Jeffersonianism vs. Federalism

The party in power at the start of this quest was the Federalists, whose members included the president of the time, George Washington. The Federalists were smaller in number than the Jeffersonians but were more often than not, the influential, politically aware members of early American society. Federalists were driven to base American economy both around agriculture and, unlike Jeffersonians, industry. Alexander Hamilton, who succeeded Washington in the presidency, was the mai

Thomas Jefferson was an intricate part of the development of the United States, whose early roots were set in the concept of freedom, and whose future path Jefferson hoped to hold steady. However, Jefferson’s hopes to form America around a Franklinish concept of a land solely based upon the practice of farming were not a realistic way for a nation to begin. The ideas of the Jeffersonians were shortsighted and would not have maintained the United States in the business world it is currently involved with. The Federalists were in fact more sensible for their ideas of development. The hopes of industrialization that the Federalists hoped to put into play were eventually done so and have allowed the United States to progress, as the path of any advanced nation has mimicked. Jefferson’s idea, taken today, would not be feasible for a nation the size of the United States. To place its self competitively in the world trade markets, a nation certainly must base its economics not around harvested plants, but around the production that is the result of an industrialized nation. Jefferson knew that it was widely accepted that “every state should endeavor to manufacture for itself” by the “political economists of Europe” but felt manufacture was out of necessity, not choice (Major Problems, page 188). Jefferson’s purchase of the Louisiana Territory was originally for the expansion of farmers, allowing the agricultural way of life in America to continue westward as states and territories to the east were filled with other farmers similarly tending their harvests. This purchase was something the Federalists were quite opposed to, and would not have negotiated had they been in the White House at the time, but it was something that Jefferson did to further his plan. This was a great benefit to the developing United States, not for agriculture, but to oust the French from America once and for all, leaving the developing nation without a European influence to taint the progress of the young nation

Some topics in this essay:
Thomas Jefferson, America Franklinish, Federalists Jeffersonians, World Europe, Alexander Hamilton, Purchase French, Slaveslap Kiddnap, Jefferson America, Louisiana Territory, Jeffersonians American, thomas jefferson, major page, alexander hamilton, major page 165, page 165, america jeffersonians, american economy, european nations, developing nation, provisions materials, federalist party,