From: Dustin Hurt
Date: 3/1/00
Time: 2:30:22 PM
Remote Name: 155.247.31.28
Dustin Hurt 27 FEB 00
How did Jefferson's and Hamilton's views on human nature and beliefs about individual freedom differ and what was the significance of these differences for government policy in the 1790s?
Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton had very different views on humanity and it nature. Hamilton believed that chaos could damage a republic easier than a monarch could do. He thought that the masses could not be trusted to expand the economy into a industrial one. He decided that by looking to the upper classes in society and convincing them they could gain wealth through the central government (more specifically the national bank), the economy would grow like the economy of Great Britain. Hamilton argued by strengthening the overall economy a "greater measure of prosperity" would come to everyone. "There was no conflict between private greed and public good". Jefferson on the other had believed that the key to great economy was in strong agriculture and not in industry. Jefferson believed that the people were able to make policy on their own. He feared a strong government and was confident that people were virtuous. Jefferson disliked speculators and found people’s "get rich quick" schemes immoral. Regardless of these views it was ultimately up to Hamilton to decide as the first Secretary of the Treasury.