Today in class after discussing the postwar politics such as the Articles of Confederation and Constitutional Convention. We discussed the Federalist and Republican Program. The Federalist Program with a leading member Hamilton and the Republican Program had Madison and Jefferson. The Federalist Program, influenced by Hamilton, favored the wealthy. It proposed large and permanent debt to finance project a policies. It also promoted the idea of a National Bank System and commercial expansion that benefited manufacturers. The Republican Program thought that any educated being could govern. It was mostly just everything opposite of the Federalist Program.
Now I would like to bring up the question of which program you would've supported at the time to develop America the most effectively and efficiently.
I personally would've supported the Federalist Program to develop America because you need a program that would be able to progress the nation. The Federalist Program looked to commercial expansion, which was a great way to improve economy. I also recall that Hamilton lead the U.S. to be the most able to pay back debts due to the bonds from states. If Jefferson's views were followed the U.S. would not be as economically strong. I am basically influenced by the fact that Hamilton has had most of the key ideas that improved America. I think since Hamilton had ideas that work his program would probably work too.
Good question! It is difficult to decide which party I would have supported, now that I know the end result. But, as I look back, I probably would have supported the Federalists. They believed in a strong (at least by standards then) central government. At the same time, they were not trying to build the federal government too strong. After the revolutionary war, America had much debt and disunity, and they needed a strong central power to move them forward and get the government up and running. The Federalists were able to do that. Jefferson's Democratic-Republicans wanted power to the states. The problem with that is the states had such strongly differing views that true progress would have been much more difficult. It's hard to be a united states if New York has a tariff against goods from Virginia!
ReplyDeleteAt the time, I would have probably supported the Republican Party for a few reasons. I think the idea of a powerful centralized government of the Federalists would have scared me then, after just having gotten independence from Britain's powerful monarchy. I wouldn't have really liked the risk of having rulers become too powerful or corrupted by their power. The fact that Federalist Party also favored the wealthy would have led me to gain support for the Republican Party. In my opinion, the ideal America is all about equality and opportunity, so I would have wanted to support a party with a wider range of economic standings, rather than the majority being wealthy. I also think that Hamilton's radical ideas on dealing with debt would have seemed too risky and different at the time. After just coming out of a war, I would have wanted policies that were more familiar and safe in order to ensure that my economic standing would be secure.
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