Title: Summary of the Ideas and Values of Jeffersonian Democracy | The Classroom
Headings: Summary of the Ideas and Values of Jeffersonian Democracy
Summary of the Ideas and Values of Jeffersonian Democracy
Republicanism
Political Parties
Virginian Aristocracy
Agrarian Democracy

Content: He, like many of the founding fathers, wanted a republican system in which power is shared by the states and federal government. Jefferson envisioned a federal government of limited powers, which put him at odds with city dwellers like John Adams, the second president, and Alexander Hamilton, who wanted a powerful central government. Political Parties
The rivalry between Jefferson and Hamilton led to the formation of two political parties in the 1790s. Jefferson’s Republican Party -- often referred to as the Democrat-Republican Party to distinguish it from the modern Republican Party founded in the 1850s -- favored his ideals of limited government, economic freedom and agrarian democracy. A faction of this party formed into the Democratic Party under Andrew Jackson in the late 1820s. Hamilton’s Federalist Party favored a mercantilist economy and greater federal control. Although both parties advocated federalism, the Federalists favored a strong centralized government at the expense of the states. Anti-Federalists, on the other hand, wanted governmental power to lie at the state level. However, Jefferson’s battles with the Supreme Court for executive control, his military spending during the Barbary War and the Louisiana Purchase often put him more in line with the federalist camp. Thus, his presidency is not always seen as a model of limited government.