How Did Hamilton Support The Power Of The Federal Government

George Washington wrote the following in a letter to Alexander Hamilton: “The Men who oppose a strong & energetic government are, in my opinion, narrow minded politicians…” Even before the signing of the constitution, the country was divided to two parties that had different views on whether the federal government should have more centralized power than the individual states. Federalists supported a stronger national government, while anti-federalists endorsed stronger state governments. Their opposing views influenced the founding of the nation, and laid the path to the Civil War. As America as a nation matured over time, supporters of states’ rights did not give in to the rising tide of federalism, and the struggle between the two partisans

During the revolutionary war, the federal government was not able to tax the citizens directly; only at the state-level could the government collect taxes. Alexander Hamilton, the first Secretary of the Treasury, firmly believed in a strong national government like the British system. He believed centralized power is necessary for the stability and progress of the new nation. According to Hamilton, the most ideal form of government should consist of a powerful executive and an assembly of lawmakers. To provide adequate checks to those who would hold the centralized power, however, Hamilton proposed to divide the federal government into three branches: executive, legislative, and judicial. Although Hamilton was a staunch supporter of consolidated power, he was acutely aware of the dangers of unchecked power. President John Adams, the only president who identified himself as a member of the Federalist party, signed the Alien and Sedition Acts in 1798, which was designed to weaken his opposition: the Democratic-Republican party. The Democratic-Republicans feared that the

They believed that ensuring the states’ rights is the only way America could protect their freedom and democracy. They were inherently suspicious of centralized power, and worried that the Federalists were too sympathetic to the British model of government. Jeffersonians viewed the Federalists as crypto-monarchists who were secretly vying for the U.S. to go back to being controlled by the British monarchy. Thomas Jefferson on the extreme end of the spectrum of those who supported stronger states’ rights: he was in favor of taking away any control that the federal government had. During his presidency, Jefferson continuously fought against and tried to destroy the central bank, as he believed that the institution was corrupting the American economy. He believed that, “without a central bank to exert some control over private banks, a decentralization of credit and money developed, favorable both to ordinary enterprise and market volatility” (Brinkley 41). Thus, by allowing states to charter their own note-issuing banks, Jefferson believed that America would be able to get rid of the national debt