We have good reason to revere our founding documents, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Moving from the divine right of kings to the consent of the governed was a major step in the history of freedom. However, the Founding Fathers did not have a single vision of what government under the Constitution would look like. They fought with each other about what the Constitution should look like and later what it meant. Nowhere is this conflict more clear than in looking at Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison.
Alexander Hamilton
Hamilton was an orphan, a bastard and an immigrant who came to this country with nothing. He was a New Yorker who rose to high station through education and hard work. Hamilton was George Washington's right hand man during the Revolution. During the debates over the Constitution, he favored a strong national government which would have all the power at the expense of the states. He also favored a president for life. He didn't get the Constitution he wanted. However, he led the effort to ratify the Constitution by writing most of the Federalist Papers along with his ally at the time, James Madison. As Treasury Secretary under President Washington, he championed the creation of the First Bank of the United States. He also argued for neutrality between England and France. He lived in a era where men settled matters of honor with duels, but his personal honor did not prevent him from sleeping with another man's wife and then paying hush money to her husband. He died in a duel at the hands of Aaron Burr.
Thomas Jefferson
Jefferson was a lawyer, a philosopher and a Virginia planter. He was the main author of the Declaration of Independence which contains these words:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed
While Jefferson referred to unalienable rights endowed by the Creator, he was not a religious man. In fact, he coined the term "wall of separation" which has become shorthand for the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. Jefferson believed that the federal government should be limited to the powers specifically enumerated although this did not keep him from doubling the size of the country with the Louisiana Purchase. He was Secretary of State under George Washington and was the third President of the United States. In Washington's cabinet, he favored siding with France in its conflict with England. He was a slave owner who fathered children with one of his slaves.
James Madison
James Madison was also a Virginia plantation owner who owned slaves. He was the primary author of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Along with Hamilton, he helped write the Federalist Papers. Madison was Jefferson's Secretary of State and then served as the fourth President. Over his life, he shifted from being a proponent of a strong national government to favoring state's rights. In the Federalist No. 44, he proposed the implied powers theory that was later championed by Hamilton.
No axiom is more clearly established in law or in reason than that wherever the end is required, the means are authorized.
In other words, the national government had the power to do anything necessary to achieve its purposes. However, in reaction to the Alien and Sedition Acts, he proposed that states could nullify actions of the national government. As President, he sought a declaration of war against England. However, because the Democratic-Republicans under Jefferson and Madison had reduced reduced the army, closing the Bank of the United States and limited taxation, Madison did not have a strong army or the financial means to pay for one. The British invaded Washington and burned the White House and the Capitol. Many state militias refused to fight and a bill for a draft was defeated in Congress. The war ended after Napolean was defeated at the Battle of Waterloo and the English lost interest in fighting the United States. After opposing extension of the charter of the first Bank of the United States and vetoing a bill providing for a second national bank, he eventually approved the Second Bank of the United States based on the difficulties involved in funding the War of 1812.
Lessons From Three Founding Fathers
What can we learn about today's struggles from these Founding Fathers?
1. Enumerated Powers vs. Implied Powers
One of the rallying cries of the Tea Party is that the national government should be limited to those powers expressly set out in the Constitution. This is one reason why many Republicans want to abolish many government agencies. This was consistent with Jefferson's view of the Constitution until he had the chance to do something which was not enumerated, that is, the Louisiana Purchase.
Hamilton was a strong proponent of the view that the national government could do anything that was not forbidden and he was initially supported by Madison, who later changed his mind and supported the Jeffersonian view.
Hamilton was a strong proponent of the view that the national government could do anything that was not forbidden and he was initially supported by Madison, who later changed his mind and supported the Jeffersonian view.
2. Strong National Government vs. Strong States
Hamilton wanted a strong national government. If he had had his way, the states would have been stripped of almost all power. Jefferson and Madison not only favored state's rights, but believed that the states had the right to nullify federal legislation. It took a civil war and the civil rights struggle to establish that states did not have the right to disregard laws enacted by the national government. However, there are still some politicians who still make this argument.
3. National Bank/National Debt
There is a long tradition in this country of distrusting banks and expressing suspicion of a national bank. The first and second Bank of the United States were both allowed to lapse. We did not have a permanent national bank in this country under the Federal Reserve was created in 1913. The Fed remains a target of conspiracy theorists today.
One benefit of having a national bank was the ability to borrow money. Madison learned that not having the ability to borrow on the credit of the national government was a real problem when he could not fund the War of 1812.
4. Military and Foreign Policy
This is an area where the Founding Fathers were very contradictory. Hamilton favored a standing army but opposed getting involved in foreign wars. Jefferson and Madison opposed a standing army but wanted to go to war against England and in support of France. This proved to be a disaster in the War of 1812. Jefferson and Madison had somewhat more success with the First and Second Barbary Wars.
5. Religion
None of these three Founding Fathers were particularly religious. According to one biographer, Hamilton was "a conventional liberal with theistic inclinations who was an irregular churchgoer at best." However, he could embrace Christianity when it served his political purposes, such as in opposing Jefferson. Jefferson and Madison, on the other hand, worked mightily to ensure that the United States did not have a national religion. While there were other Founding Fathers who were very religious, the lack of religion among these founders demonstrates that religiosity was not unanimous.
6. Summing It Up
Hamilton, Jefferson and Madison demonstrate just how much the Founding Fathers disagreed about and how much they fought with each other. In a very real sense, they were making up America as they went along. In a very real sense, we still are.
