You will prepare and submit a term paper on Jeffersonian vs Hamiltonian Visions. Your paper should be a minimum of 2750 words in length. Most especially the Hamiltonians and Jeffersonians have been of much influence in the last half of the Twentieth century when it comes to the role of government and welfare policies. Though both Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton believed in the nation as a great future power, they differed on the ways to get it there. Jefferson thought the best way was to create an “empire of liberty” based on the weak federal government, state rights, and agrarian economy. He detested the banking system and also feared that an alliance of the social elite with powerful government and the strong central bank would turn America into aristocratic or monarchical society. Hamilton, on the other hand, envisaged America as an industrial power enhanced by a strong centralized federal government, a national bank, commerce, and funding national debt and a government that was run by the educated and wealthy (Mead n.p). This research seeks to explore the last half of the 20th century with an aim to establish the ideologies that defined American politics in the era and also to establish which ideology between Jefferson and Hamilton best describes 20th-century politics. The research will show that the Hamiltonian ideology dominated the era as evidenced by its influence on the majority of events in the era. However, it will also show that Jeffersonian ideologies had a significant role to play especially the maintenance of human values and observance of human rights at the close of the industrial era.

The difference between Jefferson and Hamilton’s ideologies can best be explained by the way both of them viewed nature during the early days of the American republic. Just as the two agreed on the instrumental value of nature, so did they agree on a new republic that had a bright future and just as they disagreed on how nature serves the human purpose.