18011817

The political parties of 1801-1817 definitely broke their traditional mold of strict vs. Once again, the parties seemed to have traded their values in accordance with their status. In 1814 the Federalists went so far as to hold the Hartford Convention (E) to try to eliminate the Embargo Act. for the benefit of a few factory owners.

In 1800 before becoming president, Jefferson wrote to Granger (A) that he still believed in strict interpretation of the Constitution. He states that even though the government has the power to regulate interstate commerce, it does not have the power to regulate it by creating roads or canals (H). Federalists believed that according to the Constitution the federal government had the right to regulate only interstate commerce. Due to this unpredictable behavior and the similarities to a corrupt government this time period must have been very confusing and frightening for the common citizen

. The Internal Improvements Bill would allow the United States government to use funds collected from taxes on stocks to build roads and canals for commerce, but Madison vetoed the bill based on a strict interpretation of the Constitution.

When the Embargo Act was passed in 1814, Jefferson and the Democratic-Republicans favored a loose interpretation of the Constitution while the Federalists used a strict interpretation. As a Democratic-Republican, Randolph stuck to his beliefs that the welfare of the majority is more important and opposes the tariff, but the rest of the Democratic-Republican House was power hungry and approved the tariff. Once again, a Democratic-Republican in power puts the party’s original values aside and makes a decision using a strict interpretation.