Strict Constructionists Vs Federalists

With respect to the Constitution, Jeffersonian Republicans were casually characterized as strict constructionists who opposed the broad constructionism of the Federalist Party. By the end of John Adams’ presidential administration in 1800, two political parties emerged with opposite philosophical views of the Constitution; to shift once the democratic-republicans took office. When the revolution of 1800 propelled the democratic-republicans into office, Jefferson and Madison found Alexander Hamilton's financial structure to be advantageous. The “necessary and proper” clause of the Constitution was expanded by both Jefferson and Madison to address threats to national security. In order to counter the democratic-republicans, the federalists resorted …show more content…
should be preserved by the federal constitution, Jefferson stresses how our country is “too large” to have our “affairs directed by à single government” (doc à). States must preserve the rights they were granted. In his letter to Samuel Miller, Jefferson supports the bill of rights stating “Certainly no power prescribe any religious exercise or to assume authority in religious discipline”(doc b). He makes it clear how the federal government has no power to change à religion based on his comment. Closing off all trade with foreign countries invited criticism to Jefferson from John Randolph, who preached that the government should be weak and shouldn’t have the power to regulate commerce and equalize duties; both are not granted by the constitution (doc f). As well as Randolph, farmers were not particularly thrilled by this regulation. Jefferson's Embargo Act took away farmers platform to market their crops and enabled their lose of income because merchants turned to smuggling from British goods (doc …show more content…
His side of loose interpretation surfaces when he says the “laws and institutions” need to go “hand in hand” with the “progress of the human mind”(doc g). Federalists showed their stricter side, while Jeffersonian Republicans began to show à more broad construction. Showing the importance of principals and morals, Daniel Webster states “where is it written in the constitution, in what article or section is it contained, that you may take children from their parents” in his speech to the House of Representatives (doc d). The federalists also showed their views shift in the Hartford Convention of 1815, “Congress shall not have power, without the concurrence of two thirds of both houses, to interdict the commercial intercourse between the United States and any foreign nation, or dependencies thereof”(doc e). This shows the federalists shifting to the Jeffersonian Republican point of view and contradicting themselves throughout this speech expressing that the federal government can't do anything without individual approval from the