policy met with general approval.  The tariff has always been our favourite device for obtaining a national revenue.  During our Civil War, indeed, the national, government resorted extensively to direct taxation, chiefly in the form of revenue stamps, though it also put a tax upon billiard-tables, pianos, gold watches, and all sorts of things.  But after the return of peace these unusual taxes were one after another discontinued, and since then our national revenue has been raised, as in Hamilton’s time, from duties on imports and excise on a few domestic products, chiefly tobacco and distilled liquors.

[Footnote 32:  See my War of Independence, pp. 58-83; and my History of the United States, for Schools, pp. 192-203.]

[Sidenote:  Origin of American political parties.] Hamilton’s measures as secretary of the treasury embodied an entire system of public policy, and the opposition to them resulted in the formation of the two political parties into which, under one name or another, the American people have at most times been divided.  Hamilton’s opponents, led by Jefferson, objected to his principal measures that they assumed powers in the national government which were not granted to it by the Constitution.  Hamilton then fell back upon the Elastic Clause[33] of the Constitution, and maintained that such powers were implied in it.  Jefferson held that this doctrine of “implied powers” stretched the Elastic Clause too far.  He held that the Elastic Clause ought to be construed strictly and narrowly; Hamilton held that it ought to be construed loosely and liberally.  Hence the names “strict-constructionist” and “loose-constructionist,” which mark perhaps the most profound and abiding antagonism in the history of American politics.

[Footnote [33]:  Article I, section viii, clause 18; see above, p. 245.]

Practically all will admit that the Elastic Clause, if construed strictly, ought not to be construed too narrowly; and, if construed liberally, ought not to be construed too loosely.  Neither party has been consistent in applying its principles, but in the main we can call Hamilton the founder of the Federalist party, which has had for its successors the National Republicans of 1828, the Whigs of 1833 to 1852, and the Republicans of 1854 to the present time; while we can call Jefferson the founder of the party which called itself Republican from about 1792 to about 1828, and since then has been known as the Democratic party.  This is rather a rough description in view of the real complication of the historical facts, but it is an approximation to the truth.