The Vision For Americ A Country Divided - 978 Words

Nathaniel Shaffer HIST 3311 SP2016 Midterm The Vision for America: A Country Divided Following the Revolutionary War, the Federalists and the Jeffersonians would dictate the country’s future through their decisions. After gaining independence from Britain, the United States would need a clear path to endure the future hardships and struggles, and the founding fathers would need to decide where to lead it. The Jeffersonians, the staunch defenders of the everyman and of states’s rights, would battle the Federalists, those who saw the need for a strong national government to stabilize the economy and unify the existing states. The Jeffersonians were led by Thomas Jefferson, the founding father known for composing the Declaration of†¦show more content†¦Their resolutions argued that the states themselves had the right to declare laws, passed by the federal government, as unconstitutional if not expressly written in the Constitution. The Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions would help plant seeds of division be tween the state and Federal government. This would cause decades of strife between the two until the eventual eruption of violence during the American Civil War. By writing these resolutions, both men were expressing a philosophy that anything not expressed clearly and without interpretation in the constitution, would be decided at the state level. In their opinion, there would be no loose interpretation of the Constitution. In 1789, with the beginning of the French Revolution, the parties once again clashed. Having just emerged victorious from their own rebellion, the Jeffersonians could relate to the French and their displeasure with the monarchy; in, fact they held Britain in great contempt. When George Washington responded with the Proclamation of Neutrality in 1793, James Madison lashed out against the Federalists and their detestable alliance with Britain. They believed the rightful act was to side with the French and support their revolution. An act greatly opposed by Madison and Jefferson was the creation of the Bank of the United States in 1791. This act was heavily supported by Alexander Hamilton, a Federalist. Jefferson and