Federalist 84 Essay Example

Alexander Hamilton was borne either January 11th, 1755 or 1757 in Charlestown, Nevis, in the West Indies. He was the son of James Hamilton, a Scottish merchant of St. Christopher, and Rachel Fawcett. Rachel was then a remarried divorcee who was prohibited from remarrying but it was not unlawful to remarry in West Indies and that is the reason she got married there. Hamilton had a brother and they were both orphaned in their early teens and Hamilton had to work as a clerk in a general store at twelve years. By then he was a very intellect and ambitious young man and an excellent writer in French and English. Around 1776, his aunt sent him to New York for formal education where he grew his political and carrier life. Later he became an American statesman and part of the group that was later termed "Founding Fathers of the United States". He was an influential and excellent interpreter and supporter of the U.S. Constitution and the founder of the Federalist Party as well as several other firms. He was able to meet George Washington where he later became the main author of economic policies generated by George Washington's administration (Independence Hall Association).

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Frederick Douglass was born around 1818 on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. He was as Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey and into slavery. He had no much opportunity to interact with his mother who died when he was around seven years old. At eight years, his slave owner gave him to a Baltimore servant where he worked for about seven years. While there, he taught himself how to read and write. At fifteen years, he was sent back to Eastern Shore where he met a brutal master who mistreated him badly. He helped other slaves by educating them and rebelling against slavery. He planned an escape which never succeeded and later was sent to Baltimore where he met Anna Murray, a black woman, who helped him escape. He later married her and changed his name to Frederick Douglass. He was able to attend abolitionist meetings where he spoke about this slavery life and here; he gained oratory skill and later became a social reformer, abolitionist leader, writer, and statesman. He was later nominated as the Vice Presidential nominee and running mate for Victoria Woodhull, on the Equal Rights Party ticket. He became one of the most influential people and advocator for equal human rights (National Park Services U.S. Department of the Interior).

If both Alexander Hamilton and Frederick Douglass would have a conversation, the following would be the argument. Hamilton would say "the sacred rights of mankind are not to be rummaged for, among old parchments, or musty records. They are written, as with a sunbeam, in the whole volume of human nature, by the hand of the divinity itself; and can never be erased or obscured by mortal power" (Rahe 14). In response, Douglass would acknowledge that the human rights are sacred and are being written on clean papers using proper writing materials, not smelly old parchments. The rights would be in systematic order and the papers will be properly arranged therefore there are no instances of struggling to look for them. It is true that the rights are written all over the human nature but a human has the tendency of forgetting. Also, information stored in the human brain is on a risk of being edited either unintentionally or intentionally to favor some individuals. Some people have argued that what has not been documented physically does not exist since it is at a high risk of getting lost (Nesto and Russell 322-323). Douglass would also say that humankind has high tendencies of ignorance where some doesn't know their rights and thus when they are being violated, they won't realize. Other people intentionally or unintentionally violate other people's rights only because they never knew that such right existed. In such cases, unless there are properly documented bill of rights, the individuals involved may not be enough convinced that there exist some rights.

Hamilton was against the witting and inclusion of the bill of rights in the constitution since he was worried that in future, people may think that the stated rights are the only human rights that exist and ought to be respected. Douglass would respond by saying that the bill of rights is not restricted to a specific number of rights rather it is allowed to have as many rights as they can be. In addition, the most violated rights can be stated first then the rest will follow in a systematic manner. Even when the bill is written and in future, the people realize that there were some rights that were omitted; they can be added on to the list.

Hamilton says that inclusion of the rights in the constitution would be dangerous in that it would give room for exceptions to powers that were not given before. He says that this will give the Federal Government the pretext to claim more than it is expected. A good example that he gives is the liberty of the media. He tries to call for an explanation of what media liberty means. In every explanation, there is the pretext of limiting the freedom of the media and he claims that this is a sign that in future, the federal government will try to control the media (Hamilton, Madison and Jay 421). Douglass would answer by saying that the work of media is to enlighten the public on what is happening around both in the government sector and the citizens' social life sector. In both cases, people will always have something that they would like to keep hidden and buried but the media and the press are always there to unearth and expose the issues. Those people writing the bill of rights knew this and that is why they included the right of the media. In addition to that response, Douglass would say that problem(s) that may arise from the inclusion of one right does not disqualify the whole bill and those rights that raise questions and draughts can be omitted or given a support by other constitution chapters that hinder the violation.

Hamilton continues to argue that even though the constitution of New York has no bill of rights, there are other chapters which in various ways they give favors, privileges, and restrictions that act in the same way as rights (Owensby 572). A good example is the right to live and without persecution or brutality. This right is contained in the responsibilities of the citizens to protect life and treat others fairly. Douglass would agree with this since if those people who had enslaved him and other slaves knew their responsibility to protect life and not to view others as less human, he could not have suffered in his early ages and he could have had the opportunity to see and interact with his mother who could be probably alive. Most probably he won't miss saying that writing the bill of rights will have minimal cost and thus it is not necessary to skip the bill.

Conclusion

In conclusion, due to personality and background difference, different people have a different world view to the things surrounding them. The paper looked at two individuals, Alexander Hamilton and Frederick Douglass, who come from different backgrounds and existed in different periods but made it be policymakers in the U.S. The paper concentrated on how they respond to different issues pertaining to the human rights bill and as seen Hamilton insists on the omission of the bill while Douglass insist on inclusion of the bill in some issues, their arguments agree with each other.

Works Cited

Hamilton, Alexander, James Madison and John Jay. The Federalist Papers. New York: Courier Corporation, 2014.

Independence Hall Association. Alexander Hamilton. 1 January 2018. 1 May 2018 <http://www.ushistory.org/valleyforge/served/hamilton.html>.

National Park Services U.S. Department of the Interior. Frederick Douglass. 1 January 2018. 1 May 2018 <https://www.nps.gov/frdo/learn/historyculture/frederickdouglass.htm>.

Nesto, G., Paul and K., Schutt Russell. Research Methods in Psychology: Investigating Human Behavior. New Delhi: SAGE Publications, 2014.

Owensby, Jackson. The Federalist (Papers) Revisited. New Jersey: A-Argus Better Book Publishers, LLC, 2010.

Rahe, A., Paul. Republics Ancient and Modern, Volume III: Inventions of Prudence. North Carolina: UNC Press Books, 2017.