Debate: Who had the more enduring vision of the United States? Hamilton or Jefferson?
Side: Alexander Hamilton

First, I would like to state some backstory on the two subjects; Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton. If we just take a second to realize how and where each person was raised I think it’s obvious who would win here. Alexander Hamilton has an amazing rags to riches story that can really characterize himself. So let me provide you with a little bit of a deeper understanding of Alexander Hamilton. Alexander Hamilton was a Founding Father of the United States, chief of staff to General Washington, one of the most influential interpreters and promoters of the Constitution, the founder of the nation's financial system, and the founder of the first American political party. As Secretary of the Treasury, Hamilton was the primary man over the economic policies of the George Washington administration, especially the funding of the state debts by the Federal government, the establishment of a national bank, a system of tariffs, and trade relations with Britain. He became the leader of the Federalist Party, created largely in support of his views, and was of course opposed by the Democratic-Republican Party, led by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. Born out of wedlock and raised in the West Indies, Hamilton was orphaned at about the age of 11. Recognized for his abilities and talent, he was sponsored by people from his community to go to the North American mainland for his education. He attended King's College, in New York City. After the American Revolutionary War, Hamilton was appointed to the Congress of the Confederation from New York. He resigned to practice law and founded the Bank of New York. Now onto the more important matter, the actual debate. I think Hamilton had better ideas on what to do with the country, especially the economy. Hamilton’s economic plan for the nation included establishing a national bank, like that in Britain, to maintain public credit; consolidating the states’ debts under the federal government; and enacting protective tariffs and government subsidies to encourage American manufactures. While Jefferson may have been the better choice for equality, what’s the use of equality if the whole nation is in poverty. Hamilton I think really focused on the economy; something that is a huge problem today. Hamilton wanted to make America thrive while still favoring some equality. Hamilton had a strong belief in commercialism and a strong national economy. We learned in the debate we watched that Hamilton was against slavery, something that became a major issue, that eventually turned into America’s bloodiest battle. We have to remember that Hamilton grew up either in or around a slave plantation and saw first hand the harshness of slavery. Hamilton favored equality and diversity, something that Jefferson ignored. We learned in the debate that Jefferson; unlike Washington and other slaveholders did NOT release his slaves upon death. Jefferson seems to be the one favoring equality in this debate, but yet he had multiple slaves. I don’t think this is what equality is. Back to the subject of equality I will say however, that Hamilton wasn’t the best with this topic. He wanted to raise voting qualifications and only let the rich and well educated run the country. I think it’s obvious however that both of these put into a better context are perfectly logical. Why wouldn’t we give power to more educated people and make it so less people could vote. I still think women should vote, but I think the age minimum could and should be raised. By raising this limit it would bring more logical and genuine votes for people in office. So honestly, Hamilton could be considered to have a better view of equality.  What about the other topics we can talk about in this debate? Well how about the government and other politics. Hamilton favored a strong central government and wanted a national bank to control the nation’s spendings. Jefferson however wanted a weak central government and a strong state government. How can you have control if the state has more power than the nation? Some think that Jefferson had a strong and just view on what our government should be, but I strongly disagree. I do want to point out one of Hamilton’s flaws on his view of government before I move on. Hamilton wanted our government to be modeled after the British system, which would be the impractical system of monarchy. I will just for this, side with Jefferson on his view for a more Democratic Government. Back to the actual argument I would like to question why we should reduce the number of Federal employees. Doing this not only slows down the job the government holds, but makes it harder for the few employees to even get the job done. Increasing the number of our Federal employees can make it easier for the nation to solve our financial issues and any other issues we may face. Increasing this number will make it easier for America to survive in the world and become a larger and more powerful world superpower. Onto the interpretations of the Constitution I would again question Jefferson’s logic. Why would we strictly follow a “guideline” and let it govern our lives. This brings me to say what a huge hypocrite Jefferson is. He says that we should not use national credit and put our nation into debt, but does this exact thing during the Louisiana Purchase. He also goes on during his Presidency to continue to disregard the Constitution and bypass his own sayings in his actions. How is it possible that this man can do this exact thing and have a better vision for the future of America. Hamilton was true to his word and didn’t later do what he said we shouldn’t do. The complexity of the Constitution was meant to be a guideline for America to follow so we would not fall into a state of anarchy and chaos. Hamilton believed in us having a strong military branch to successfully defend against attacks and threats directed towards the US. Jefferson wanted us to spend as little money possible to fund a pitiful military nicknamed “mosquitoes” because they were ineffective. By funding our military with the proper funds we can feel safer to traverse just our own neighborhoods making us feel more free to do as we please. Now since Hamilton wanted to have a strong federal government, it would make sense for us to provide better funds for our military. What about the national bank? As I had briefly mentioned before, a national bank is a must. By using this system the nation can have a safe place to store our money. Jefferson didn’t want this to happen because he thought this would make us too much like the British and we would end up having monarchy in the nation. This wasn’t the plan, Hamilton simply wanted to model our own form of a national bank off of Britain. By taking a few of the good ideas implemented in Britain and smashing them together with a few of our own ideas we could make ourselves a very safe and versatile bank system. Copying a few good ideas from another country isn’t the same thing as trying to be exactly like them. We can’t assume that this is what was going to happen. Lastly, I would like to talk a little bit more about the economy and whether helping the British or the French would be a good idea. Plus individual liberties and who better modeled them. Would it make sense to limit some of our individual liberties such as freedom of speech. Although this may seem unjust and unfair, if we limit these liberties for certain reasons some issues could be avoided. What about the right of petition, this could be limited, not taken away but limited. We could limit some other rights for again, logical reasons. Hamilton wasn’t saying he was going to take away our individual liberties, he just wanted to limit them. So what about helping the French or the British fight? Even though we had just fought a war with Britain I think helping the British could prove to be a rewarding decision. Britain was the world superpower at the time and could prove to greatly increase our chance to have the world’s best economy. Britain could be a great trade partner with greater and more valuable goods to be bought we could establish a magnificent trade system. Now what would happen if we help the French, we just make the British hate us more making it harder to become allies with a great nation. Now closing up my argument I would just like to tighten some loose ends about the view of economy. Jefferson believing in a more rural America wanted our economy to be based solely on agriculture and not to participate in trade and manufacture goods. We live in Hamilton’s America, our economy is exactly what Hamilton wanted it to be. Without the ideas of Hamilton we would all be farmers, New York would be entirely country and we wouldn’t have the kind of technology we have discovered today. Now some still say that Jefferson still provided better views on equality, but as I had mentioned before he owned at least 100 slaves and only released 9 all with the same last name. I shouldn't say Hamilton had a better view on our personal rights, but he had a logical and strong vision for America. He wanted us to be able to thrive in the world and use national credit. He created the New York Stock Exchange and helped establish the New York that we know today. He wanted the economy to be built off of the inventions of man and for innovation and creativity to be a part of our lives. We can’t say that we live in Jefferson’s America because we aren’t all farmers, we have invented machine after machine, and we always are thinking of ways to improve the industrial business, but where would that leave us if Hamilton didn’t give us these ideas. Would we still live in this modern, urban world we live in? Would America even be a name that meant something. I believe that we have plenty of things today because of Hamilton’s vision for America. Without the thriving economy he established for us we may have been in huge debt earlier, with a worse outcome. This is why I think Hamilton left a more enduring vision for America.Citations:1. http://teachinghistory.org/history-content/ask-a-historian/24094 2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Hamilton 3. http://www.shmoop.com/thomas-jefferson/vs-alexander-hamilton.html 4. American Vision Dating Game Packet 5. http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/Hamiltonv