Political Parties

Wulf uses chapter four to continue her evaluation on Thomas Jefferson who at this point is serving as the U.S Secretary of State. Although the job originally required him to work in Philadelphia, he is eventually forced to move to New York City which is something that he does not like. While in New York he hates not being able to keep a garden and in order to keep an eye on his garden at home, Jefferson daily writes back to his daughters at home to check up on how the plants are doing. It seemed to me that Jefferson was more interested in his horticultural hobbies than he was in his just as the U.S Secretary of State.

Another aspect of the reading that I found to be interesting was the split of American political parties and how they were originally formed. I had not realized before this reading how much of an impact agricultural had on this split and rather thought it had been more closely related to political reasons. Wulf discusses how the split came when Americans could no longer agree on the future track of the country. Some wanted a nation of farmers while others envisioned a nation of merchants and trade.

Eventually Hamilton had his bank bill passed which would create a federal bank. This plan had been closely modeled after the Bank of England and would create a central bank for America that could provide credit and regulate commerce among the people. However, Jefferson strongly disagreed with this bill and said that a Federal or more central bank would only create corruption in the country and called the Bank of England, which it was modeled after, "rotten".

As a way to get away from everything that was happening, Jefferson and Madison decide to take a garden trip through New England, similar to the trip Jefferson and Adams had taken through Europe years earlier. Although this trip was taken for pleasure, it also ended up serving as political trip as well. With all of the disgust in the new banking system, Jefferson wanted America to cut all of their ties with the British. During the trip, he went as far as trying to convince a distillery owner that they needed to be using the wine imported from France rather from the british as it would "produce better spirits".

When returning from the trip, Jefferson could not prove to be successful with his agriculturally based country and Hamilton's new bank opened. Immediately investors were buying and selling stocks. Through this they were able to make a lot of money in just a short amount of time, something that was not the case with farming.

I found this chapter to be particularly interesting because it had never occurred to me that our two main political parties had been started over a simple issue such gardening. Although I see where both of the sides had been coming through I think I would have wanted a more industrialized society. Yes, agriculture is something that is needed however, I do not think our county would have been able to survive solely on farming. I also think that there have been major problems in our country that have been a direct result of our banking system such as the great depression. With a country as large and as complex as ours, I do not think their is one way that is the right answer as to how our country needs to or should be run.