ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a review of American political ideas and practices. All the histories recognize the existence from the very beginning of the national career of two different and, in some respects, antagonistic groups of political ideas, the ideas which were represented by Jefferson, and the ideas which were represented by Hamilton. It is very generally understood, that neither the Jeffersonian nor the Hamiltonian doctrine was entirely adequate, and that in order to reach a correct understanding of the really formative constituent in the complex of American national life, a combination must be made of both Republicanism and Federalism. The chapter deals with critical accounts of the ideas both of Jefferson and of Hamilton. The combination of Federalism and Republicanism which formed the substance of the system, did not constitute a progressive and formative political principle, but it pointed in the direction of a constructive formula.
