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Archive of posts published in the tag: Friends Divided

The Roots of American Partisanship

The XYZ Affair brought us to the brink of war and stunned Jefferson when it was released. The author Gordon Woods compared it to the paranoia that gripped the west coast after Pearl Harbor that led to the internment of Japanese Americans.  The XYZ memo destroyed public support for the pro French Republican party of Jefferson.

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The Greater Threat to Stability

“A strong executive, De Lolme wrote, was the best check against the ambitions of the aristocracy, which always posed a greater threat to the stability of the constitution. Too much democracy did not lead to anarchy but to oligarchy or aristocracy.”

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