Alexander Hamilton: The First Political Parties In The United States

Our first president George Washington was a wise man and didn’t believe in political parties. He thought political parties would split apart the country and make government a competition instead of a place to serve the people. Although, inevitably the first political parties were made, the Federalists and Democratic-Republicans. The original political parties in America had very different views on many topics including their interpretation of the Constitution. Alexander Hamilton, the leader of the Federalists, and his party believed in a loose interpretation of the Constitution. This means they think that certain powers not specifically given to the federal government was more or less implied. Hamilton says “The people are turbulent and changing; they seldom judge or determine right.” He and the Federalists think the government needs more control to run its
This means that they think that the Constitution should be interpreted much more strictly with less federal government. They knew the federal government needed power, but they believed that people should have more say. “They accepted the idea of implied powers, but in a much more limited sense.” The Democratic-Republicans thought the implied powers would apply less to the federal and more to the state government. Although the federal government had certain implied powers, the Democratic-Republicans believed most powers not directly given to the federal government should belong to the people. “They believed that implied powers are those powers that are ‘absolutely necessary.’” In this quote they are referring to the elastic clause, or the part in the Constitution that can be interpreted in many ways. The Democratic-Republicans belief in the elastic clause is the way it was originally intended; only to use federal force if “absolutely necessary.” As you can see both parties had very different interpretations of the