Renee Parsons<\/p>\n
Every July 4<\/span>th<\/sup><\/span> which recognizes the unanimous ratification of the Declaration of Independence in 1776, I am reminded of my own American heritage as a Daughter of the Confederacy and a Daughter of the American Revolution – and attempt to reconnect with that heritage in some meaningful way.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n This year my attention gravitated to the Federalist Presidency (1789-1797) of George Washington with Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson and Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamiton espousing vastly antagonistic differing political philosophy that may still be evidenced in today\u2019s Uniparty conflict as the American people are caught in the crosshairs.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n That political controversy in the 1790\u2019s was as intense as any political conflict today between Jefferson\u2019s Democratic-Republicans who represented a limited government with a neutral foreign policy and protecting individual rights as Alexander Hamilton\u2019s Federalist worldview was devoted to a powerful, big government led by financial and bank interests. \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n That conflict over establishing a Federal bank threatened to derail the unfolding Constitutional Republic that became the United States of America as fiscal misbehavior does today with an enduring $35 Trillion debt.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Is any of this sounding familiar?<\/span><\/p>\n Back to the 1790\u2019s, early on in Washington\u2019s Administration, then Secretary of State Jefferson recorded parts of a conversation that occurred during a dinner at his home with Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton, Vice President John Adams and Secretary of War Henry Knox in attendance. \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n As the discussion turned to the British Constitution, Hamilton revealed himself as an unapologetic monarchist and toady for the British empire: <\/span>‘[P]urge it of its corruption, it would become an impracticable government:<\/i><\/span>\u00a0<\/i><\/span> as it stands at present, with all its supposed defects, it is the most perfect government which ever existed.<\/i><\/span>\u201d<\/i> \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n That conversation<\/span> set the tone for the future toxic\u00a0 <\/span>Jefferson- Hamilton relationship<\/span><\/a> even after Washington attempted to intercede. \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n As a member of Washington\u2019s cabinet, Jefferson made no effort to conceal his fundamental philosophic differences from Hamilton\u2019s Federalist policies which favored creation of a strong Federal government, consolidation of state war debt, a national bank and support for the corrupting influence of the monied interests. \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n It did not take long for a history of sharp political conflict with Hamilton to influence Jefferson to resigned in 1793<\/span><\/a>. \u00a0 <\/span>His <\/span>honest appraisal was that a fundamental separation within the American revolutionary movement was occurring with a different interpretation of the national interest a result of Federalist-Republican disagreements. \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n In addition, as the French Revolution was underway, Jefferson understood that a global struggle over tyranny was destined to encompass the world.\u00a0 <\/span>How did he know?\u00a0 <\/span>His sympathy was with the Revolution\u2019s individual human rights against a government of monarchial power and aristocratic privilege. \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n By 1794 the US was on the brink of war with Britain over naval policies that denied US access to ports and commercial shipping rights.\u00a0 <\/span>Washington\u2019s loyalties were already tilted toward<\/span><\/a> the Federalists, as he signed the Jay Treaty with Great Britian.\u00a0 <\/span>The Treaty was immediately identified as clearly favoring Britain, widely regarded as a Federalist treaty while boldly refuting Jefferson Democratic-Republican policies of a \u201cLife, Liberty and Pursuit of Happiness<\/i>\u201d government.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n The treaty, prepared by the Federalist Chief Justice John Jay<\/span><\/a> was meant to resolve differences between the US and Great Britain since the Revolution and instead neither improved nor solved its relationship with Britain and temporarily delayed war until 1812. \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Mindful of controversy, Washington kept the details hidden until Senate approval since Treaty publication generated fierce public opposition that revolutionary values had been betrayed.\u00a0 <\/span>The Treaty accepted British naval and commercial supremacy, allowed the impressment of American sailors, contained a British version of American neutrality and offered compensation to Brit creditors for outstanding pre revolutionary debt. \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Most importantly, the Treaty repudiated the Franco-American alliance of 1778 which provided French military assistance to the Revolution; thereby violating Jefferson\u2019s principle of \u2018neutrality\u2019 on foreign matters.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n An unspoken rule was that any economic benefit to Britian would be seen as traitorous to American independence won in the war. \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n As the political dispute raged with riots, bonfires of the British flag and effigies of Jay, Jefferson\u2019s attitude toward Washington shifted as the President overreacted by calling out a full militia to unnecessarily quash a less than threatening insurgency in the Whiskey Rebellion, some of which Jefferson credited incitement to Hamilton. \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Jefferson began to doubt that Washington had control of the government and in a publicly printed letter, without directly naming the President, suggested that \u2018the apostates who have gone over to the heresies, once Samsons and Solomons in the field and council; have had their heads shorn by the harlot of England .<\/i>\u201d\u00a0 <\/span>Even in anonymity, the letter left little to the imagination of who was who.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Washington\u2019s response to Jefferson included obscure references to having suspicions that Jefferson\u2019s assurance of innocence were ill-placed, that Jefferson\u2019s conduct concealed\u00a0 <\/span>derogatory opinions and acknowledged a lack of sincerity. \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n After the Simon\/Solomon letter was published, there were no further communications between Monticello and Mount Vernon. \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n We can thank the Jay Treaty for providing the trigger for the Democratic-Republican movement to evolve into a full-fledged political party as Jefferson\u2019s disagreements with Hamilton forced\u00a0 <\/span>formation of a national political party in what became the Democratic party once favoring state\u2019s rights, local control and opposed to the Federal concentration of power. \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n We know today that what was Jefferson\u2019s Democratic party bears no resemblance whatsoever to its later version as the once historic annual Jefferson-Jackson Day Dinners have ceased to exist.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Despite his denials, the historical record made it clear that Jefferson was orchestrating a campaign of vilification against the Federalists as his initiative may have been stimulated by Washington allowing his policies to be exploited as a tool of Hamilton\u2019s Federalist policies.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n One last remembrance of the Federalist party as a derivative of Alexander Hamilton fame, does bear some resemblance to remaining fragments of the Democratic party \u2013 a belief in a strong, big-and-better Federal government including a monster bureaucracy as well as ties to the corrupted industrial\/financial class.<\/span><\/p>\n The fascinating piece of trivia since Washington\u2019s era, is that Congress and its leadership have not only morphed into a bloated massive\u00a0 <\/span>Federal bureaucracy<\/span><\/a> including fifteen cabinet departments, 2000 Federal agencies, a host of \u2018independent\u2019 regulatory commissions all staffed by an estimated three million Federal bureaucrats. \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n As the ultimate failure of the Jay Treaty could have predicted, Jefferson\u2019s second term as President (1804) contained a period of tension and dispute (1806-1810). Britain\u2019s unjustified and unprecedented maritime rules promoted its aggressive trade policies including the capture of hundreds of American sailors requiring the American navy to defend against British threats.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n