life in the
United States, were crystallizing into distinct tenets and assuming
strongly antagonistic party positions. The electric forces, so to speak,
which produced this crystallization, proceeded from the president's
cabinet, where the opinions of the secretaries of the treasury and of
the state were at direct variance, and were now making constant war upon
each other. Hamilton regarded the federal constitution as inadequate in
strength to perform its required functions, and believed that weakness
to be its greatest defect; and it was his sincere desire, and his
uniform practice, so to construe its provisions as to give the greatest
strength to the executive in the administration of public affairs.
Jefferson, on the other hand, contemplated all executive power with
distrust, and desired to impair its vitality and restrain its
operations, believing with Paine that a weak government and a strong
people were the best guaranties of liberty to the citizen. He saw in the
funding system, the United States bank, and the excise law, instruments
for enslaving the people, and believed that the rights of the states and
liberties of the inhabitants were in danger. And as Hamilton was the
originator of these measures, and they constituted prominent features of
the administration, Jefferson found himself, at the opening of the new
Congress, arrayed politically with the opposers of the president and the
general government, and in the position of arch-leader.

Not content with an expression of his opinions, he charged his
opponents, and especially Hamilton, with corrupt and anti-republican
designs, selfish motives, and treacherous intentions; and then was
inaugurated that system of personal vituperation which, from that time
until the present, has disgraced the press and the politicians of our
country, and brought odium upon us as a nation.

The party of which Jefferson was the head called themselves Republicans,
and warmly sympathized with the radical revolutionists in France; while
the great majority of the people--the conservative men of the
country--who were favorable to Hamilton's financial schemes and the
constitution, were called FEDERALISTS.

In the adjustment of party lines at this time, there was a very small
party that appeared to be a cross between the two, as manifested by John
Adams in a series of essays which he published in the United States
Gazette, the acknowledged organ (if organ it had) of the administration,