Show PARTISANS OF THE PAST It has been the lot of few men tp exercise 1 exer-cise a more profound influence upon the formation of a government than was I that of Alexander Hamilton upon our own His influence upon the Constitution I Constitu-tion was probably greater than that of any other one man lie early and clearly clear-ly saw the fatal defects of the Articles of Confederation and his theory as to those Articles eventually became the accepted one That instrument was defective in more ways than one but as it was tentative j tenta-tive in the experiment of a national colo I government for the independent 0 nies it may be doubted whether a stronger centralization of the power of government such as was adopted when L the present Constitution was made the repository of the power of the general government gov-ernment would not likewise have fallen I upon evil times evil from inexperience and not from intention The solicitude of Hamilton was more for the Nation as an entirety than for the rights and reserved powers of the States in fact he looked upon the reservation of I oI any right by the Statesand not controlled I by the General Government as an anomaly anom-aly and a thing of danger to the Nation In this he was the very antipodes of Jefferson who maintained that the safety of the Nation as well as of the States depended upona strict construction construc-tion of the Constitution and questions of doubt as to whether a power was lodged with the General Government or retained by the States or the people he 0 resolved in favor of the States as against the General Government Jefferson believed be-lieved in a balance of power between the two governments while Hamilton held 1 that the preponderance of power ought to and must be with the General Government Govern-ment Hamilton had been nurtured so to speak in the English school of politics I and believed more in the efficacy of a strong central government to protect our national interests and preserve our liberties liber-ties than in a retention of certain sovereign sove-reign rights as to various internal and domestic affairs by the States If Hamilton Ham-ilton was of the English school of politics poli-tics Jefferson was of the French school of the Rights of Man and being of this school he believed in the rights and the power of the people themselves He realized that the creature is inferior I to the creator and that government is a creation of man and as such should be 0 the instrument to attain an end and not an end and an object of itself This difference 0 dif-ference of views ha been the difference of all parties in the United States as these two men Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson were the founders of the Federalist party and the Republican party Both these great men left their impress upon our institutions and in a discrimination between their extreme views will be found a very just estimate esti-mate of our government as it is today and as it will most likely remain It is almost impossible to believe that there was such bitter personal feeling between these two men as there was and as one reads the scathing and bitter things that were said by each of the other it is impossible not to regret that such great men should stoop to such 1 small ways And this quarrel of these two men has embittered party strife in this country until either has cursed the other until that other has become a traitor and all else that party hatred can think of and wish its opponent to be But a better and juster view is now accepted ac-cepted and each party recognizes that the oilier is not so bad as it was said to be |