You’re going to need congressional approval
and you don’t have the votes... Winning was easy,
Young man. Governing’s harder.
~Cabinet Battle #1
I begin a quote that is familiar to many. Lucky for you, I am not going to attempt to either sing or rap it - a promise which probably gives away its roots.
Of course, it is from Lin-Manuel Miranda’s great musical Hamilton.
I am starting with this quote because in the previous video I explained how and why the Founding the Framers divided the government.
As it pertains to the why, they did this for a good reason, to preserve liberty.
On the downside, however, it makes it difficult to get things done.
The Framers-turned-earliest American-public-officials recognized this almost immediately. And we see this depicted beautifully in the musical Hamilton.
Act II of Hamilton finds the new Secretary of State, Thomas Jefferson locked in a bitter battle with the newly appointed Secretary of Treasury, Alexander Hamilton. Much to the dismay of Jefferson and his fellow Southerners, Hamilton’s fiscal plan includes several controversial proposals such as assumption of state debts by the federal government and the formation of a national bank.
The rap that ensues pits Hamilton against Jefferson in a musical prelude of what was to become one of the most notorious political feuds in American history.
“If New York’s in debt,” Jefferson asks “Why should Virginia bear it?...This financial plan is an outrageous demand.”
Before Hamilton can defend his proposal, Washington adjourns the meeting and pulls his frustrated Treasury Secretary aside to remind him that there is only one way to get the legislation passed:
“You need the votes…
You need to convince more folks…
You have to find a compromise”
It is a musical reminder that one of the biggest challenges US officials faced in the earliest days of the republic was how to form a majority governing coalition, capable of passing policies in the public interest.
More than two centuries later, little has changed. This remains one of our greatest challenges.
Hamilton not only lays out this problem but provides some insight into Washington’s advice to Hamilton; to get his plan approved he must either convince others or be willing to compromise.
A few scenes later, in famous song, “The Room Where it Happens,” the audience watches Hamilton take Washington’s advice and reach a compromise. At one of history’s most famous private dinner parties the “Compromise of 1790” is born.
In exchange for agreeing to relocate the capitol to the base of the Potomac, Jefferson and Madison agreed to support Hamilton’s fiscal plan.
In the musical version of events there is a lot of focus on compromise as a means of bridging the divisions in the system.
Little attention is paid, however, to the more critical and longer-term solution the Framers found to the problem of division and the difficulties associated with getting policy passed in a system so divided - political parties.
One of the great paradoxes of our constitution is that those who framed it were openly critical of parties.
Let’s not forget, in Federalist #10, Madison – the Father of the Constitution – called ‘factions’ the greatest threat to “popular government.” Likewise, in his 1796 Farewell Address, Washington warned of ‘the baneful effects of parties.’ Their views were widely shared at the time.
Many Americans today continue to hold equally negative views of the institution of political parties.
Despite this, very shortly after the birth of the republic and despite their disdain for parties, they realized these institutions were essential to the nation’s existence.
As Richard Hofstadter says, the Founders:
“did not believe in political parties … yet, almost
as soon as their national government was in operation,
[they] found it necessary to establish parties…
they gradually began to realize that they could not
govern under it without the help of such organizations.”
The Framers realized “they could not govern” without them because they were the only institution capable of bridging the numerous structural divides in the system.
And bridging the divisions of power that they instilled in the system to protect liberty was necessary to govern; and govern they must if the country was going to survive its early adolescence.
_____
Notes:
Cabinet Battle #1, Hamilton
Hamilton, Lin-Manuel Miranda
The Room Where it Happens, Hamilton
The Compromise of 1790, National Archives
Federalist #10, Publius/Madison
Washington, 1796 Farewell Address
Richard Hofstadter, The Idea of a Party System
Jeanne Sheehan, American Democracy in Crisis, Post J-6
