Tours Of American Landscapes And How They Helped Form Early Political Parties

     James Madison joins forces again with his old friend Thomas Jefferson; after Madison denounced the Hamilton plan to consolidate the debts of the 13 states into one controlled by the government. Like Jefferson, Madison thought that the wealth of the country should remain with the rights and powers of the individual states. Madison was also against trading with the British because prior to the revolution, the farmers were locked into the British commercial prices.

     Jefferson believed that useful crops played a big role in America’s independence and self-sufficiency, from Hamilton’s federal bank plan. Jefferson went to work in 1790, with trying to plant the rice seeds that he had taken from Italy in 1787. He sent seedlings to close friends to plant and watch grow. It would not be until late in 1816 that the seeds finally took hold in their environment and began to grow in Georgia and Kentucky. Jefferson believed that gardening and planting was more patriotic than politics. Jefferson cherished gardening and planting so much that when he received the news about the rice taking hold and growing in Georgia that he added to the same list that included the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

     Jefferson and Madison both agreed that Hamilton’s Federal Bank would run the country into corruption since it was based on the model of the Bank of England, and placed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Once the consolidation of the states debt happened, the first payment would fall due by the end of 1791. Hamilton estimated that this would be $788,333 annually. This was not enough to satisfy everything Hamilton needed to cover so he needed an additional $38,291. He suggested again getting this money to place a extra tax on imported alcohol. He also wanted to increase the tax on domestic distilled alcohol sprits; this would lead counties in Pennsylvania into a Whiskey Rebellion over the increase in domestically distilled beverages.   

      This move by Hamilton to raise money for his federal bank through consolidating the states that owed war debts and the raising of liquor taxes, helped Jefferson and Madison find common ground on this issue while traveling the American Landscape and talking with other local politicians that shared the same beliefs.  Jefferson and Madison would soon help to create the Republican Party. Both Madison and Jefferson along with local leaders found common ground in that the powers within the 10^th amendment that aren’t attained by congress are retained to states or the people, meaning that congress did not have the authority to start a bank but rather only to regulate money.