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Alexander Hamilton Vision Of Leading The Nation In The 1790s

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With President George Washington leading the nation, there were two visionaries who helped shape our nation. Their opposing views aide in understanding where the Government stood and the economic visions of these two men in the 1790’s. Alexander Hamilton vision of leading the nation was to push the country forward, organizing, and more modern. Thomas Jefferson was an agrarian who believed in keeping order and only that congress should only take action when absolutely necessary. On December 14, 1790 Hamilton, the Secretary of the Treasury’s Report on a National Bank was introduced. Being an admirer of the Bank of England, he believed strongly in his report knowing there would be opposing views. Hamilton also introduced the “Report on Manufactures,” …show more content…

The next step in the Secretary of the Treasury was the Introduction to the Report on the Manufactures on December 5 1791. This report is known and acknowledged in the book as one of Alexander Hamilton’s best work and I agree. In this report Hamilton encourages the House of Representatives to consider the industrialization of the United States. He states that “the embarrassments which have obstructed the progress of our external trade, have led to serious reflection of the necessity of enlarging the sphere of our domestic commerce” (Cunningham 68). In his report he states that manufacturing would improve “the division of labor, and extension of the use of machinery, additional employment to classes of the community not ordinarily engaged in the business, the promoting of emigration from foreign countries, the furnishing greater scope for the diversity of talents and disposition which discriminate men from each other, the affording a more ample and carious field for enterprize, the creating in some instances a new, and securing in all, a more certain and steady demand for the surplus produce of the soil” (Cunningham 70). Through great tariffs designed to protect American industry from foreign competition, government bounties and subsidies, and internal improvements and transportation, Hamilton hoped to break Britain’s manufacturing grip on the United States. At the time Jefferson did agree with Hamilton’s report, in his book Noble E Cunningham states that “after Hamilton’s death the war of 1812 modified Jefferson’s views on manufactures (Cunningham

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