In the cabinet Jefferson immediately collided with the brilliant
Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury.
The two could no more agree than oil and water.
Jefferson was an intense republican-democrat, and was shocked and
disgusted to find himself in an atmosphere of distrust of a republican
system of government, with an unmistakable leaning toward monarchical
methods. This feeling prevailed not only in society, but showed itself
among the political leaders.
Jefferson's political creed may be summed up in his own words:
"The will of the majority is the natural law of every society and the
only sure guardian of the rights of man; though this may err, yet its
errors are honest, solitary and short-lived. We are safe with that, even
in its deviations, for it soon returns again to the right way."
Hamilton believed in a strong, centralized government, and on nearly
every measure that came before the cabinet, these intellectual giants
wrangled. Their quarrels were so sharp that Washington was often
distressed. He respected both too deeply to be willing to lose either,
but it required all his tact and mastering influence to hold them in
check. Each found the other so intolerable, that he wished to resign
that he might be freed from meeting him.
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