Jefferson and Madison essays

Jefferson and Madison essays Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, who were republicans, were against what they regarded as an intensity and misuse of power in the hands of the federalists in the Washington and Adams management. Alexander Hamilton, the secretary of treasury, had a major impact on the ideas proposed during the administration of Washington. Before the time of their presidency, Jefferson and Madison were completely opposed to Hamiltons ideas and devices. Hamilton believed in a strong central government led by a prosperous, educated elite of upper-class citizens. He was also a loose constructionist, who believed that the government was able to do anything as long as the Constitution did not specifically forbid it from doing so. Hamilton, as well as Washington and Adams, was more of a pragmatist. Having a grip on reality aided in making wiser decisions. When elected President, Jefferson and Madison, compromised their position they held against the Federalists, by contradicting their belief syste m and siding more with Hamiltons ideas. Before his presidency, Jefferson was a strict constructionist, who believed that the government could not do anything except what the Constitution specifically empowered it to do. His contradiction to this belief was the Louisiana Purchase. The Louisiana Purchase, which included all of the land drained by the western tributaries of the Mississippi River, doubled the size of the United States. Jefferson, who purchased the land from Napoleon, realized that the vast new lands could form the empire of liberty that was his vision for the nation. Feeling uncertain that the purchase was constitutional, Jefferson used loose constructionism as his excuse for purchasing the land. At the time, Jefferson feared that Napoleons intention with the land, which was to use the territory as a breadbasket for the French West Indies, would force the United States into an alliance with Britain....