In the early days of the new American nation, just as in the modern world, political factions split the country in two with ideology. On one side were the federalists, led by Alexander Hamilton and John Adams, and on the other were the democratic, or Jeffersonian, republicans, led by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. Federalists generally believed in a powerful, centralized national government, while the democratic republicans believe in states’ rights, and a weak federal government to prevent despotism.
Alexander Hamilton mainly argued that federalism worked practically in the world because of the nature of people. He claimed that government should have the power to enforce the laws it passes when they are resisted, and only a strong federal …show more content…
If the United States had to go to war with France over the Louisiana Territory, they would have had to allied themselves with Britain. Jefferson, both anti-war and anti-alliance, had a very tough choice to make. Either he entangled himself with Britain, possibly for her a long time, or he went to war with France. Instead, he chose to attempt to negotiate with France for the purchase of the Louisiana Territory when he learned officially of the treaty in 1803. Napoleon willingly gave it up to the Americans for a relatively cheap price, because New Orleans served little use to him in maintaining his Latin American empire after the Haitian Revolution. Additionally, Napoleon needed funds to fight the British. On first glance, it appears as though Jefferson avoided Federalist actions entirely by not going to war or getting entangled, but in fact, he still argued bitterly with himself over his choice. With regards to Constitutional interpretation, his actions reflected Federalist views. Not included in the powers of the executive branch outlined in the Constitution was the power to buy land or expand territory of the republic. Jefferson had no time to propose an amendment to the Constitution rectifying this, so he acted out of its bounds. This type of Constitutional interpretation, where the federal government uses power not given to …show more content…
On one hand, America could not stand to be treated like a second-rate country by the two European powers, but on the other, Jefferson wanted to stay isolated. In essence, the Europeans had forced his hand, and his decision was to stand by his ideology and literally isolate the United States. Jefferson called on Congress to forbid all exports from the United States by American or foreign ships, and they did with the Embargo Act of 1807. Jefferson figured that because the Europeans both relied on America so much for raw goods, they would have to yield and treat the United States properly. Many pro-British Federalists and the British citizens saw this as French influence on Jefferson. A British political cartoon by Isaac Cruikshank outlined the English opinion of the Embargo perfectly when it depicted Napoleon feeding words to Jefferson, as he addressed a crowd of mercantile elites, saying that the Embargo Act would be successful in fifteen to twenty years. Cruikshank meant to show the embargo and Jefferson as completely absurd, and to poke fun at the eventually ineffectual action. Indeed, the American economy staggered under the embargo, because neither nation yielded to the Americans, and shortly before Jefferson’s tenure as President concluded, Congress repealed the Embargo Act. Jefferson’s ideology had failed in the face of reality yet again, and soon his successor, James Madison, would