Introduction
In the formative years of the United States, two key figures helped shape a new government: Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton. Their visions of what that government should be, and the economic and foreign policies it should enact, often conflicted.
Thomas Jefferson, third president of the United States, 1801–1809.
Portrait of Alexander Hamilton by John Trumbull in 1806.
George Washington chose Alexander Hamilton, self-made man and war hero, as the nation’s first secretary of the Treasury. He chose Thomas Jefferson, principal author of the Declaration of Independence and minister to France, as the first secretary of state. These two brilliant men had radically different notions of what the United States ought to become and different plans for how to reach their goals. While Jefferson cared most about political ideals, including justice and liberty, Hamilton focused his energy on creating the institutions that would make America a world power.
On the following pages, you will learn more about several issues that divided Hamilton and Jefferson, what each man’s position was, and why each man took the position that he did. At the end of the lesson, you will write a short essay in response to the lesson’s essential question:
Essential Question
Whose vision for the new nation, Thomas Jefferson’s or Alexander Hamilton’s, do you support, and why?
