{"id":290230,"date":"2021-07-03T16:07:55","date_gmt":"2021-07-03T13:07:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/how-hamilton-and-jeffersons-hatred-gave-rise-to-a-polarized-us\/"},"modified":"2021-07-03T16:07:55","modified_gmt":"2021-07-03T13:07:55","slug":"how-hamilton-and-jeffersons-hatred-gave-rise-to-a-polarized-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/how-hamilton-and-jeffersons-hatred-gave-rise-to-a-polarized-us\/","title":{"rendered":"#How Hamilton and Jefferson’s hatred gave rise to a polarized US"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#How Hamilton and Jefferson’s hatred gave rise to a polarized US<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

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The damp spring and hot summer of 1793 brought clouds of mosquitoes infected with yellow fever to close-packed Philadelphia. Twenty thousand residents fled for the safety of the countryside. Nearly 5,000 lives, a tenth of the city\u2019s population, were lost.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As the death toll rose, workaholic Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton remained at his post. Priding himself as President George Washington\u2019s most essential aide, he privately referred to the government as \u201cmy administration.\u201d No one else could carry on the nation\u2019s business, he was sure.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Until he and his wife fell ill.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A feverish Eliza Hamilton waved from an upper window to catch what might be her final glimpse of her five small children \u2014 baby John, the youngest, had marked his first birthday just two weeks before \u2014 as the kids were hustled to the safety of her father\u2019s home in Albany. Edward Stevens, a distinguished physician and close friend of Hamilton\u2019s, rushed to his bedside. Washington sent a get-well note and half a case of vintage wine as he evacuated the city.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n
\"Treasury
Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton prided himself on being President Washington\u2019s most essential aide.<\/figcaption>
Ullstein Bild via Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

But Hamilton\u2019s colleague, Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, simply scoffed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHis family think him in danger and he puts himself so by his excessive alarm,\u201d Jefferson sneered in a letter to his prot\u00e9g\u00e9 James Madison.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cA man as timid as he is on the water, as timid on horseback, as timid in sickness, would be a phenomenon if [his] courage \u2026 were genuine.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Washington was six months into his second presidential term, and officially the two-party system we know today did not exist. But outright contempt between his two top aides, Jefferson and Hamilton, was already poisoning what is now called the most viciously partisan decade in American history.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey just hated one another from almost, it seems, the moment they met,\u201d said Dennis Rasmussen, author of \u201cFears of a Setting Sun<\/a>\u201d (Princeton University Press), out now. \u201cThe personal animosity between the two helped the first parties to coalesce.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

From the start, Washington was wary about the formation of political parties, convinced that partisans would shred the young nation\u2019s fragile unity.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But the first president had accidentally planted the seeds of the two-party system by placing Hamilton and Jefferson, the nation\u2019s most ferocious partisans, in his cabinet.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n
\"Thomas
Thomas Jefferson (above) was a longtime ally to Washington who tapp<\/a>ed him for the first presidential administration in 1789.<\/figcaption>
Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cSo seditious, so prostitute a character,\u201d Hamilton said of Jefferson.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cA man whose history \u2026 is a tissue of machinations against the liberty of the country,\u201d Jefferson wrote of his rival in a 1792 letter to their mutual boss.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When Stevens\u2019 unorthodox yellow-fever treatment of quinine and cold baths restored the Hamiltons\u2019 health, the treasury secretary celebrated his recovery with an open letter that rebuked the old-school bloodletting methods practiced by Jefferson\u2019s ally Benjamin Rush.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Stevens\u2019 cure was adopted by Hamilton\u2019s Federalist followers; Rush\u2019s became the prescription for Jefferson\u2019s Republicans (proving our 2020 battles over hydroxychloroquine and \u201cwarp-speed\u201d vaccines were far from unique).\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Hamilton-Jefferson rancor \u201cwas personal, for sure,\u201d Rasmussen said. \u201cJefferson looked down on Hamilton as an immigrant upstart trying to exalt himself above his proper station.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The boundlessly ambitious treasury secretary was forever expanding the power of his department, by far the new government\u2019s largest, aggravating Jefferson.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the self-made Hamilton, born out of wedlock and into poverty in the Caribbean, saw Jefferson as a hypocrite. \u201cJefferson poses as the embodiment of the common man and the yeoman farmer, but he\u2019s pretty much an aristocrat, a major slave holder born to wealth,\u201d Rasmussen explained. \u201cSo there was personal distaste.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The two men\u2019s shared interest in women heightened the tension. Both Founding Fathers maintained long-running flirtations with Eliza Hamilton\u2019s sister, Angelica Schuyler Church, who dallied with Jefferson in Paris when he served as America\u2019s ambassador to France. Jefferson presented her with one of a pair of miniatures of himself; Angelica gave Jefferson the first-edition copy of \u201cThe Federalist\u201d that Hamilton and his wife had gifted to her.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"George
George Washington (rightmost), hoping to avoid political parties, tried to soothe divisions between Jefferson and Hamilton.<\/figcaption>
Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But it was Hamilton\u2019s and Jefferson\u2019s deep political differences that truly drove their acrimony.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hamilton believed Jefferson\u2019s desire to elevate states\u2019 rights over the federal government would mean a return to the chaos and fecklessness the nation had suffered under the Articles of Confederation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhereas Jefferson thinks that Hamilton is essentially a monarchist,\u201d Rasmussen said, \u201cthat he wants to return to something like British monarchy and put a crown on George Washington\u2019s head.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n

\u2018A man whose history \u2026 is a tissue of machinations against the country.\u2019<\/p>\n

Thomas Jefferson on Alexander Hamilton<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n

Hamilton became known as a Federalist while Jefferson was a proponent of Republicanism. And when their political differences arose, \u201cneither side was able or willing to recognize the legitimacy of the other,\u201d Rasmussen said. Instead, Federalists and Republicans could only see each other as members of factions promoting their own selfish interests.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey treated each other not just as opponents, but as enemies of the Constitution,\u201d Rasmussen said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When Washington formed the first presidential administration under the new Constitution in 1789, he called on longtime allies for assistance: Hamilton, his Revolutionary War aide-de-camp, and Jefferson, his fellow Virginia planter.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel myself supported by able Co-adjutors, who harmonise extremely well together,\u201d the president wrote in June 1790.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But the \u201cco-adjutors\u201d didn\u2019t see it that way.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"The
The partisan frenzy finally spilled out on the floor of Congress as Federalist Rep. Roger Griswold and Republican Matthew Lyon both physically attacked each other, drawing scornful press coverage.<\/figcaption>
Alamy<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cHamilton & myself were daily pitted in the cabinet like two cocks,\u201d Jefferson later wrote.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHamilton,\u201d the smash-hit musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda, depicts frequent face-to-face debates between the two secretaries, with Washington acting as referee.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But, in fact, \u201cthe number of in-person Cabinet meetings decreased over time. Eventually, Washington started asking for written reports instead of getting them together,\u201d Rasmussen said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n

\u2018So seditious, so prostitute a character.\u2019<\/p>\n

Alexander Hamilton on Thomas Jefferson<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n

In 1792, the vitriol between Washington\u2019s top deputies reached such a fever pitch that the president wrote them nearly identical letters begging them to dial it down. Each was almost comically shrill in his reply: Jefferson complained that Hamilton\u2019s fiscal policies were \u201ccalculated to undermine and demolish the republic.\u201d Meanwhile, Hamilton moaned, \u201cI have been the frequent subject of the most unkind whispers and insinuating from [Jefferson\u2019s] quarter.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

He wasn\u2019t being paranoid. Behind the scenes, Jefferson had been stoking partisan frenzy with a media<\/a> strategy bent on Hamilton\u2019s destruction \u2014 using taxpayer money to boot. He hired a fiery Republican polemicist, Philip Freneau, as a State Department translator, then got him to start an opposition news<\/a>paper going after his foe.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In Freneau\u2019s reports, \u201cEverything Hamilton does is destroying the republic,\u201d Rasmussen said, \u201cwhile Jefferson is the true patriot. And Jefferson paid his salary!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hamilton responded in kind, writing anti-Jefferson screeds under pseudonyms and planting them in pro-Federalist publications.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Federalist
Federalist John Adams won the presidency but then lost his office to Republican Thomas Jefferson.<\/figcaption>
Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By 1798, the enmity between the two founders and their camps burst out into the open, exploding in an all-out brawl on the floor of Congress between Federalist Rep. Roger Griswold of Connecticut and Vermont Republican Matthew Lyon.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It all started in the House chamber when Lyon spat in Griswold\u2019s face. Days later, Griswold launched a surprise attack on Lyon, clobbering him with a heavy hickory-wood cane. Lyon grabbed a nearby pair of fireplace tongs and whacked Griswold back. The two were soon grappling in an unseemly wrestling match on the carpet until their fellow congressmen pried them apart.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Neither man was badly hurt. But the melee brought scornful press coverage and dishonor on the whole legislature.\u00a0<\/p>\n

By then, Federalist John Adams was president, and he signed the now-infamous Alien and Sedition Acts to silence Republican dissent. But Adams\u2019 crackdown had the opposite effect, helping to sweep the Republican Jefferson into the presidency in 1800. His inauguration marked the first transfer of power from one party to another in American history.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n
\"Fears<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cWe are all republicans; we are all federalists,\u201d Jefferson proclaimed in his inaugural address.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But in private, the new president vowed \u201cto sink federalism into an abyss from which there shall be no resurrection for it.\u201d (With Jefferson as president, and Republicanism on the rise, Hamilton founded a newspaper in 1801 to promote federalist principles. You\u2019re reading it.)\u00a0<\/p>\n

Despite Washington\u2019s best efforts, America had given birth to a polarized, two-party system \u2014 and an ideological battle that continues even today.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe take parties for granted as a normal part of everyday democratic politics,\u201d Rasmussen said. But they actually arose from \u201cpretty petty personal animosities.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Founders, high-minded people that they were, hoped that their leaders at least would be impartial and do what was best for the country as a whole,\u201d he added.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Unfortunately that ideal was \u201cimpossibly naive.\u201d\n <\/p><\/div>\n

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Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“#How Hamilton and Jefferson’s hatred gave rise to a polarized US” The damp spring and hot summer of 1793 brought clouds of mosquitoes infected with yellow fever to close-packed Philadelphia. Twenty thousand residents fled for the safety of the countryside. Nearly 5,000 lives, a tenth of the city\u2019s population, were lost.\u00a0 As the death toll…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":290231,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/07\/Sins-of-The-Fathers.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[111060,79661,81868,32681,111069],"class_list":["post-290230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-7-3-21","tag-alexander-hamilton","tag-george-washington","tag-politics","tag-thomas-jefferson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=290230"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290230\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/290231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=290230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=290230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=290230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}