Hamilton Versus Jefferson in the Washington Administration Completing the Founding or Betraying the Founding By the middle of just a little than three years after America s new government under the Constitution had been set in motion Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson President George Washington
By the middle of 1792, just a little than three years after America s new government under the Constitution had been set in motion, Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson President George Washington s two most important cabinet secretaries and two of the most eminent men among the American founders had become open and bitter political enemies Their dispute was nBy the middle of 1792, just a little than three years after America s new government under the Constitution had been set in motion, Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson President George Washington s two most important cabinet secretaries and two of the most eminent men among the American founders had become open and bitter political enemies Their dispute was not personal but political in the highest sense Each believed that the debate between them was over regime principles Each believed that he was protecting the newly established republic, and that the other was laboring to destroy it Carson Holloway s Hamilton versus Jefferson in the Washington Administration examines Hamilton and Jefferson s differences, seeking to explain why these great founders came to disagree so profoundly and vehemently about the political project to which both were committed and had dedicated so much thought and effort.
Carson Holloway shows in this work that he is among the very best scholars of the early American regime. He details the various political differences that separated Hamilton and Jefferson during Washington's presidency, finally giving these important disagreements the full attention they deserve. Though admittedly sympathetic to Hamilton, Holloway deals fairly and honestly with the arguments of both of his interlocutors, trying as much as possible to understand them as they understood themselves [...]