Apush Dbq Jeffersonian Republicans Vs Federalists

APUSH DBQ #1

Vivian Yang As the colonies of America further differs with their mother country and began to develop into a successful democratic nation, numerous political had changes occurred. With this divergent, a separation of power began to emerge in the form of two political parties. These were the Jeffersonian Republicans and the Federalists. The parties came to be characterized by certain beliefs, and the usages of those principles would differ during the Jefferson and Madison presidencies. During the Jeffersonian era, Although Thomas Jefferson favored a loosely tied government with the exact interpretation of the constitution, his actions sometimes contradicted to the republican ideals, while James Madison leaned towards a strongly

It was seen as unconstitutional and dictatorial. Since then each party had different views on how the government should be run in regards to interpreting the Constitution. The Jeffersonian Republicans believed in powerful state governments, to establish an agrarian, and decentralized federal government. In a letter to Gideon Granger, a fellow republican and a future cabinet member, he described his belief of a strict analysis or the "preservation of" the federal Constitution for a strong state government. He stated that one government cannot direct all the affairs within the country, but a state government can conduct its affairs more efficiently and productively. The separation of power also prevents the United State from "consolidating into one". Another example that supported the Jeffersonian view of a strict understanding of the constitution is a letter written by him in the 1800th to, Samuel Miller, a Presbyterian minister. In it he stated that, according to the Constitution, the federal government has no authority to regulate

Madison sticks to Jeffersonian ideals when he opposed the International Improvement Bill of 1817, because the power to regulate commerce is not specifically given to the federal government in the Constitution. In the message he wrote to Congress, He illustrates that this authority belongs to the states, which is an act of strict interpretation of the constitution. It also indicated the problem of sovereignty between states and the federal government. In fact, this action directly opposed that of the previous president Thomas Jefferson in regards to the Embargo Acts. Jefferson uses loose interpretation to say that the federal government does have the power to regulate commerce, while Madison complies with his party's beliefs of strict constructionism. During Madison's presidency, he was forced to fill the ranks of the regular army by compulsion, which was drafting men from the militia into the army without a formal right from Congress. In a speech written Daniel Webster, he renounced Madison's policies since there was nothing specifically stated in the Constitution that he could use to justify his actions. Although Madison relied on his party's views of strict interpretation in regards to domestic affairs, he realized that their views in regards to foreign policy and war