Currently, I am listening to Adams vs. Jefferson: The Tumultuous Election of 1800 by John Ferling. Compared to other works I've read, Adams and Jefferson are given fair treatment by Ferling, and he also provides excellent background on the development of America's first political parties, the Federalists and the (Democratic-)Republicans. Like every other recent work on this period with which I am familiar, Ferling also paints a despicable - but apparently true - picture of Alexander Hamilton, our first Secretary of the Treasury, as the diabolically scheming, although highly patriotic (albeit a monarchial ultraFederalist), money manager extraordinaire, pulling the strings of the developing national government and office holders in an almost Corleone-like manner. One has to ponder whether Hamilton's financial accomplishments - assuming and relieving the national debt, creating the National Bank, the tariffs, investments, etc. - were really the salvation of the country and best solution for establishing our national solvency, or now, looking back 200 years, if they were not actually the seeds of our current financial problems. (But would we really have been better off as a nation of farmers?)
One can plainly see in Ferling's explorations the origins of many of the currently vexing political problems in our country - the insanely frustrating gridlock in Congress the most obvious, but also the democratic pendulum swinging between the extremes of monarchy and mobocracy, and the fears of both envisioned by different ones of our Founding Fathers, a group who were far from united in their political opinions as to what was best for the future of our country. Ferling's book is a very good read on the political climate surrounding 1800, and it is written to be understood in terms of 1800. The fact that its personalities and problems share so much with our current political climate is perhaps a little frightening, but this story also provides me with hope that we too might just weather this time and grow stronger.
One can plainly see in Ferling's explorations the origins of many of the currently vexing political problems in our country - the insanely frustrating gridlock in Congress the most obvious, but also the democratic pendulum swinging between the extremes of monarchy and mobocracy, and the fears of both envisioned by different ones of our Founding Fathers, a group who were far from united in their political opinions as to what was best for the future of our country. Ferling's book is a very good read on the political climate surrounding 1800, and it is written to be understood in terms of 1800. The fact that its personalities and problems share so much with our current political climate is perhaps a little frightening, but this story also provides me with hope that we too might just weather this time and grow stronger.