The full extent of Jefferson's opposition to Hamilton's program can be gleaned from a lengthy letter he wrote to George Washington on May 23, 1792. The letter's immediate purpose was to convince Washington, contrary to his earlier resolution, to serve a second term as president. For Jefferson, however, this aim led more or less directly to his critique of the Hamiltonian system. At an earlier time, Jefferson suggested, the nation was in a “favorable state” for “making the experiment” of continuing the new government without Washington at its head, because then “the public mind” was “calm and confident.” Now, however, Washington's reassuring presence was required because that serenity and confidence had eroded. Yet, as Jefferson would attempt to show, Hamilton's policies, and his approach to the Constitution, had caused this dangerous public dissatisfaction.

Jefferson approached Washington on these issues somewhat coyly. He assured the president that these discontents arose “from causes in which you are no ways personally mixed” – despite the fact that they all stemmed from policies that had been adopted under Washington's administration. Moreover, Jefferson began the letter by assuming the position of a man who was merely reporting on concerns then current among the public, without taking a position on them himself. He suggested that although these worries had been “hackneyed” in the public newspapers, it would nevertheless be helpful, “in order to calculate” their possible consequences, for him to review them for Washington, “giving to each the form, real or imaginary, under which they have been presented.” Nevertheless, it is evident from the mode of expression to which Jefferson eventually resorted in this letter, and from what he wrote in letters to other correspondents, that the concerns he raised were in fact also his own. Indeed, Jefferson had himself raised some of these concerns in conversation with Washington some months before.

The Dangers of Hamilton's Debt and Revenue System

Jefferson began by citing a number of complaints about the character of Hamilton's debt and revenue system. These complaints may be arranged under three headings: a concern about the size of the debt, a concern about its consequences for tax policy, and finally a concern about how the debt was structured and the monetary consequences of that structuring.