This age of American history from the beginning of the Revolution through the first years of government under the Constitution is the age of the "founding fathers," the political giants whom we have elevated to nearly godlike or at least mythical proportions. In so doing we tend to forget that they were human beings with all the faults, foibles, idiosyncrasies, and failings we all have. That they were supremely capable men and women does not alter that fact, and only by digging beneath the myth can we begin to see the person underneath. The problem is that we don't always like what we find—we prefer our heroes and heroines neat. During the 1960s when American society and culture were coming under close scrutiny, a popular pastime—and indeed a serious undertaking for many historians and biographers— was an attempt to explode myths and bring those "so-called heroes" down to earth.
While for the most part well-intentioned, the effort may at times have gone too far. For in the course of demythologizing those giants, by extension we brought all public figures under closer scrutiny, and many of them did not bear that much attention from the media or other critics very successfully. If we discover that Jefferson and Washington and Lincoln and others were, by our standards, less than democratic or racist or shortsighted in other ways, then what can we expect from lesser men in modern times?.When we look closer at men such as Hamilton and Jefferson, however, and examine their characters, we discover that they were very complex individuals who lived in very different times from ours, faced different challenges, and operated on a different set of assumptions. By reading the fine biographies that exist of all those men, we can look at their lives and contributions with more sophistication.
Hamilton was much more in favor of a strong national government than was Jefferson. An immigrant from the Caribbean, Hamilton came to New York in 1773 at the age of sixteen. When the fighting started he joined the Continental Army, an experience that changed the thinking of many young men. John Marshall, the great chief justice, for example, said of his
War experience, "I went into the war a Virginian, and came out an American." Hamilton served ably on Washington's staff and became one of his most trusted lieutenants. A key figure in the Annapolis convention and the only New Yorker to sign the Constitution, Hamilton was selected by Washington as the first Secretary of the Treasury.
Washington, Marshall, Hamilton, and many others lived in a state of almost permanent frustration at how inefficiently the Continental Congress, which evolved into the Confederation Congress, handled the war effort. The states' representatives were seen as miserly and narrow minded, putting their own interests first whenever asked to provide supplies and money for the army. Jefferson, who did not serve in the Continental army but remained in Virginia, serving in various capacities of that state's government, felt for all of his political career a definite loyalty to Virginia. (Robert E. Lee is probably the most famous spokesmen for that idea—he referred to Virginia as "my country.") Jefferson and his friend Madison were among the first to articulate the "states' rights" position and open the debate over the issues relating to the limits of federal power that would finally be decided only by civil war.
The Constitution transferred control of the national government from the states to the people. As ordinary American voters became keenly interested in political issues and debates, elected officials learned that public opinion, not just the leadership of a social elite, would play a major role in guiding the country's future. The basic cause for the development of political parties was the ambiguity of republican ideology. The Hamiltonians, or Federalists, stressed the need to create a national economy to preserve the independence of the United States. The Jeffersonians, or Republicans, preferred to keep government small, local, and responsive. Federalists and Republicans agreed upon ends but differed widely about means. Hamilton and Jefferson, both brilliant men, could hardly stand to be in the same room with each other.
World History
