Founding Father

May 12, 2004 9:05 AM

"He could separate personal honor from political convictions.A recurring theme of his career? The superiority of forgiveness over revenge". Ron Chernow's biography of Alexander Hamilton puts "the father of American government" -- the illegitimate orphan from the West Indies who rose to become George Washington's most trusted adviser only to be snared in a sex scandal and killed in a duel by Vice President Aaron Burr -- under a new light. Thomas Jefferson after all, his great adversary, foresaw a nation of independent yeomen farmers. It was Hamilton who foresaw a powerful nation of cities, banks, stock, exchanges. When Jeffersonians favored congressional power, Hamilton argued vigorously that the executive branch was the chief engine of the government. When the Constitution was ratified over the objections of anti-Federalists, Gore Vidal relates, “a parade featuring a ship called The Hamilton, on a float, sailed triumphantly along Wall Street as its ghost still does today.” Anecdote: during the Constitutional Convention of 1787, Franklin suggested that there be a pause for prayer. Many delegates supported the move, except for Hamilton. "He did not see the necessity of calling in foreign aid." (.pdf file)
posted by matteo (11 comments total)

Also to be noted: he came from unbleievably poor background but favored strong central govt to control the masses; Jefferson, from much wealth, favored the ordinary farmer, the dude one could always trust...Looks like the Hamiltonians have won out.
posted by Postroad at 9:16 AM on May 12, 2004

More on the Burr-Hamilton duel here , here and here
posted by matteo at 9:23 AM on May 12, 2004

To limit Jefferson's vision to the farmer is to shorten the scope of his influence. He was very much centered in commerce and trade, only landed rather than liquid. Read his description of the convergence of the Shenandoah and Potomac Rivers in Harpers Ferry: I've been there and it's pretty, but not quite one of the "most stupendous scenes in Nature." Was he instead thinking about the opportunity of expansion and what these waterways might mean for the future of the country? The cities and the farms propel each other toward prosperity. Remember this is a time very much influenced by Adam Smith and the invisible hand.

Thanks for the links - I will put the Hamilton bio on my list right after Isaacson's biography of Benjamin Franklin.
posted by PrinceValium at 9:33 AM on May 12, 2004

Founding Brothers also has some great context on Burr-Hamilton, plus a lot of great context from other events among the group of founding leaders. Hamilton was a visionary in a lot of ways, but it's hard to forget that he also advocated having a king. :)
posted by louie at 9:40 AM on May 12, 2004

Great post about a great and fascinating man.
posted by chaz at 9:59 AM on May 12, 2004

he also advocated having a king. :)

Hamilton may have had grave doubts about the stability and endurance of republican governance, but he understood that the experiment must run its course. In the mean time, he would invest his energies into the process of governance.
-- Alexander Hamilton’s Sense of Humor and the Art of Governance (.pdf)


(the "foreign aid" .pdf file I linked on the front page is an excerpt from the excellent "American Machiavelli - Alexander Hamilton and the Origins of U.S. Foreign Policy" by John Lamberton Harper, Cambridge University Press)
posted by matteo at 10:06 AM on May 12, 2004

Great post. And I second the recommendation of Founding Brothers, it's an excellent read.
posted by Ty Webb at 10:54 AM on May 12, 2004

Great post, matteo, thanks for taking the time.
posted by geekyguy at 11:00 AM on May 12, 2004

Looking back to look forward.

It's a sobering commentary on our time that, in the long shadow of the American Founding Fathers - and despite any of their human failings, current US leaders are reduced, by comparison, to the level of whiny, infantile moral pygmies whose vision typically extends little further than those boundaries circumscribed by corporate connections and self serving Biblical blinders.

Hamilton, were he to visit our troubled time - in these latter days of media monopoly and omnipresent commercial advertising, television, and propaganda - would no doubt revise some of his views on the optimal structure of the American Republic.

And I wouldn't presume to guess exactly how.
posted by troutfishing at 12:20 PM on May 12, 2004

but trout,
Vidal for one thinks that

Hamilton, on the other hand, might have very well gone along with the Bush people, because he believed there was an elite who should govern. He nevertheless was a bastard born in the West Indies, and he was always a little nervous about his own social station. He, of course, married into wealth and became an aristo. And it is he who argues that we must have a government made up of the very best people, meaning the rich.
So you’d find Hamilton pretty much on the Bush side. But I can’t think of any other Founders who would.

and keep in mind that (from the same interview)

Franklin saw danger everywhere. They all did. Not one of them liked the Constitution. James Madison, known as the father of it, was full of complaints about the power of the presidency. But they were in a hurry to get the country going. Hence the great speech, which I quote at length in the book, that Franklin, old and dying, had someone read for him. He said, I am in favor of this Constitution, as flawed as it is, because we need good government and we need it fast. And this, properly enacted, will give us, for a space of years, such government.
But then, Franklin said, it will fail, as all such constitutions have in the past, because of the essential corruption of the people. He pointed his finger at all the American people. And when the people become so corrupt, he said, we will find it is not a republic that they want but rather despotism — the only form of government suitable for such a people.
(...) Jefferson said that once a generation we must have another Constitutional Convention and revise all that isn’t working. Like taking a car in to get the carburetor checked. He said you cannot expect a man to wear a boy’s jacket. It must be revised, because the Earth belongs to the living. He was the first that I know who ever said that.
posted by matteo at 5:28 PM on May 12, 2004

Great post, and I have nothing to add but one silly note about the best heckle of a band I've ever heard:

Back in college, was watching Atari Teenage Riot play, and they were spewing some silly agiprop cliches, yelling out "Fuck the Police! Fuck the State!" and some drunk poli-sci majors next to me starting yelling "Yeah! You got it man! Fuck Alexander Hamilton!"

Somehow, thats stuck with me all these years.
posted by pandaharma at 10:36 PM on May 12, 2004