What were the tenets of Hamiltonianism and Jeffersoniansm, and what kind of nation did each imagine? How did this affect the politics of this era...

The competing visions of type of nation the United States would become meant that eventually, two main parties emerged. One party, led by Hamilton, was the Federalists. They initially fought for ratification of the Constitution. Hamilton, the first Secretary of the Treasury, believed in a strong federal government and the existence of a national debt and a federal bank. He thought that rich people would become more invested in the country if the nation owed them money in the form of bonds. In addition, he believed in a strong military and in facilitating the growth of domestic manufacturing. In foreign affairs, his party favored Great Britain. His party was essentially the party of the elites--including manufacturers along the eastern seaboard in northern cities such as New York, Boston, and Philadelphia, and in southern cities such as Charleston, South Carolina.

On the other hand, Jeffersonians were initially opposed to the ratification of the Constitution and fought for the addition of the Bill of Rights to the document. Their intention in creating the Bill of Rights was to provide specific safeguards for people's liberties. This party, initially the Anti-Federalists in name, became the Democratic-Republicans (then known as the Republicans). They believed in the power of the yeoman, or independent, farmer, and in an agrarian rather than industrialized economy. They also believed in a weaker federal government and in states' rights. They were opposed to the Bank of the United States and favored the French in international affairs. Their supporters were mainly farmers, artisans, and others in the rural areas of the south and western parts of the nation.

Over time, Hamilton's vision prevailed, even by 1815. For example, the War of 1812 showed the U.S. that we needed to improve internal transportation systems and grow as a power in international politics, and this growth required a stronger federal government. Jeffersonians remained committed to an agrarian system of economic development and to states' rights, and to some degree, they were able to make this vision a reality in the south until the Civil War in 1861. For example, states such as South Carolina nullified the so-called "Tariff of Abominations" in the 1830s by arguing that states could nullify, or declare void, federal laws they did not agree with. The southern commitment to slavery was founded on a belief in the agrarian system of economic development. However, part of the reason the Confederacy lost the Civil War was that they had not industrialized. Over time, the entire nation would turn to industrialization and to a stronger federal government--first in the Union during the Civil War, and later in the entire nation with the growth of Progressive legislation under Teddy Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Lyndon Johnson, and other Presidents.