THE LINGERING SHADOWS OF JEFFERSONIANISM AND
HAMILTONIANISMIn a pointed essay titled "Spirit of Governments," he denounced
Hamiltonianism in strident terms:
In the old days, as America's Manifest Destiny stretched beyond the continental U.S., expansionism and
Hamiltonianism went together: as they used to say, trade follows the flag.
From its early days, the bourbon industry took great efforts to portray bourbon as "an icon of frontier independence--of Jefferson's yeoman farmer." But with many bottles to fill,
Hamiltonianism had its charm: as Mitenbuler puts it bluntly, "Hamilton's vision was a good way to get that whiskey into bottles efficiently."
It begins with useful explanatory notes listing the then current states in the union, along with the main political parties (Republicans and Federalists), and the major political movements of the time (Jeffersonian,
Hamiltonianism and federalism).
In his illuminating new book, Land of Promise, the political historian Michael Lind celebrates the Hamiltonian tradition, but, in his telling,
Hamiltonianism segues into something that looks like modern liberalism.
The book's narrative is ordered around three "presidential paradigms":
Hamiltonianism, Jeffersonianism, and Progressivism (p.
The book concludes with a brief outline of Hamilton's political ideas designed to put "
Hamiltonianism" in a truer light.
Kelly first sets out the two conflicting political ideals that have characterized our neighbour's history since the Revolution, Jeffersonianism and
Hamiltonianism. Jeffersonian doctrine proposes a decentralized form of federalism, champions the self-sufficient small landowner, prescribes laissez-faire, and counsels an isolationist foreign policy.
Environmental policy provides perhaps the best example of ineffectual
Hamiltonianism. Yet Nester argues that even a faulty Hamiltonian approach is preferable to a Jeffersonian one.
Hamiltonianism had immediate relevancy for the world of the late 1950s.