Upper Class of the Federalist Party

^^(Portrait of Alexander Hamilton)

One of Alexander Hamilton's leading ideas, as a leader of the Federalist party, was to set apart "a wealthy, enlightened ruling class" to lead and support the government (152). Hamilton thought that by having a distinct wealthy class hand in hand with the government, the nation would thrive because of the upper class' governmental support, setting up something of an aristocracy. In my opinion, I think that democracy is the best form of government; not only did it result in the United States being the great nation that it is today, but it is also the most fair form of government, in that it spreads power among all people. Although I am a strong believer in democracy, a question came into mind while reading this bit about Hamilton. Back in the 1790s, success was attainable no matter what class one originates from, however, a wealthy person was certainly more educated than someone of a lower class, much different than todays standards of education in which everyone is by law required to go to school. This made me think about whether or not it would be better to have educated people influence governmental affairs as opposed to uneducated people, so long as the educated people do not take advantage of others.

Yet another argument to this is that only white, male landowners could vote, which would mean that anyone who is too poor (and therefore uneducated) to own property would not be allowed to vote in the first place. Which do you think is right... having a very influential upper class or having power distributed evenly among all? Although democracy is definitely the more fair form of government, in my opinion it would be better to have more educated people run the government. This, in combination with checks and balances, would ensure that greed cannot overrun the system of a powerful wealthy class. In addition, the wealthy class is not set in stone because success can be achieved by anyone, which would mean that almost anyone who meets the requirements of a citizen can gain power, so long as they have the will to.