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... ates have in the uncertain state of great-power politics on the world stage? Should the United States preserve its 1778 alliance with France, seek a rapprochement with Great Britain, or remain neutral? Issues of method included: (i) How should we interpret the Constitution? Should we construe it broadly, to give the federal government extensive power to respond to national problems, or strictly, to guard against a federal tyranny and preserve state sovereignty and the rights of the people? (ii) How should we conduct politics under the Constitution? Is it a risk worth taking to organize like-minded Americans into political parties which will contend for office and the control of public policy?
Or would parties endanger liberty and the survival of the Constitution, leading to factional strife and anarchy or tyranny? These issues of substance and method were closely linked. Positions on substantive issues required politicians to adopt specific positions on issues of method, and vice versa. For example, if you favored using federal power to encourage domestic manufacturing and commercial interests -- for example, by recognizing federal power to charter a national bank -- then you supported a broad reading of the Constitution and favored a vigorous federal government over state sovereignty. If you supported a strict reading of the Constitution, then you opposed vigorous federal policies on the economy, in particular federal creation of a national bank. Similarly, if you supported commercial and industrial development at home, then you favored either neutrality in world affairs or closer ties with the world's greatest commercial and industrial power, Great Britain.
If you opposed commercial and industrial development, then you supported aligning the United States with Great Britain's foe, France. These issues sorted politicians into two loosely-organized groups or coalitions, which we recognize as the nation's first political parties, the Federalists and the Republicans. (The term "political party" itself is fraught with confusion, as historians continue to battle when parties emerged and how, although without a clear or consistent definition of what a "political party" is. I propose, for our purposes, that we use the term to mean a group of like-minded politicians and voters, organized both within thin each state and across state lines, with a consistent platform or body of ideas and principles holding them together and stating their understanding of what government should and should not do. By this standard, neither the Federalists nor the Anti-Federalists were political parties, and the Federalists and Republicans of the 1790 s were, however rudimentary they might appear to us and however much their members might have denied that they composed parties. ) The Americans of the Revolutionary generation feared parties as dangers to liberty and republican government. Seeing themselves as defenders of liberty and the republic, members of each group attacked their adversaries as dangerous to liberty and the republic. Thus, the politics of the 1790 s were nasty and occasionally violent, elevating partisan conflict to unexpected levels of bitterness.
Three controversies marked out the course of political life from 1789 through 1801: In 1789 - 1791, the dispute over the constitutionality and the wisdom of Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton's fiscal policies -- federal assumption of state debts, followed by creation of a national bank and federal policies supporting domestic manufactures. The disputes over whether to continue the 1778 alliance with France despite the Revolutionary French government's execution of Louis XVI, to restore relations with Britain (according to the controversial 1794 Jay Treaty), or to remain neutral in world politics (as President Washington counselled in his 1793 Neutrality Proclamation and in his 1797 Farewell Address). The disputes over the growing differences between Federalists (led by Hamilton and John Adams) and Republicans (led by Jefferson, Madison, George Clinton, and Aaron Burr). These issues boiled over into the national elections of 1796 and 1800, both for the Presidency and for Congress (House and Senate), with echoes in the state elections that occurred (though not with perfect synchronization) throughout the period as well.
After George Washington's two terms as the nation's first President, the American people confronted a clear choice between Federalists and Republicans. Their decision in 1796 to endorse the Federalists led to the single term of President John Adams, during which partisan rivalry got even worse, leading Federalists to seek legislation empowering the government to silence its critics. The crisis of 1798 - 1800 abated only when the Federalists split between followers of Adams and supporters of Hamilton, creating a priceless opportunity for the Republicans. Thomas Jefferson hailed his election (despite the embarrassment of the deadlock in the electoral college between himself and Aaron Burr) as "the revolution of 1800. " He saw his victory as a confirmation of the American people's loyalty to the principles of 1776.
Yet, ironically, even as they smarted and blamed one another in defeat, the Federalists deserved credit for the first peaceful transfer of power from one political party to another under the Constitution. VI. AFTERWORD -- DEFINING THE LEGACY, 1776 - 1836 What was the American Revolution? This question obsessed the Revolutionary generation.
The issue continued to perplex the politicians of the 1790 s, and survived into the new century. In the early nineteenth century, the aged survivors of the Revolution were pelted with letters and inquiries by the new nation's rising generations of the new nation, asking about the glorious days of the Revolution and the purposes for which it was fought. But the old men of the Revolution -- notably John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison -- would have pondered these questions without outside prompting, for as they anxiously watched the development of the nation they had helped to call into being, they struggled to decide whether their labors had been worthwhile. The following extract, from the last letter that Thomas Jefferson ever wrote, sums up his views on the meaning of the Revolution, and it is the best note on which to end: Monticello, June 24, 1826... May [the American Revolution] be to the world what I believe it will be, to some parts sooner, to others later, but finally to all. ) the Signal of arousing men to burst the chains, under which Monkish ignorance and superstition had persuaded them to bind themselves, and to assume the blessings & security of self government. That form which we have substituted restores the free right to the unbounded exercise of reason and freedom of opinion.
All eyes are opened, or opening to the rights of man. The general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view the palpable truth that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately, by the grace of god. These are grounds of hope for others. For ourselves let the annual return of this day, forever refresh our recollections of these rights, and an undiminished devotion to them.
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Research essay sample on Aaron Burr Remain Neutral
