Unit Two DBQ
Analyze the causes of the formation of the first political parties in America. Consider the period 17891797.
Document A
Alexander Hamilton's Report on Manufactures, 1791
The expediency of encouraging manufactures in the United States, which was not long since deemed
very questionable, appears at this time to be pretty generally admitted....It might...be observed...that
the labour employed in Agriculture is in a great measure periodical and occasional, depending on
seasons, liable to various and long intermissions; while that occupied in manufactures is constant
and regular, extending through the year....Manufacturing establishments not only occasion a positive
augmentation of the Produce and Revenue of the Society, but...they contribute to rendering them
greater than they could possibly be, without such establishments.
Document B
Document C
Jefferson's Opinion on the Constitutionality of a National Bank, 1791
I consider the foundation of the Constitution as laid on this ground: That " all powers not delegated
to the United States, by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States
or to the people." [XIIth amendment.] To take a single step beyond the boundaries thus specially
drawn around the powers of Congress, is to take possession of a boundless field of power, no longer
susceptible of any definition.
The incorporation of a bank, and the powers assumed by this bill, have not, in my opinion, been
delegated to the United States, by the Constitution. They are not among the powers specially
enumerated…
Document D
Document E
Alexander Hamilton's Opinion as to the Constitutionality of the Bank of the United States, 1791
In entering upon the argument, it ought to be premised that the objections of the Secretary of State
and Attorney General are founded on a general denial of the authority of the United States to erect
corporations. The latter, indeed, expressly admits, that if there be anything in the bill which is not
warranted by the Constitution, it is the clause of incorporation.
Now it appears to the Secretary of the Treasury that this general principle is inherent in the very
definition of government, and essential to every step of progress to be made by that of the United
States, namely: That every power vested in a government is in its nature sovereign, and includes, by
force of the term, a right to employ all the means requisite and fairly applicable to the attainment of
the ends of such power, and which are not precluded by restrictions and exceptions specified in the
Constitution, or not immoral, or not contrary to the essential ends of political society.
Document F
George Washington Diary, 1791
In the course of my enquiries—chiefly from Colo. Carrington—I cannot discover that any
discontents prevail among the people at large, at the proceedings of Congress. The conduct of the
[Virginia] Assembly respecting the assumption [of states’ debts] he thinks is condemned by [the
people] as intemperate & unwise and he seems to have no doubt but that the Excise law—as it is
called—may be executed without difficulty—nay more, that it will become popular in a little time.
His duty as a marshal having carried him through all parts of the State lately, and of course given him
the best means of ascertaining the temper & dispositions of its Inhabitants—he thinks them favorable
towards the General Government & that they only require to have matters explained to them in order
to obtain their full assent to the Measures adopted by it.
Document F
Anonymous letter to Washington, 1793
Had you, sir, before you ventured to issue a proclamation which appears to have given much
uneasiness, consulted the general sentiments of your fellow citizens, you would have found them,
from one extremity of the Union to the other, firmly attached to the cause of France. You would not
have found them disposed to consider it as a “duty” to forget their debt of gratitude to the French
nation; or to view with unconcern the magnanimous efforts of a faithful ally to baffle the infernal
projects of those despots who have confederated for the purpose of crushing her infant
liberty. Neither would you have found them so far divested of the feeling of men as to treat with
“impartiality,” and equal “friendship,” those tigers who so lately deluged our country with the blood
of thousands, and the men who generously flew to her rescue and became her deliverers.