Did the American Founders Debate on the Relative Size of the Government?
Upvote:5
Yes, absolutely. The Federalist /Anti-Federalist controversy went far beyond the issues you cite. The founders feared a tyrannical central government - the writings of Jefferson, Madison and Monroe are particularly clear on this point.
The 9th and 10th were designed to limit the growth of the government.
Hamilton wanted a strong, effective government. Jefferson wanted a tiny government. Washington's first term in office was occupied with limiting the amount that they sabotaged one another. (Hamilton as Secretary of the Treasury tried to manage all foreign correspondence. Jefferson hired a man to do nothing but publish a newspaper that criticized Hamilton)
When Jefferson took office he devoted much of his tenure to dismantling the institutions that Hamilton built; the only significant expansion was West Point - which Jefferson reluctantly increased because he feared that Hamilton's flunkies would stage a military coup, and Jefferson wanted to pack the Army with "right thinking" officers. (All the more remarkable because he opposed a standing army - after all a Republic had no need to fight!)
The most frequently referenced institution was the First Bank of the US. There are several books on the constitutional conventions that offer excruciating details on what the founders felt should and should not be within the purview of the government. (The South in general wanted a tiny government and an isolationist foreign policy; the North wanted a powerful government and an engaged commercial foreign policy.)
Discussions about Article 1 Section 8 of the Constitution included fears that the government would become a tyrant.
I'm not aware of any discussion that state or local governments would become too complex or too large. Three possible exceptions were Vermont and Kentucky who wanted indepdence from their states, and Rhode Island - which declined to join the union in part because of the power of the Rhode Island state government. That might be another source of very good material (but I can't find a quick, useable citation - the situation was complicated).
More post
- 📝 Did people use to marry much younger during the last millennium?
- 📝 What Insubordination Did Colonel Sanders Do With Prudential Life Insurance?
- 📝 Mnemonics for centures or any other longer periods, like Zodiac signs other than Chinese?
- 📝 Why did Zhang Xueliang and Yang Hucheng receive different punishments for their role in the Xi'an Incident?
- 📝 How can I find the most complete list of the names of Kaytn Massacre victims?
- 📝 In 1916, did an amputee, invalided out of the French army, get a pension?
- 📝 Was communism a weaponized idea deployed against Imperial Russia?
- 📝 How long was the overland trip between St. Petersburg and Okhotsk?
- 📝 Why were some German and Japanese cities bombed more than others during WW2? Is there a scientific consensus?
- 📝 What is the history of cryptography in India?
- 📝 what city was unix invented in?
- 📝 Wouldn't shortening the front also shorten it for the enemy?
- 📝 Did Nazi leaders consider continuing guerrilla warfare after the collapse of Germany?
- 📝 How did the German royal families lose power so quickly in 1918? What happened to them afterwards?
- 📝 Was the Macedonian phalanx more effective than hoplites?
- 📝 Has any medieval army ever fought 3 or more distinct battles on the same day?
- 📝 What was the largest land area that Germany has ever controlled?
- 📝 Argentina's involvement with the League of Nations
- 📝 What is the evidence for North Korean famine of 1990s?
- 📝 Can historiography be thought of as "fractal"?
- 📝 Percentage of the draft pool that were conscripted during WW2 and Vietnam
- 📝 What is the most common calendar for pre-Julian dates?
- 📝 Why are so many metros underground? Isn't that more expensive than an elevated system?
- 📝 How was plate armour attached and secured?
- 📝 Why was there a 2nd version of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact that gave Lithuania to USSR?
- 📝 Was there a military practice of reloading while marching/running, in Europe or America during the 18th and 19th centuries?
- 📝 Did the people who initiated the trans-Atlantic slave trade think they were doing something new?
- 📝 Does History confirm that prosperity, capitalism, and some form "democracy" or representative republican form of government always go hand in hand?
- 📝 Has the US army ever fought an urban battle?
- 📝 Why are military uniforms often flared or poofy above the knee?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Did the American Founders Debate on the Relative Size of the Government?
- 📝 Did the US government officially apologize for Indian Removal Act and Native American Indian genocide?
- 📝 Why did the Confederacy think they could win the American Civil War?
- 📝 Why did Canada not join the American Revolution?
- 📝 How did the USSR manage to innovate in an environment characterized by government censorship and high bureaucracy?
- 📝 How did the American Civil War help the U.S economy recover from the Panic of 1857 given that civil wars are extremely destructive?
- 📝 Why did the grip-centered viking shield fall out of use relative to the kite shields?
- 📝 When did Britain learn about the American Declaration of Independence?
- 📝 Why did the East India Company accept the Government of India Act 1858?
- 📝 Did American policymakers seriously consider scaling down Lend Lease Aid to the Soviet Union after the battle of Kursk?
- 📝 Did the Soviet leadership ever address the American people on American TV?
- 📝 Why did the Native American city of Cahokia die out?
- 📝 What was the Mantineian form of government and what praise did it receive?
- 📝 How did Columbus calculate the size of the Earth?
- 📝 What government functions, if any, did the archchancellor of the HRE actually exercise?
- 📝 When did the American War of 1812 actually end?
- 📝 How did the US government manage to enforce the 1980 boycott of the Olympic Games in Russia?
- 📝 What did the sympathies lie of the US Navy around the time of the American Civil War?
- 📝 Did American forces specifically target officers during the revolutionary war?
- 📝 Was there any genuine debate in the pre-1860 United States regarding Native American sovereignty?
- 📝 Why did the Union army favor a "western" route to approaching Richmond during the American Civil War
- 📝 Did the Ottoman government rationalize the Armenian Genocide and other instances of ethnic cleansing as a response to Russian expansion?
- 📝 What were the Government Press Prosecutions of 1858 and why did they occur?
- 📝 How did the central government of the United States finance itself under the Articles of Confederation?
- 📝 Did Frederick Douglass affect British policy during the American Civil War?
- 📝 What impact did the Seven Years War have on the American Revolution?
- 📝 How did the English Civil War affect the American Colonies policy-wise?
- 📝 How did the British Army unit size and structure in WWI change from 1915 to 1918?
- 📝 Why did Loyalists go to Canada during the American Revolution
- 📝 How did American colonial rights and conditions compare to those within the British Isles?