Empire of Liberty Chapters 3-4

Pratt captures about everything of import in Chapters 2, 3 and 4. Thus I will just mention a few matters that are of minor importance but of interest. In Chapter 2 it is noted how Madison attempted to explain to Jefferson how attempting to write out the people's reights might actually have the effect of limiting them. But, the way these rights were specified, essentially negative rights for government, do the opposite. They should have expanded indivdual's rights not limited them. Woods seems to give Madison the appearance of being slightly confused over the issues. First he was a Federalist but then became a Jeffersonian Republican. I wonder if the confusion was there or if all the major founders feared the "lower classes" and that democracy would become mobocracy.

Both Chapters 3 and 4 emphasize how much of a leaning there was to form a strong central government. Page 107 it is noted how the Federalists attempted to create crony capitalism. "Hamilton's financial program was designed not to make money for any particular group but to use patronage like all the great European staet builders before him, to create a powerful nation state." Yet, doesn't the central bank harm the Southern agricultural interests relative to the commercial and industrial Northern interests?

The Federalists believed a strong military, a standing army, was necessary for a nation state. p. 111: "When Elbridge Gerry proposed that no standing army exceed 3,000, Washington resonded that no foreign enemy should invade the U.S. with more than 3,000 men. Having survived and won the Revultionary War without a standing army, I find it disingenuous for the founders to support a standing army.

p. 116: Desiring that the Western settlers be properly educated Congress mandated setting aside land for public schools. What is "properly educated"? Is it controlled -- thinking like the elitists or founders? Why public education? These settlers were very independent people. And, like all people, if trouble comes, they call on the government for aid. p. 129: "As hostilities with native peoples became increasingly fierce, the settlers called on the federal government for protection."

And, can't waste a crisis -- like Robert Higgs says, a crisis leads to expanded government which never declines but merely ratches up. p. 130: The St Clair's defeat led to the doubling of the military budget, a standing army of 5,000, "something the Federalists had always wanted."

p. 148: Madison had ecome fearful, by 1792, of the very government he had done so much to create. Why?

p. 149: Woods makes fun of Jefferson's "outlandish" ideas. Jefferson calculated that a generation lasted about 19 years. This is why he stated that everything should start over every 19 years. Is this the same as a revolution is needed every 19 years?

p.157: We see the debate between Jeffersonian Republicans and Hamiltonian Federalists widen -- and Jefferson thought that Congress was merely enriching itself not leading liberty.