Cobbs-Hoffman Elizabeth, Blum Edward J., Gjerde Jon. Major Problems in American History, Volume I, 3 edition (ENG)
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Catherine Drinker Bowen, Miracle at Philadelphia: The Story of the Constitutional Convention
(1986).
Saul Cornell, The Other Founders: Anti-Federalism and the Dissenting Tradition in America,
1788–1828 (1999).
Robert A. Dahl, How Democratic is the American Constitution? (2001).
Woody Holton, Unruly Americans and the Origins of the Constitution (2008).
Merrill Jensen, The Articles of Confederation: An Interpretation of the Social-Constitutional
History of the American Revolution (1959).
Alfred Hinsey Kelly, Winfred Harbison, and Herman Belz, The American Constitution: Its
Origin and Development (1990).
Forrest McDonald, Novus Ordo Seclorum: The Intellectual Origins of the Constitution (1985).
Richard B. Morris, Witness at the Creation: Hamilton, Madison, Jay, and the Constitution
(1985).
Jack Rakove, Original Meanings: Politics and Ideas in the Making of the Constitution (1996).
THE MAKING OF THE CONSTITUTION 163
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CHAPTER 6
Competing Visions
of National Development
in the Early National Period
The first president, by unanimous vote in the electoral college, was George Washington, war
hero and patriot. Washington’s inauguration, which evoked among the people a feeling
of pride in the nation’s revolutionary past and hope for its future, ushered in a brief period
of political unity. The nationalist spirit was evident in the first session of Congress, which
succeeded in passing a series of key measures. The Constitution had not defined the struc-
ture of the fede ral judiciary, but Congress acted quickly, passing the Judiciary Act of 1789,
which established judicial procedures and lower federal courts. N ext, Congress imposed
a tariff on imported goods to provide the federal government with revenue. Finally, as prom-
ised during the ratification debate, Congress passed the Bill of Rights, ten constitutional
amendments that were sent to the states for ratification. Following ratification, Americans
were guaranteed freedoms of speech and religion and given rights to bear arms and avoid
“cruel and unusual punishments.”
Yet the unity was short lived. Within a few years, the national government was
divided into two political factions with different visions for the future of the United States.
The two principal protagonists of these visions were Thomas Jefferson and Alexander
Hamilton, both of whom served in Washington’s cabinet. Hamilton dreamed of transform-
ing the United States into a manufacturing giant like Britain. America, he was fond of
saying, was “a Hercules in the cradle.” Hamilton was also suspicious of the people—he
considered the masses “turbulent and changing”—and believed the government would be
strong if it won the favor of the financial elite. In contrast, Jefferson feared the growth of
manufacturing because he sensed that it would decrease the citizenry’s independence. His
vision focused on a nation of commercial agriculture and independent farmers; virtue, he
argued, was best maintained by those “who labor in the earth.”
The divisions between Jefferson and Hamilton deepened when the United States was
pulled into a European conflict in the 1790s. After the French Revolution unraveled into
164
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unparalleled bloodshed, France declared war on Britain, Spain, and Holland. Whereas
Jefferson and his followers saw the French Revolution as heir to the American War for
Independence, the people who shared Hamilton’s views watched it with horror as the revo-
lution spun out of control. Out of these differences, political groups began to coalesce. Those
sympathetic to the French and fearful of Hamilton’s vision formed Democratic-Republican
societies. In response, another group, led by Hamilton, Washington, and John Adams,
united under the Federalist banner. Acrimonious political battles and vitriolic debate became
commonplace in the late 1790s. After John Adams was elected to succeed Washington, the
divisions deepened as the United States became further embroiled in European conflicts and
nearly went to war against France.
Adams’s failures as president almost guaranteed a Democratic-Republican victory in
1800, and Jefferson heralded his election as the “revolution of 1800.” Although this was
undoubtedly an overstatement, his ascension to the presidency is noteworthy because the
Federalists peacefully handed over their power to a hated rival. Never again would the
Federalist Party control the presidency or Congress. Nonetheless, the Federalist vision
endured particularly in the judiciary. The competing visions of national development, more-
over, would continue to divide American society as Americans puzzled over the future of
their young nation.
QUESTIONS TO THINK ABOUT
Whose vision of America’s future, Jefferson’s or Hamilton’s, is most appealing to
you? Whose vision was most fully realized? How did the fears and hopes of those
who belonged to the Federalists and to the Democratic-Republican Party differ?
How did Federalists and Democratic-Republicans represent and misrepresent one
another?
DOCUMENTS
In document 1, Thomas Jefferson argues that the future of the United States is
best left in the h ands of the yeoman farmers, who will retain their virtue and
industry. In document 2, Judith Sargent Murray calls for “the Equality of the
Sexes.” A friend of Abigail Ad ams, Murray hoped that gender equality could
be a part of the new republic. Alexander Hamilton provides his vision of
national development in document 3, which is in marked contrast to that of
Jefferson. Th e next four documents illustrate the factional conflict that r esulted
from these very d ifferent visions o f the direction of national d evelopment. In
document 4, “A Peep into the Antifederal Club,” a Federalist cartoonist depicts
the Democratic-Republ icans as unruly and pompous. Their charter reads,
“ThePeopleareAll/andwearethePeople.” C. William Manning, a yeoman
farmer and Jeffersonian, writes, in document 5, of his fears that the power of the
few would enable them to subvert the government. Document 6 is a resolution
secretly written by Jefferson for the state of Kentucky in response to a series of
COMPETING VISIONS OF NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 165
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laws known as the Alien and Sedition Acts. In this resolution, Jefferson argues
that the states have the right to say when Congress has exceeded its powers.
This idea was later used by other theorists, as we see in Chapters 9 and 14.
Document 7 is the ruling by Chief Justice John Marshall that states that the
Constitution is paramountlaw.ThomasPainereturnsindocument8toeulo-
gize Washington, who had died in 1799, as the “savior of yo ur country… first
in war, first in peace, first in the hearts o f his co untrymen.”
1. Republican Thomas Jefferson Celebrates
the Virtue of the Yeoman Farmer, 1785
In Europe the lands are either cultivated, or locked up against the cultivator.
Manufacture must therefore be resorted to of necessity not of choice, to support
the surplus of their people. But we have an immensity of land courting the
industry of the husbandman. Is it best then that all our citizens should be
employed in its improvement, or that one half should be called off from that to
exercise manufactures and handicraft arts for the other? Those who labor in the
earth are the chosen people of God, if ever He had a chosen people, whose
breasts He has made His peculiar deposit for substantial and genuine virtue. It is
the focus in which he keeps alive that sacred fire, which otherwise might escape
from the face of the earth. Corruption of morals in the mass of cultivators is a
phenomenon of which no age nor nation has furnished an example. It is the
mark set on those, who, not looking up to heaven, to their own soil and indus-
try, as does the husbandman, for their subsistence, depend for it on casualties and
caprice of customers. Dependence begets subservience and venality, suffocates
the germ of virtue, and prepares fit tools for the designs of ambition. This, the
natural progress and consequence of the arts, has sometimes perhaps been
retarded by accidental circumstances; but, generally speaking, the proportion
which the aggregate of the other classes of citizens bears in any State to that of
its husbandmen, is the proportion of its unsound to its healthy parts, and is a
good enough barometer whereby to measure its degree of corruption. While
we have land to labor then, let us never wish to see our citizens occupied at a
workbench, or twirling a distaff. Carpenters, masons, smiths, are wanting in hus-
bandry; but, for the general operations of manufacture, let our workshops remain
in Europe. It is better to carry provisions and materials to workmen there, than
bring them to the provisions and materials, and with them their manners and
principles. The loss by the transportation of commodities across the Atlantic
will be made up in happiness and permanence of government. The mobs of
great cities add just so much to the support of pure government, as sores do to
the strength of the human body.
Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia (1785), in The Life and Selected Writings of Thomas Jefferson, eds. Adrienne
Koch and William Peden (New York: Library of America, 1984), 280.
166 MAJOR PROBLEMS IN AMERICAN HISTORY
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2. Judith Sargent Murray Argues
for the “Equality of the Sexes,” 1790
Is it upon mature consideration we adopt the idea, that nature is thus partial in
her distributions? Is it indeed a fact, that she hath yielded to one half of the
human species so unquestionable a mental superiority? I know that to both sexes
elevated understandings, and the reverse, are common. But, suffer me to ask, in
what the minds of females are so notoriously deficient, or unequal. May not the
intellectual powers be ranged under these four heads—imagination, reason,
memory, and judgment. The province of imagination hath long since been sur-
rendered to us, and we have been crowned and undoubted sovereigns of the
regions of fancy. Invention is perhaps the most arduous effort of the mind; this
branch of imagination hath been particularly ceded to us, and we have been time
out of mind invested with that creative faculty. Observe the variety of fashions
(here I bar the contemptuous smile) which distinguish and adorn the female
world: how continually are they changing, insomuch that they almost render
the wise man’s assertion problematical, and we are ready to say, there is something
new under the sun…. Perhaps it will be asked if I furnish these facts as instances of
excellency in our sex. Certainly not; but as proofs of a creative faculty, of a lively
imagination. Assuredly great activity of mind is thereby discovered, and was this
activity properly directed, what beneficial effects would follow. Is the needle and
kitchen sufficient to employ the operations of a soul thus organized? I should
conceive not, Nay, it is a truth that those very departments leave the intelligent
principle vacant, and at liberty for speculation….
Meantimes she herself is most unhappy; she feels the want of a cultivated
mind. Is she single, she in vain seeks to fill up time from sexual employments
or amusements. Is she united to a person whose soul nature made equal to her
own, education hath set him so far above her, that in those entertainments which
are productive of such rational felicity, she is not qualified to accompany him.
She experiences a mortifying consciousness of inferiority, which embitters every
enjoyment. Doth the person to whom her adverse fate hath consigned her, pos-
sess a mind incapable of improvement, she is equally wretched, in being so
closely connected with an individual whom she cannot but despise.
Now, was she permitted the same instructors as her brother, (with an eye
however to their particular departments) for the employment of a rational mind
an ample field would be opened. In astronomy she might catch a glimpse of
the immensity of the Deity, and thence she would form amazing conceptions
of the august and supreme Intelligence. In geography she would admire Jehovah
in the midst of his benevolence; thus adapting this globe to the various wants and
amusements of its inhabitants. In natural philosophy she would adore the infinite
majesty of heaven, clothed in condescension; and as she traversed the reptile
world, she would hail the goodness of a creating God. A mind, thus filled, would
have little room for the trifles with which our sex are, with too much justice,
Judith Sargent Murray, On the Equality of the Sexes. http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/murray/equality/equality.
html.
COMPETING VISIONS OF NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
167
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accused of amusing themselves, and they would thus be rendered fit companions
for those, who should one day wear them as their crown ….
Yes, ye lordly, ye haughty sex, our souls are by nature equal to yours; the same
breath of God animates, enlivens, and invigorates us; and that we are not fallen
lower than yourselves, let those witness who have greatly towered above the various
discouragements by which they have been so heavily oppressed; and though I am
unacquainted with the list of celebrated characters on either side, yet from the ob-
servations I have made in the contracted circle in which I have moved, I dare confi-
dently believe, that from the commencement of time to the present day, there hath
been as many females, as males, who, by the mere force of natural powers,havemerited
the crown of applause; who, thus unassisted, have seized the wreath of fame….
AND now assist me, O thou genius of my sex, while I undertake the ardu-
ous task of endeavouring to combat that vulgar, that almost universal errour ….
The superiority of your sex hath, I grant, been time out of mind esteemed a
truth incontrovertible; in consequence of which persuasion, every plan of educa-
tion hath been calculated to establish this favourite tenet….
3. Federalist Alexander Hamilton Envisions
a Developed American Economy, 1791
It is now proper to proceed a step further, and to enumerate the principal cir-
cumstances, from which it may be inferred—That manufacturing establishments
not only occasion a positive augmentation of the Produce and Revenue of the
Society, but that they contribute essentially to rendering them greater than they
could possibly be, without such establishments. These circumstances are—
1. The division of Labour.
2. An extension of the use of Machinery.
3. Additional employment to classes of the community not ordinarily engaged
in the business.
4. The promoting of emigration from foreign Countries.
5. The furnishing greater scope for the diversity of talents and dispositions
which discriminate men from each other.
6. The affording a more ample and various field for enterprize.
7. The creating in some instances a new, and securing in all, a more certain
and steady demand for the surplus produce of the soil.
Each of these circumstances has a considerable influence upon the total mass of
industrious effort in a community. Together, they add to it a degree of energy
and effect, which are not easily conceived. Some comments upon each of them,
in the order in which they have been stated, may serve to explain their importance.
I. As to the Division of Labour.
It has justly been observed, that there is scarcely any thing of greater
moment in the economy of a nation, than the proper division of labour. The
Alexander Hamilton, Report on Manufactures (1791), in Alexander Hamilton’s Papers on Public Credit, Commerce and Finance,
ed. Samuel McKee, Jr. (New York: The Liberal Arts Press, 1934), 190–192, 195–199.
168 MAJOR PROBLEMS IN AMERICAN HISTORY
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separation of occupations causes each to be carried to a much greater perfection,
than it could possible acquire, if they were blended. This arises principally from
three circumstances.
1st—The greater skill and dexterity naturally resulting from a constant and
undivided application to a single object….
2nd. The economy of time—by avoiding the loss of it, incident to a fre-
quent transition from one operation to another of a different nature….
3rd. An extension of the use of Machinery. A man occupied on a single
object will have it more in his power, and will be more naturally led to exert
his imagination in devising methods to facilitate and abrige labour, than if he
were perplexed by a variety of independent and dissimilar operations….
II. As to an extension of the use of Machinery a point which though partly
anticipated requires to be placed in one or two additional lights.
The employment of Machinery forms an item of great importance in the
general mass of national industry. ’Tis an artificial force brought in aid of the
natural force of man; and, to all the purposes of labour, is an increase of hands;
an accession of strength, unincumbered too by the expence of maintaining the laborer.
May it not therefore be fairly inferred, that those occupations, which give great-
est scope to the use of this auxiliary, contribute most to the general Stock of
industrious effort, and, in consequence, to the general product of industry?…
If there be anything in a remark often to be met with—namely that there is,
in the genius of the people of this country, a peculiar aptitude for mechanic
improvements, it would operate as a forcible reason for giving opportunities to
the exercise of that species of talent, by the propagation of manufactures.
VI. As to the affording a more ample and various field for enterprise.
…To cherish and stimulate the activity of the human mind, by multiplying
the objects of enterprise, is not among the least considerable of the expedients,
by which the wealth of a nation may be promoted. Even things in themselves
not positively advantageous, sometimes become so, by their tendency to provoke
exertion. Every new scene, which is opened to the busy nature of man to rouse
and exert itself, is the addition of a new energy to the general stock of effort.
The spirit of enterprise, useful and prolific as it is, must necessarily be con-
tracted or expanded in proportion to the simplicity or variety of the occupations
and productions, which are to be found in a Society. It must be less in a nation of
mere cultivators, than in a nation of cultivators and merchants; less in a nation of
cultivators and merchants, than in a nation of cultivators, artificers and merchants.
VII. As to the creating, in some instances, a new, and securing in all a more
certain and steady demand, for the surplus produce of the soil….
To secure such a market, there is no other expedient, than to promote
manufacturing establishments. Manufacturers who constitute the most numerous
class, after the Cultivators of land, are for that reason the principal consumers of
the surplus of their labour.
This idea of an extensive domestic market for the surplus produce of the soil
is of the first consequence. It is of all things, that which most effectually conduces
to a flourishing state of Agriculture. If the effect of manufactories should be to
detatch a portion of the hands, which would otherwise be engaged in Tillage, it
COMPETING VISIONS OF NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 169
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might possibly cause a smaller quantity of lands to be under cultivation but by their
tendency to procure a more certain demand for the surplus produce of the soil, they
would, at the same time, cause the lands which were in cultivation to be better im-
proved and more productive. And while, by their influence, the condition of each
individual farmer would be meliorated, the total mass of Agricultural production
would probably be increased. For this must evidently depend as much, if not more,
upon the degree of improvement; than upon the number of acres under culture.
It merits particular observation, that the multiplication of manufactories not
only furnishes a Market for those articles, which have been accustomed to be pro-
duced in abundance, in a country; but it likewise creates a demand for such as were
either unknown or produced in inconsiderable quantities. The bowels as well as the
surface of the earth are ransacked for articles which were before neglected. Animals,
Plants and Minerals acquire an utility and value, which were before unexplored.
The foregoing considerations seem sufficient to establish, as general proposi-
tions, That it is the interest of nations to diversify the industrious pursuits of the
individuals, who compose them—That the establishment of manufactures is cal-
culated not only to increase the general stock of useful and productive labour;
but even to improve the state of Agriculture in particular; certainly to advance
the interests of those who are engaged in it.
4. Federalists Represent Democratic-Republicans as
Secretive, Arrogant, and Rude, 1793
The Granger Collection, NY
ANTI-FEDERAL CARTOON, 1793. ‘A Peep into the Antifederal Club’: a Federalist cartoon of 1793
ridiculing the Jeffersonian anti-Federalists as an unruly mob opposed to government and in concert with
the devil; Jefferson himself is shown at center right, stand ing on the table and orating.
170 MAJOR PROBLEMS IN AMERICAN HISTORY
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5. C. William Manning, a Republican,
Fears for the Future of the Nation, 1798
In the sweat of thy face shalt thou get they bread, until thou return to the ground,
is the irreversible sentence of Heaven on man for his rebellion. To be sentenced to
hard labor during life is very unpleasant to human nature. There is a great aversion
to it perceivable in all men; yet it is absolutely necessary that a large majority of the
world should labor, or we could not subsist. For labor is the sole parent of all
property; the land yields nothing without it, and there is no … necessary of life
but what costs labor and is generally esteemed valuable according to the labor it
costs. Therefore, no person can possess property without laboring unless he gets it
by force or craft, fraud or fortune, out of the earnings of others.
But from the great variety of capacities, strength, and abilities of men, there
always was and always will be a very unequal distribution of property in the world.
Many are so rich that they can live without labor—also the merchant, physician,
lawyer, and divine, the philosopher and schoolmaster, the judicial and executive
officers, and many others who could honestly get a living without bodily labors.
As all these professions require a considerable expense of time and property to
qualify themselves therefore, … so all these professions naturally unite in their
schemes to make their callings as honorable and lucrative as possible.
Also, as ease and rest from labor are reasoned among the greatest pleasures of
life, pursued by all with the greatest avidity, and when attained at once create a
sense of superiority; and as pride and ostentation are natural to the human heart,
these orders of men generally associate together and look down with too much
contempt on those that labor.
As the interests and incomes of the few lie chiefly in money at interest, rents,
salaries, and fees, that are fixed on the nominal value of money, they are interested
in having money scarce and the price of labor and produce as low as possible….
But the greatest danger the many are under in these money matters is from
the judicial and executive officers, especially so as their incomes for a living are
almost wholly gotten from the follies and distress of the many—they being gov-
erned by the same selfish principles as other men are. They are the most inter-
ested in the distresses of the many of any in the nation; the scarcer money is and
the greater the distresses of the many are, the better for them….
This is the reason why they ought to be kept entirely from the legislative
body.… For in all these conceived differences of interests, it is the business and
duty of the legislative body to determine what is justice, or what is right and
wrong; and it is the duty of every individual in the nation to regulate his conduct
according to their decisions….
The reason why a free government has always failed is from the unreasonable
demands and desires of the few. They cannot bear to be on a level with their fellow
creatures, or submit to the determinations of a legislature where (as they call it) the
swinish multitude is fairly represented, but sicken at the idea, and are ever hankering
Scott J. Hammond, et. al., Classics of American Political and Constitutional Thought (2007): 767-769
C. William Manning, The Key of Libberty (1798)..
COMPETING VISIONS OF NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
171
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and striving after monarchy or aristocracy, where the people have nothing to do in
matters of government but to support the few in luxury and idleness.
For these and many other reasons, a large majority of those that live without
labor are ever opposed to the principles and operation of a free government; and
though the whole of them do not amount to one-eighth part of the people, yet,
by their combinations, arts, and schemes, have always made out to destroy it sooner
or later.
6. Thomas Jefferson Advances the Power of the States, 1798
1. Resolved, That the several States composing the United States of America, are
not united on the principle of unlimited submission to their general government;
but that, by a compact under the style and title of a Constitution for the United
States, and of amendments thereto, they constituted a general government for
special purposes—delegated to that government certain definite powers, reserv-
ing, each State to itself, the residuary mass of right to their own self-government;
and that whensoever the general government assumes undelegated powers, its
acts are unauthoritative, void, and of no force: that to this compact each State
acceded as a State, and is an integral part, its co-States forming, as to itself, the
other party: that the government created by this compact was not made the
exclusive or final judge of the extent of the powers delegated to itself; since
that would have made its discretion, and not the Constitution, the measure of
its powers; but that, as in all other cases of compact among powers having no
common judge, each party has an equal right to judge for itself, as well of infrac-
tions as of the mode and measure of redress.
2. Resolved, That the Constitution of the United States, having delegated to
Congress a power to punish treason, counterfeiting the securities and current
coin of the United States, piracies, and felonies committed on the high seas,
and offenses against the law of nations, and no other crimes, whatsoever; and it
being true as a general principle, and one of the amendments to the Constitution
having also declared, that “the powers not delegated to the United States by the
Constitution, not prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respec-
tively, or to the people,” therefore the act of Congress, passed on the 14th day of
July, 1798, and intituled “An Act in addition to the act intituled An Act for the
punishment of certain crimes against the United States,” as also the act passed by
them on the—day of June, 1798, intituled “An Act to punish frauds committed
on the bank of the Untied States,” (and all their other acts which assume to cre-
ate, define, or punish crimes, other than those so enumerated in the Constitu-
tion,) are altogether void, and of no force; and that the power to create, define,
and punish such other crimes is reserved, and, of right, appertains solely and
exclusively to the respective States, each within its own territory.
Thomas Jefferson, The Kentucky Resolutions of 1798. Obtained from http://www.constitution.org/cons/kent/1798.htm
Also available in The Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions, with the Alien Sedition and Other Acts, 1798–1799 (New York:
A. Lovell, 1894).
172 MAJOR PROBLEMS IN AMERICAN HISTORY
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