Tom Holland lays out the ideological chasm between Jefferson and Hamilton as members of Washington's cabinet, foreshadowing America's first party system. ✦ AI generated
Tom Holland · The Rest Is History · 2026-07-09 · original ↗
starts at this moment · 9:41
Jefferson is almost the polar opposite. So he um he sees a strong federal state as an enemy of the liberty of the individual states. Um he loves a farmer not a banker. He sees bankers as vampires sucking out the blood of hardworking noble American farmers.
verbatim transcript · starts at 9:41
9:41first Secretary of State. And so he takes that office up in 1790. And of course, this brings him into massive conflict with the hero of our previous episode, Alexander Hamilton. So Hamilton is in charge of finance. Um, Jefferson is in charge of foreign affairs and they are polar opposites. So, as we heard in our previous episode, Hamilton, he's a federalist. He thinks that there should be a strong center.
10:09>> Banks. Yeah, >> he loves a bank. He loves a banker. Um, he loves the national debt. He loves Britain. He hates anarchy. Um, these are his principles. Jefferson is almost the polar opposite. So he um he sees a strong federal state as an enemy of the liberty of the individual states. Um he loves a farmer not a banker. He sees bankers as vampires sucking out the
10:35blood of hardworking noble American farmers. Um he doesn't approve of national debts. He loves France as we heard. Um and his great guiding principle is his hatred of tyranny. And so both men, Hamilton and Jefferson, see the other one, you know, not just as a political opponent, but pretty much as a kind of threat to the the liberty of the infant American republic. >> Yeah. >> And Jefferson's own take on their
11:00relationship in Washington's cabinet is that they were daily pitted in the cabinet like two Listeners can make of that one what they will. Um, and there is so much fighting going on between them that in the end Jefferson resigns. He resigns in 1793 because he recognizes that the disagreements between them can't be reconciled within the one government. >> So by now we have, as we were talking
11:23about last time, the beginnings of the first party system. So Jefferson is effectively the standard bearer, isn't he? Of the America's first opposition party. Yes. >> So the Democratic Republicans, as they're called, in opposition to Hamilton's Federalists. >> Yeah. And throughout this period, Washington, as you said in the previous episode, um tries to stay above the fray in a kind of Olympian manner. But it is obvious that throughout his presidency a