Strict and Loose Construction During the Presidencies of Madison and Jefferson

In the early days of the United States of America when the country was beginning to grow under the newly ratified Constitution, there were two main political parties in existence, the Federalists and the Jeffersonian Republicans. From the time period of 1801-1817, the two presidents that were elected to rule the U.S. were Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. Both Jefferson and Madison were Jeffersonian Republicans who were characterized as strict-constructionists in respect to the federal constitution before they each took the office of the presidency, but when they took office the public found out that Jefferson and Madison's previous characterizations had not been very accurate when, as president, they began to act like the opposite of what they originally believed in.
In the years before his presidency, Thomas Jefferson was an anti-Federalist who believed in strict- construction of the Constitution. After the constitutional convention had taken place, Thomas Jefferson petitioned against the ratification of the newly written document, the Constitution. …