A continuing look at American history:

An Expectancy of Government
by Michael Doyle

Approaches as it had been in hesitancy 
No gave the Constitution great expectancy
As a blue print for what had been built
To house a people in a liberty they'd never fully dwelt

There in the mix of this great plan
Was Washington as the indispensable man
He wanted to retire and Mount Vernon was calling
But without him, the republic he built would be falling

The preservation of the second fire of liberty
Rested on his great shoulders with much responsibility
The country's perilous economy was turned over to Hamilton
Through high tariffs, paying state debt and a bank for the nation

In our most dire times and in these early hours
None of these plans fell within enumerated powers
But save for the clause these being necessary to function
And so these passed through in that proper conjunction

Jefferson took the position of strict construction
Worried that to do otherwise would lead to destruction
Hamilton's construction was rather more loose
As he sought to prime up America's golden goose

Hamilton foresaw America a global commercial power
Jefferson sought an agrarian nation of farm and plower
Jefferson's faction favored the ways of French Revolution
Hamilton held the British monarchial model as our solution

Washington favored the avoidance of foreign entanglement
By this, neutrality was what he most assuredly meant
Foreseeing the risks and all of the potential for mess
Washington spoke out against this in his Farewell Address

John Adams and Madison legislated the Alien and Sedition Act
To more or less prohibit those slanders not seen as fact
As a result Virginia and New Jersey issued counter resolutions
That equated to states rejecting this act through nullification

Having won his election, Jefferson surprised with his moderation
To turn down the heat for the good of our American nation
The election of 1800 was somewhat a peaceful counter-revolution
And Jefferson's presidency was a step of calming maturation

As Jefferson ascended to his seat for his presidency
His was the first inauguration held in Washington, D.C.
Followed by Federalist Justice Marshall's Madison vs. Marbury
This established the primacy of review by the judiciary

With the expansive use of the Louisiana Purchase
The size of America more than doubled in surface
As this consolidation of power was completed and done
The death knell of the Federalist Party was begun

Teaching as it does so often through American history
That the practice of politics doesn't follow ideology
This is perhaps at times as it should be and right
As sometimes matters must be guided by one's own light

Madison's War of 1812 took from us much, giving little
Except The Star Spangled Banner written in the middle
And the Battle of New Orleans setting the British running
But the truth is it was pirates more Jackson doing the gunning

Still, Andrew Jackson became hero to the common man
And as this victory was won, a new era had quietly begun
The Monroe Doctrine ushered in a new foreign policy
Setting the Americas free of Europe for most of our history

Bringing fairer trade, railroads and prosperity
America looked content but for issue of slavery 
And whether slavery would be allowed into new territory
Such as Missouri was yet to be resolved in American history

The Missouri Compromise was seen as a dark harbinger
Of the strife and division that would be a war bringer
The wolf it is said is held by the ear without safety
And it would not be let go without the sheerest misery

(c) March 26, 2020  Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved