For this apparent tendency, Jefferson specially blamed Hamilton, since
his tastes as well as his sympathies were known to be aristocratic, as
indeed were Washington's, in his fondness for courtly dignity and the
trappings and ceremonies of high office. But his antagonism to Hamilton
was specially called forth by the latter's creation of a National Bank,
with its tendency to aggrandize power and coerce or control votes at
the expense of the separate States. He further was opposed to the great
financier and aristocrat for his leanings toward England and against
France, in the war that had then broken out between these nations, and
for his sharp criticism of the draft of the message to Congress on the
relations of France and England, which Jefferson had penned, and
which was afterwards to influence Washington in issuing the Neutrality
Proclamation of 1793. In this attitude toward Hamilton and the
administration, of which both men were members, Jefferson was neither
selfish nor scheming, but, on the contrary, was discreet and patriotic,
as well as just and high-minded. "What he desired supremely," as has
been well stated by a writer, "was the triumph of democratic principles,
since he saw in this triumph the welfare of the country--the interests
of the many against the ascendancy of the few--the real reign of the
people, instead of the reign of an aristocracy of money or birth.
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