FREE ESSAY ON POWER OF GOVERNMENT VS. INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS

POWER OF GOVERNMENT VS. INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS

Alexander Hamilton was a brilliant member of the federal government whose political
principles were based on the idea that the greatest threat to political stability was
anarchy rather than monarchy. He believed that the government should be left in the hands
of a concentrated few, and that those chosen would lead the country into prosperity. He
did not think the "swinish multitudes" capable of governing themselves.
On the other hand, Thomas Jefferson was in support of making states' rights more powerful
than those of the federal government. Each individual, in his opinion, deserved the right
to make the decisions that would govern the country in which he lived. He thought the
federal government was too far removed from its people so that their voices would not be
able to be heard in the decision making process; thus, their needs would go unfulfilled.
The Hamiltonian point of view that a strong, centralized form of government should be
employed is in accordance with my own beliefs. The power of government should be used to
unify the people under its jurisdiction, not stand merely as a lame parent to watch its
reckless teenage children make decisions that contradict the good of all the people in
his household. In Europe, each country has its own set of laws that govern its people;
however, for the good of the continent, the united move to the Eurodollar will stabilize
the currencies of those countries having trouble with the fluctuations of its money
values and also further ease of trade and transportation.
In part, the Civil War was the result of too many decisions made by too many people.
Since the country as a whole put off deciding what to do with the ever-present slavery
question, each state formed its own policy in dealing with slave trade, runaways, and
other such issues. Unrest was the underlying feeling throughout the country and made more
prominent other touchy issues, and this lack of unity eventually erupted in warfare.
Unity under one central government was re-formed and the system as it is known today is
still in place.
To counter overly strong businesses, the power of government was later used to balance
the free enterprise system of the United States. In the late part of the 19th century,
monopolies caused tiny shops to be run out of business, sending unemployment rates to
rise. The wealth of the country was concentrated in the hands of very few people. The
Sherman Antitrust Law (1890) was created in order to control companies which restrained
normal commerce, like monopolies and trusts, for the good of the prosperity of the
country. 
Hamilton's principles, though frowned upon by many that were running from the tyranny of
England, were those that kept the nation together. A country that later became a
superpower in the eyes of its neighbor relations would never have emerged as such if
there had been no brain to establish the functions of its many member body parts.