Jefferson vs. Hamilton (1792-1800)
Reading: Cunningham, Jefferson vs. Hamilton, 77-82, 86 (bottom)-103 (top), 110-18, 136 (bottom)-42, 169-71; & “Sedition Act.”
The evolving dispute between Jefferson and Hamilton in the early 1790s helped give rise to a two-party struggle that was unforeseen by the framers of the Constitution. By 1792, Jefferson and Hamilton had become very suspicious and resentful of one another, and President Washington was left to try to steer a course between these two forceful members of his cabinet. As Cunningham points out, Jefferson and Hamilton agreed that Washington needed to seek re-election in 1792. Both men feared — though for different reasons — that the infant nation was poised on the edge of a knife. In large part (but not exclusively) because of the French Revolution, the remainder of the decade was fraught with political uncertainty and conflict.
To understand the anxieties of Jefferson and Hamilton, one needs some context about the international relations of the time. The U.S. had made a treaty with France during the War for Independence. Starting in 1789, France underwent a republican revolution of its own, but the revolution had a much greater destabilizing effect than had the American Revolution. In 1793, in fact, the radical French government executed King Louis XVI, and instituted a “reign of terror,” during which thousands of aristocrats and opponents to the revolution were executed. Soon, revolutionary France was at war against Great Britain, a major commercial partner of the U.S. This European conflict put the U.S. in a difficult situation. The radical turn of the French Revolution thus ignited fears of war and disorder among many Americans.
Disorder did seem to be emerging. In 1794 George Washington himself, accompanied by Hamilton, rode at the head of an army determined to quell the Whiskey Rebellion in western Pennsylvania. Farmers in that region had taken violent action to prevent the enforcement of the tax on whiskey, which Hamilton had implemented in part as a demonstration of federal power. Rebels tarred and feathered tax collectors (and tax payers) and assembled a substantial militia. In the face of Washington’s militia of 13,000 men, however, this rebellion melted away — there was no battle.
The Whiskey Rebellion emerged, at least partially, out of the “Democratic Republican Society” movement. Washington condemned these “self-created societies,” which had been inspired by the French Revolution. Nevertheless, similar societies helped form the grassroots of the emerging Republican Party led up by James Madison and Thomas Jefferson.
By 1798, the Federalist-dominated Congress was sufficiently concerned about disorder that it took a number of reactionary steps. As Cunningham mentioned, Washington came out of retirement for a third time in order to lead the army in the event of a French invasion. Congress also passed the Alien and Sedition Acts, which were intended to protect the U.S. against internal enemies, including both radical immigrants and disloyal citizens. In practice, the Sedition Act was used to silence Republican critics of Federalist policies. Newspaper editors and even a member of Congress (Matthew Lyon) were tried, convicted, and imprisoned for sedition. Republicans became increasingly concerned about the protection of the Constitution (and civil liberties), and they managed to win rather handily in the electoral college in the election of 1800 (despite the subsequent deadlock in the House of Representatives due to the fact that Jefferson and Aaron Burr, both Republicans, tied in the electoral college).
Within this larger context, the following questions seem especially important:
- What major concerns did Jefferson reveal to Washington in his May 23, 1792 letter to the president?
- What fears and worries did Hamilton likewise share with Edward Carrington in his letter of May 26, 1792? Was Hamilton aligned against republican government, as Jefferson suspected?
- What major challenges or threats did the U.S. in fact face in 1792?
- What was the Sedition Act, and how did Jefferson respond to it?
- What key political principles did Jefferson articulate in his first Inaugural Address in March, 1801?
Note: My comments on the Whiskey Rebellion and the Democratic Republican Societies were informed in part by Stanley Elkins and Eric McKitrick, The Age of Federalism: The Early American Republic, 1788-1800 (New York, Oxford Univ. Press, 1993), 461-85.
February 18th, 2007 at 1:52 pm
The major concerns that Jefferson had were about Hamilton’s finacial policies, the huge public debt and how Congress continued to push the limits of the Consitution. Jefferson was concerned for the Union as a whole and saw that if Washington really did not return for a second term, the new nation would fall by the wayside. The topic of whether or not Washington should return for a second term was the only thing that Jefferson and Hamilton agreed on. The both thought that the Union was centered strongly on Washington.
February 18th, 2007 at 7:25 pm
The Sedition Act was passed in 1798 to make sure that nobody inside the United States would conspire against the government. It also made it illegal for anybody to publish falsehoods against the President or Congress. However, the term “Vice President” was left out of the law because it was clear that Adams could care less what people wrote about Jefferson. In retrospect, it was essentially used to keep the Republicans quiet, because the Federalists did not feel like putting up with them. Also, as an advantage to Adams, the law was set to expire right after the end of his Presidential term.
February 18th, 2007 at 8:15 pm
HOW DID THEY JUSTIFY THE SEDITION ACT?
Corey, you make good points about the Sedition Act. Maybe someone could take up the question of how the Federalists could justify such a law. Was it really constitutional? (Jefferson and Madison certainly thought not.)
February 19th, 2007 at 6:15 pm
It doesn’t take long after the implementation of the Constitution before a two party system begins to emerge. It was almost inevitable with the very different view points that existed in the early years of the new government. Jefferson aliened himself with the Republican Party which hoped to “preserve the government in its present form.” Jefferson was worried that some were trying to pave the way for a monarchy and that the national debt would be too burdensome.
February 19th, 2007 at 11:18 pm
I would say that if the fact that the US government was very new and not exactly strong, it is easy to see how the Federalists got the Sedition Act passd. In Hamilton’s letters he makes it quite clear that he sees the democratic-Republicans as a threat to the Union. Hamilton Merely writes a few letters to feloow patriots a stirs up fear of a Union collapse. There was not a huge threat, but still fear causes people to take action. Not to open modern politic debates but, there is another Act that was justified in this same manner.
February 20th, 2007 at 12:33 pm
It is right before class so I cannot say too much right now but I really think Jefferson had something with his concerns on why we were taking on a debt that was not getting paid off. This was what I agree with an investment in the United States of the wealthy that owned these notes (money) that the National Bank was going to make a valuable note to own.
February 20th, 2007 at 12:40 pm
It’s interesting that the two parties both believed that the fragile nation was on the cusp of being broken apart - their attempts to gain the upper hand over the other to be able to address this issue was, in fact, contributing largely to the delicate nature of the nation. The infighting between the two parties made a bad situation worse, even though both were attempting to improve it. File under: Law of Unintended Consequences.
As far as the Alien and Sedition Acts is concerned, we have serious reservations, in our modern perspectives, about the encroachment upon civil liberties. Despite this, however, the nation did not come apart. I know this seems like an end-justifying-means argument, but… oh well.
April 12th, 2007 at 4:32 pm
do you know how did fedetelists and republican feel about the Alien and sedition acts?
April 13th, 2007 at 8:34 am
Tenzin: Republicans roundly condemned the Alien and Sedition Acts, which were used to target Republican newspaper editors. Two leading Republicans, Madison and Jefferson, wrote protests that became the Virginia and the Kentucky Resolutions. Some Federalists probably realized that the law was a mistake, but Congressional Federalists threw their support behind the law.