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The Constitution Pros And Cons

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During and immediately after the Revolutionary War, the founding Fathers of America sought to establish a republic on a scale never seen before and to do so had to experiment with new laws and political ideas. Though it was obvious that the first law of the land, The Articles of Confederation, were too weak for the new nation, the development of the new constitution in the late 1780s sparked fierce political debates over the power of the new central government. Even during the debate over the new constitution, it was merely political factions fighting over ideas of government. It would not be until Washington’s first term in office that actual political parties emerged. It was the differences between Secretary of Treasury, Alexander Hamilton, …show more content…

When the US was just starting off as a new country, Hamilton had created a financial plan that every other founding father thought was crazy. This plan called for the assumption of states’ debts onto the federal government, tariffs, and a national bank. This plan outraged Jefferson. He disagreed with Hamilton because his home state of Virginia had already paid off majority of its debt. As this plan was passed it created tension between the two opposing founding fathers. Also, Jefferson believed that a national bank would be unconstitutional. He might have thought this would be good for our country but since he was a strict interpreter of the Constitution, he did not think it would be allowed. Hamilton thought this national bank would be good for our country in times of financial need and would provide economic stability. Hamilton, being a loose interpreter of the Constitution, fired back at Jefferson with the Elastic Clause. The Elastic Clause was Article I Section VIII under the Constitution which states that the federal government can do anything that they see as “necessary and proper”. These differences in interpretation would begin to shape the first political parties of America with the Democratic Republicans strictly interpreting and Federalists supporting implied …show more content…

One of the first foreign issues was the French Revolution. The US was supposed to be in a never ending treaty with France that said that they agreed to help each other if they needed it. France was on the verge of war with England in 1793. The US was faced with a difficult decision of deciding if they should provide aid. Jefferson believed that the US should provide aid to France. Hamilton disagreed with this. He thought that the young country was still too weak to get involved in foreign affairs that would have probably caused them to be in even more debt. Washington, being president at this time, sided with Hamilton on this issue and wrote the Neutrality Proclamation of 1763. This said that the US would remain neutral during this disagreement between France and England. This problem was evident later on when the political parties emerged. Though the Federalists had war-hawks they were also pro-British in foreign affairs which shows why Hamilton would not want to get involved in this

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