The Battle Between Populist Sanders and Establishment Clinton Is as Old as the Country Itself

All of Jefferson's wishes, except two, would soon come true. But not all of his views were shared universally.

Shortly after George Washington became the first president of the United States in 1789, his secretary of the treasury, Alexander Hamilton, proposed that the federal government incorporate a national bank and assume state debts left over from the Revolutionary War. Congressman James Madison and Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson saw this as an inappropriate role for the federal government, representing the potential concentration of too much money and power.

The disagreement over the bank and assuming the states' debt nearly tore apart the new government and led to the creation -- by Hamilton, Washington, and Vice President John Adams -- of the Federalist Party.

Several factions arose in opposition to the Federalists, broadly referred to as the anti-federalists, including two groups who called themselves Democrats and Republicans. Jefferson pulled them together by 1794 into the Democratic Republican Party (which dropped the word Republican from its name in the early 1830s, today known as the Democratic Party, the world's oldest and longest-lived political party), united in their opposition to the Federalists' ideas of a strong central government that was run by the wealthy and could grant the power to incorporate a national bank to bestow benefits to favored businesses through the use of tariffs and trade regulation.

The powerful Federalists kept the protection from monopolies out of our Bill of Rights, and the rise of corporate power began. Arguably, this helped the wealthy keep control of one branch of government for another century, and it kept Jefferson and Adams debating the issue long after each had been president.

On Oct. 28, 1813, Jefferson wrote to John Adams about their earlier disagreements over whether a government should be run by the wealthy and powerful few (the pseudo-aristoi) or a group of the most wise and capable people (the "natural aristocracy"), elected from the larger class of all Americans, including working people:

"The artificial aristocracy is a mischievous ingredient in government, and provision should be made to prevent its ascendancy. On the question, what is the best provision, you and I differ; but we differ as rational friends, using the free exercise of our own reason, and mutually indulging its errors. You think it best to put the pseudo-aristoi into a separate chamber of legislation [the Senate], where they may be hindered from doing mischief by their coordinate branches, and where, also, they may be a protection to wealth against the agrarian and plundering enterprises of the majority of the people. I think that to give them power in order to prevent them from doing mischief, is arming them for it, and increasing instead of remedying the evil."

Adams and the Federalists were wary of the common person (who Adams referred to as "the rabble"), and many subscribed to the Calvinist notion that wealth was a sign of certification or blessing from above and a certain minimum level of morality. Because the Senate of the United States was appointed by the states (not elected by the voters, until 1913) and made up entirely of wealthy men, it was mostly on the Federalist side. Jefferson and the Democratic Republicans disagreed strongly with the notion of a Senate composed of the wealthy and powerful.

"Of this, a cabal in the Senate of the United States has furnished many proofs. Nor do I believe them necessary to protect the wealthy; because enough of these will find their way into every branch of the legislation, to protect themselves....I think the best remedy is exactly that provided by all our constitutions, to leave to the citizens the free election and separation of the aristoi from the pseudo-aristoi, of the wheat from the chaff. In general they will elect the really good and wise. In some instances, wealth may corrupt, and birth blind them; but not in sufficient degree to endanger the society."

Jefferson's vision of a more egalitarian Senate -- directly elected by the people instead of by state legislators -- finally became law in 1913 with the passage of the Seventeenth Amendment, promoted by the Populist Movement and passed on a wave of public disgust with the corruption of the political process by giant corporations.

Almost all of Jefferson's visions for a Bill of Rights -- all except "freedom from monopolies in commerce" and his concern about a permanent army -- were incorporated into the actual Bill of Rights, which James Madison shepherded through Congress and was ratified on Dec. 15, 1791.

But the Federalists fought hard to keep "freedom from monopolies" out of the Constitution. And they won. The result was a boon for very large businesses in America in the 19th and 20th centuries, with big companies now even using trade deals like the TPP to expand their monopolies.

Thus began the American struggle to balance the power of corporations and We, The People. From the very moment our founders signed the Bill of Rights to the debates now about the future direction of America, we have witnessed Jefferson's concerns become reality. And we've seen the corruption, undue influence and "mischief" he warned of continue to lie at the heart of our political debates.

Once again we find ourselves on the edge of a possible turning point in the era of monopolistic power, and our decision in the voting booth may well shape the next 200 years of our nation.