefferson’s or Alexander Hamilton’s? Both of these men served under George Washington in the first presidential cabinet, yet they had very different views of what government should be (Davis 86). My objective in this research essay is to inform the reader of why there was so much controversy between these two founding fathers, and to determine which side had the better views for our newly forming country.

In the book “A Magnificent Catastrophe” the author, Edward J. Larson, writes about all of the little details that has occurred in the First Presidential Campaign in the 1800s. He begins his book with how the two parties, the Republicans (Jefferson) and Federalists (Adams), were going to compete in who will govern the United States now that it is a free country and no longer under Britain’s rule. Although they had at first been friends they soon became enemies because of how they believed the government should be. Jefferson believed that the government should be a populist government that trusted popular rule. While Adams believed that America should have a strong government and that al

In the book “A Magnificent Catastrophe” author, Edward J. Larson examines all aspects of the events that occurred during the First Presidential Campaign in the 1800s. Larson discusses the Presidential Election rivalry battle between Thomas Jefferson of the Republicans and John Adams of the Federalists. In 1776 both John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were sent to Philadelphia as delegates to the second continental congress, they joined a five-member committee, which drafted a Declaration of Independence for the United States. They later then voted to adopt and sign the document their committee drafted which was the Declaration of Independence. Adams was more active when promoting independence and argued the longest and the most effective, but

Though both Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson served as members of President Washington’s cabinet, the two held very different views on the newly founded U.S. government, interpretation of its constitution, and the role of the “masses” in that government. These conflicting views would develop in two political parties, the Federalists led by Hamilton and the Democratic-Republicans led by Jefferson. Although both political parties presented enticing aspects, Hamilton’s views were much more reasonable and fruitful when compared Jefferson’s views; idealistic and too strict in reference to the constitution.

Although Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson were two great leaders in United States history, they both had deeply contrasting views of government and economy. After America achieved independence from Great Britain in 1783, the fledgling nation needed its people to guide it towards a firm and steady future. The two political parties — the Hamiltonian Federalists and the Jeffersonian Democratic-Republicans — under their respective leaders Hamilton and Jefferson, each had a differing vision for the nation’s future, planting the seeds of new political parties for generations to come. While Hamilton preferred less individual and states’ rights, as well as a national bank, Jefferson, on the other hand, preferred more states’ rights and

Democracy flourished in America where it had previously floundered in Europe. As early as 1907, J. Allen Smith attributed this to the fact that the colonists were “more active, enterprising, and dissatisfied” than the typical Englishman, in his work The Spirit of American Government,. He noted that the Revolutionary War was not sparked by colonists hating the monarchical system, but by the negative relationship between England and its newest colony. This attitude, coupled with an active revolution, created the perfect outlet for democratic theory to be expressed and enacted (Smith, 1907; Thoman, n.d.). In creating an independent nation, the founding fathers looked to various forms of government, both ancient and modern, for inspiration.

These two groups were the federalist and the anti-federalist’s, who opposed this strong national government and favored states holding the power, allowing for them to spend their money and operate their communities as they see fit. Thomas Jefferson was among those who feared a powerful national government that is susceptible to be ruled by the tyranny of the majority and using unchecked power to advance their own personal interest. Jefferson feared the breakdown of agency that accompanied subscribing to a broad set of creeds that are not necessarily reflective of