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Florida Virtual School

Teaching American History Project


Hamilton's America-Jefferson's America

An AMERICAN EXPERIENCE Seminar

External/Outbound link to PBS American Experience home page.

 


10 A.M.
March 9, 2010


LEADER:  
Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation
Professor of History, University of Virginia


Link will become active two weeks prior to seminar date

Instructions for entering the Online Classroom

As you view the film and read the texts, please keep the following questions in mind. They will guide discussion in the seminar.

  1. Constitutional Interpretation: Jefferson feared that an expansion of federal powers through Hamilton's "loose construction" of the federal Constitution would jeopardize the survival of the union. What is the logic of his apparently counter-intuitive "strict constructionist" position? How do these opposing approaches to the Constitution reflect different experiences of the American Revolution and different visions of the new nation's future?
  2. Foreign Policy: Jefferson and James Madison sought to promote American interests abroad by an aggressive foreign commercial policy; Hamilton was more concerned with protecting federal revenue derived from import duties on the lucrative Anglo-American trade and therefore sought to avoid conflict with the old mother country. How can we reconcile these positions with the conventional understanding that Jeffersonian Republicans favored minimal government while Hamilton and his fellow Federalists were precocious advocates of big government?
  3. Independence and Economic Development: If Hamilton and Jefferson had conflicting visions of the nation's future, they also differed on the meaning of American independence. What role did Hamilton and Jefferson envision for the United States in the European state system? How do their contrasting positions on manufactures illuminate their respective worldviews?













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