Tension Between Hamilton And Thomas Jefferson's Bill Of Rights

The early beginnings of the British colonies as the United States of America led to the passing of laws and the development of precedents that have governed the American people to present day. Despite having declared their independence in 1776, the colonies did not truly get to exercise this freedom until General Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown five years later and the British finally recognized their independence as free states. Since the Articles of Confederation and the Continental Congress were deemed ineffective, it was time for a new governing force- starting with the Constitutional Convention. Intellectual powerhouses and future political players such as George Washington, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton met and created the famous document we know today as the United States Constitution, which outlined the fundamental rights all citizens deserved and the basic structure of the government. In the following months, the judicial branch was created, Madison’s Bill of Rights was

When he left office and returned to Mount Vernon, he delivered his farewell address in which he famously warned against the formation of political parties. Without Washington’s leadership to unite them, however, Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson immediately fractured the government into the Federalists and the Democratic-Republicans, creating a major strain both in the government and between the North and the South. This strain would, of course, ultimately end in the Civil War. The two parties disagreed on nearly everything, most notably with the Federalists valuing big banks and a high tariff and the Democratic-Republicans fighting for the opposite. This tension reached its pre-Civil War peak during the Nullification Crisis of the 1820s-30s, when South Carolina nearly seceded forty years earlier than they historically did over tariff