Economic Origins of Jeffersonian Democracy

How Hamilton's Merchant Class Lost Out to the Agrarian South

Charles A. Beard

• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9780486819082
• eBook ISBN: 9780486824321
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Finance
• Index: History

The sequel to the bestselling An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution, this volume focuses on the nation's early political history from the adoption of the Constitution through the end of the Jefferson administration. This period saw the rise and triumph of Jefferson's agrarian, slave-holding South over the mercantile-oriented urbanism of Hamilton's North, setting the stage for the ongoing clash between rural and urban America, a topic still highly relevant in the twenty-first century.
Beard defines the early period of American governance in terms of the conflict between agrarianism and fluid capital that dominated the campaign for the ratification of the Constitution. He traces this dispute across three decades into its manifestations as Federalism versus Republicanism and later into Federalism and Jeffersonian Democracy. Broad in scope, Beard's view places the struggles within the context of social and cultural developments, and his interpretation provides an excellent resource for students of the historical background of American politics.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Foreword
• Endnotes
• Epigraph
• Preface
• Table of Contents
• Chapter I. The Federalist-Republican Antagonism and the Conflict over the Constitution
• Chapter II. The Party Affiliations of the Members of the Convention
• Chapter III. the Personnel of the First Administration
• Chapter IV. The Constitution in Operation
• Chapter V. Hamilton’s System before Congress
• Chapter VI. Security Holding and Politics
• Chapter VII. The Economic Conflict as reflected in Republican Literature
• Chapter VIII. The Federalist Analysis of the Party Conflict
• Chapter IX. Anti-Federalist Resistance to Taxation
• Chapter X. The Economics of the Jay Treaty
• Chapter XI. The Political Economy of John Adams
• Chapter XII. The Politics of Agrarianism
• Chapter XIII. The Great Battle of 1800
• Chapter XIV. Jefferson’s Economics and Politics
• Index