Ah, the first political parties in the United States. Had Hamilton and Jefferson not been at each other’s throats on every issue, how ever could I play with this in my lesson plans?

This year, after comparing and contrasting Hamilton’s and Jefferson’s views on the economy, foreign policy, constitutional interpretation, and those they thought should run the country, I am having my students write an acrostic poem based one we study that was published in the Independent Chronicle in 1798. The original poem is as follows:

A SK- who lies here beneath this monument?
L o!- ‘tis a self created MONSTER, who
E mbraced all vice, His arrogance was like
X erxes, who flogg’d the disobedient sea,
A dultery his smallest crime; when he
N obility affected. This privilege
D ecreed by Monarchs, was to that annext.
E nticing and entic’d to ev’ry fraud.
R enounced virtue, liberty and God.
H aunted by ladies of the evening- he haunted them in turn
A ristocratic was this noble Goat
M onster of monsters, in pollution skill’d
I mmers’d in mischief, brothels, funds & banks
L ewd slave to desire,- afforded consolation;
T o mourning women, and tory-lamentation.
O utdid all fools, tainted with royal name;
N one but fools, their wickedness proclaim.

My students’ charge is to choose either Jefferson or Hamilton and praise their views via acrostic poem or condemn them as the Democratic Republicans did Hamilton above. They seem to have fun with it, and despite Hamilton’s noble air, they seem to all knock on Tommy J.

Just another interesting way to assess student learning without testing them!