Compare Alexander Hamilton's and Thomas Jefferson's visions for the new nation's economy and government, and explain how their rivalry created the first American political parties.
Inside Washington's own Cabinet, his two brightest advisors disagreed about almost everything. Alexander Hamilton wanted a strong central government, a national bank, and an economy built on manufacturing and trade; he believed in "loose construction" -- reading the Constitution's Necessary and Proper Clause broadly to let the federal government do things not explicitly listed, like charter a bank. Thomas Jefferson wanted a smaller federal government, favored an economy of independent farmers, and believed in "strict construction" -- the federal government should only do what the Constitution specifically says it can.
Hamilton's financial plan won out in the 1790s: the federal government assumed state debts from the Revolution, created a national bank (the Bank of the United States, chartered 1791), and encouraged manufacturing. Jefferson and his ally James Madison were furious, believing Hamilton was making the federal government dangerously powerful. Their disagreement hardened into the nation's first political parties: Hamilton's Federalists and Jefferson's Democratic-Republicans -- exactly the kind of faction Washington had just warned against, forming while he was still in office.
Mastery looks like: They can compare Hamilton's and Jefferson's positions accurately on at least three points (government size, constitutional interpretation, economic vision) and explain how the rivalry produced the first party system.
Common stumbles: Reducing the disagreement to "good guy versus bad guy" instead of understanding both had a coherent, defensible vision for the nation.