Is the Federal Government Too Powerful?

The Federal Government

In 1788, the U.S. Constitution took effect and created a new government designed in large part to address the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation. While the Constitution established a system of checks and balances and a federal system of shared powers with state governments, this new government was empowered to tax, declare war, coin money, regulate commerce, and more. Some feared that the federal government would become too powerful and tyrannical, while others argued that a strong central government was needed to lead the new nation forward.

Greater coat of arms of the United States.

Thomas Jefferson

“I will now add what I do not like [about the draft Constitution]. First the omission of a bill of rights providing clearly . . . for freedom of religion, freedom of the press, protection against standing armies, restriction against monopolies, the eternal & unremitting force of the habeas corpus laws, and trials by jury in all matters of fact triable by the laws of the land. . . . The second feature I dislike is the abandonment in every instance of the necessity of rotation in office, and most particularly in the case of the President.”

—From a letter to James Madison, December 20, 1787

Alexander Hamilton

“All communities divide themselves into the few and the many. The first are the rich and well born, the other the mass of the people. . . . The people are turbulent and changing; they seldom judge or determine right. Give therefore to the first class a distinct, permanent share in the government. They will check the unsteadiness of the second, and as they cannot receive any advantage by a change, they therefore will ever maintain good government.”

—Hamilton, Secret Proceedings and Debates, 1787

Think About

In 1794, an uprising of farmers and whiskey distillers occurred in western Pennsylvania. They were outraged by the federal government’s whiskey tax, which they viewed as unfair. The protests turned violent when rebels clashed with local troops at the home of a tax collector: shots were fired and men on both sides were killed. Which man, Jefferson or Hamilton, do you think would have supported sending federal troops to Pennsylvania to put down the uprising and to force compliance with federal law?

Jefferson, in keeping with his positive view of human nature, favored a decentralized republic. He wanted the states to have more power: he argued that state governments were more responsive to the people. He understood that a central government was needed to provide for national defense and domestic peace but feared that the federal government would trample on the people’s right to liberty.

Jefferson was particularly outraged by Congress’s passage of the repressive Alien and Sedition Acts in 1798 and 1799, which he viewed as clear violations of the freedoms of speech that the press guaranteed in the First Amendment. Jefferson secretly drafted resolutions later passed by the Virginia and Kentucky legislatures that claimed that states had the right to nullify federal laws that they found “obnoxious.” Indeed, as Jefferson wrote James Madison, states might even find themselves driven to secede “from that union which we so value, rather than give up the rights of self-government which we have reserved.”

Hamilton, in keeping with his distrust of the common man, believed in a strong central government capable of maintaining peace and order and of promoting prosperity. He supported:

the Constitution’s provision for a strong executive, the president, to provide leadership for the country
greater power for the federal government over the individual states
a ruling elite composed of men who had the talent, wealth, and intelligence to govern for the good of all people

Resolutions of the Legislature of Virginia Relative to the Alien and Sedition Laws ... In the House of Delegates, Friday, December 21st, 1798.

Take Notes

Use the second row of the chart below to summarize Jefferson’s and Hamilton’s position on the power of the federal government. Provide at least one reason to explain why each man held the position that he did.