Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson's Different Visions for America

Amanda Guay

• Publisher: GRIN Verlag
• Year: 2006
• eBook ISBN: 9783638578172
• Edition: 0
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: History

Essay from the year 2006 in the subject History - America, grade: 100%, University College of Bangor, course: History 103, language: English, abstract: Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton had two very different visionsfor America. For Jefferson, "the natural rights of man", for which he so favored, were enjoyed by Jefferson's ancient tribal ancestors of Europe during Jefferson's life by some of the tribal peoples of North America, and were written about sixty years before Jefferson's birth by John Locke, whose writings were widely known and often referenced in pre-revolutionary America. Locke wrote that "All men by nature are equal…in that equal right that every man hath to his natural freedom, without being subjected to the will or authority of any other man;…being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty or possessions." and, as for man's role in government, Locke wrote that "Men being…by nature all free, equal and independent, no one can be put out of his estate and subjected to the political power of another without his own consent which is done by agreeing with other men, to join and unite into a community for their comfortable, safe, and peaceable living…in a secure enjoyment of their properties…" [...]