Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton: A Defining Political Debate

Portada
Universal-Publishers, 2008 - 136 páginas
The founding of American jurisprudence can be traced to the debates that occurred between Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson early in the history of our nation. A Defining Political Debate explores the core tension between the two men over the ability of the judiciary to preserve the core values of republican government. The author takes you through the normative dimensions of the Hamilton and Jefferson debates and provides an analysis of what this means for our current state of affairs.

Dentro del libro

Páginas seleccionadas

Contenido

CHAPTER 4
77
CHAPTER 5
99
CONCLUSION
123

Términos y frases comunes

Pasajes populares

Página 52 - It is far more rational to suppose that the courts were designed to be an intermediate body between the people and the legislature, in order, among other things, to keep the latter within the limits assigned to their authority.
Página 45 - As there is a degree of depravity in mankind which requires a certain degree of circumspection and distrust, so there are other qualities in human nature which justify a certain portion of esteem and confidence. Republican government presupposes the existence of these qualities in a higher degree than any other form.
Página 50 - The science of politics, however, like most other sciences, has received great improvement. The efficacy of various principles is now well understood, which were either not known at all, or imperfectly known to the ancients.
Página 52 - The standard of good behavior for the continuance in office of the judicial magistracy is certainly one of the most valuable of the modern improvements in the practice of government. In a monarchy it is an excellent barrier to the despotism of the prince; in a republic it is a no less excellent barrier to the encroachments and oppressions of the representative body. And it is the best expedient which can be devised in any government to secure a steady, upright, and impartial administration of the...
Página 62 - On their part, they have retired into the judiciary as a stronghold. There the remains of federalism are to be preserved and fed from the treasury, and from that battery all the • works of republicanism are to be beaten down and erased.
Página 51 - ... a court of final jurisdiction, there may be as many different final determinations on the same point, as there are courts. There are endless diversities in the opinions of men. We often see not only different courts, but the judges of the same court, differing from each other. To avoid the confusion which would unavoidably result from the contradictory decisions of a number of independent judicatories, all nations have found it necessary to establish one tribunal paramount to the rest, possessing...
Página 44 - ... by the cupidity of territory or dominion ? Has not the spirit of commerce, in many instances, administered new incentives to the appetite, both for the one and for the other ? Let experience, the least fallible guide of human opinions, be appealed to for an answer to these inquiries.
Página 54 - The courts must declare the sense of the law; and if they should be disposed to exercise will instead of judgment, the consequence would equally be the substitution of their pleasure to that of the legislative body.
Página 51 - A circumstance which crowns the defects of the Confederation remains yet to be mentioned, — the want of a judiciary power. Laws are a dead letter, without courts to expound and define their true meaning and operation.
Página 43 - It is impossible to read the history of the petty Republics of Greece and Italy, without feeling sensations of horror and disgust, at the distractions with which they were continually agitated, and at the rapid succession of revolutions, by which they were kept in a state of perpetual vibration, between the extremes of tyranny and anarchy.

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