Alexander Hamilton

by Ron Chernow (Penguin 2004)

Chernow’s biography of the architect of American government is more than 700 pages. I started it on e-book borrowed from the library in mid-October and continued with a borrowed paperback. All in all, it took me about two months to read it. Why now? Well, with the horrible Trump administration as background, I was hoping to read something that would distract my attention from the negativity and back-biting of 21st century American politics. Little did I know that in Alexander Hamilton’s time, negativity, back-biting, lies, slander, libel, nastiness, hatred, greed, incompetence, jealousy, fits of temper, and more make the 18th century more like a precursor of the 21st than a distraction from it. It was the same shit, all over again. The Federalists hated the Republicans; the Republicans hated the Federalists. Hamilton hated Jefferson, who returned the favor. Burr was disliked by pretty much everyone. Adams was similar in many ways to Donald Trump, having frequent temper tantrums and often disappearing to his home in Massachusetts for months at a time, leaving the government to run itself. Only Washington was universally respected. . . until he wasn’t. It’s a mystery to me how our infant nation managed to survive.

The Republican Party at the time, which I realize is not the party of today (now The Trump Party in everything but name), stood for slavery, states’ rights and a very weak federal government (they thought 130 civil servants were too many!), while Hamilton’s Federalist Party, which barely survived Hamilton’s own demise, championed a powerful executive. We are still fighting these battles today.

Hamilton was truly an exceptional man, mostly self-taught, who had a vision for the country before it was a country and somehow managed to build that vision into a viable republic. He invented the banking, commerce, taxation, and many other systems that still characterize the United States today. He wrote constantly, reams upon reams of arguments for (or against) this or that idea or proposal or law or person.

He was scrupulously honest (never embezzled a dime as the first Secretary of the Treasury; worked double time as a lawyer to compensate for his low government salary), a loving husband and father of eight, and capable of prodigious amounts of work.

He had plenty of faults, too, which Chernow does not shy away from. He was unfaithful to his wife. He made some spectacular errors in judgment, particularly in his later years. But Chernow writes that we have Hamilton to thank for over 200 years of American success. He may not have written the Constitution, but he sold it to the American people in his Federalist Papers, and he fought to protect it through the stormy early years.

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Some Interesting Quotes from the e-book

CH 4 – The American Revolution was to succeed because it was undertaken by skeptical men who knew that the same passions that toppled tyrannies could be applied to destructive ends.

The selection of Washington was the first of many efforts by the north to please and placate the south.

Hamilton lacked the temperament of a true-blue revolutionary. He saw too clearly that greater freedom could lead to greater disorder and, by a dangerous dialectic, back to a loss of freedom. Hamilton’s lifelong task was to try to straddle the resolve this contradiction and to balance liberty and order.

Chapter 6 – The American revolution had been premised on a tacit bargain that regional conflicts would be subordinated to the need for unity among the states. This understanding dictated that slavery would remain a taboo subject.

…a recurring paradox of Hamilton’s career that he grew enraged when accused of being an outsider and then sounded, in response, very much like the outsider evoked by his critics.

Chapter 7 – Elizabeth Schuyler–whom Hamilton called either Eliza or Betsey–remains invisible in most biographies of her husband and was certainly the most self-effacing “founding mother,” doing everything in her power to focus the spotlight exclusively on her husband.

Ralph Earl portrait of Eliza Hamilton; John Trumbull’s portrait of Angelica Church

Ch 9 – He advocated duties on imported goods as America’s best form of revenue. For a nation still fighting a revolution over unjust duties on tea and other imports, this was, to put it mildly, a loaded topic.

Ch 12 – Hamilton’s besetting fear was that American democracy would be spoiled by demagogues who would mouth populist shibboleths to conceal their despotism. George Clinton, Thomas Jefferson, and Aaron Burr all came to incarnate that dread for Hamilton.

Ch 13 – Hamilton’s mind always worked with preternatural speed. His collected papers are so stupefying in length that it is hard to believe that one man created them in fewer than five decades. Words were his chief weapons, and his account books are crammed with purchases for thousands of quills, parchments, penknives, slate pencils, reams of foolscap, and wax. His papers show that, Mozart-like, he could transpose complex thoughts onto paper with few revisions. At other times, he tinkered with the prose but generally did not alter the logical progression of his thought. He wrote with the speed of a beautifully organized mind that digested ideas thoroughly, slotted them into appropriate pigeonholes, then regurgitated them at will. To understand Hamilton’s productivity, it is important to note that virtually all of his important work was journalism, prompted by topical issues and written in the midst of controversy. He never wrote as a solitary philosopher for the ages. His friend Nathaniel Pendleton remarked, “His eloquence . . . seemed to require opposition to give it its full force.” But his topical writing has endured because he plumbed the timeless principles behind contemporary events. When in legal briefs or sustained polemics, he wanted to convince people through appeals to their reason. He had an incomparable capacity for work and a metabolism that thrived on conflict. His stupendous output came from the interplay of superhuman stamina and intellect and a fair degree of repetition.

Madison had many reservations about the document (the Constitution), especially the equal representation of states in the Senate, . . .

Federalist number 10, the most influential of all the essays, in which he took issue with Montesquieu’s theory that democracy could survive only in small states. . . .

Madison . . . defended the small, elite Senate against charges that it would grow into “a tyrannical aristocracy”

[Hamilton’s] lifelong effort to balance freedom and order . . .

Ch 14 – That Hamilton could be so sensitive to criticisms of himself and so insensitive to the effect his words had on others was a central mystery of his psyche. (DJT?)

Washington was simply more attuned to Hamilton than he was to Jefferson. . . . Washington willingly served as the political shield that Alexander Hamilton needed as he became America’s most influential and controversial man.

Ch 15 – discrimination (in favor of former debt holders)

Ch 16 – assumption: Hamilton’s plan to have the federal government assume the twenty-five million dollars of state debt

Madison thwarted attempts to enact assumption.

For Hamilton, assumption was his make-or-break issue.

Ch 18 – Hamilton did not create America’s market economy so much as foster the cultural and legal setting in which it flourished. . . . He converted the new Constitution into a flexible instrument for creating the legal framework necessary for economic growth. He did this by activating three still amorphous clauses–the necessary-and-proper clause, the general-welfare clause, and the commerce clause–making them the basis for government activism in economics.

For Jefferson, banks were devices to fleece the poor, oppress farmers, and induce a taste for luxury that would subvert republican simplicity.

For Adams, a banking system was a confidence trick by which the rich exploited the poor.

Hamilton was not the master builder of the Constitution: the laurels surely go to James Madison. He was, however, its foremost interpreter, starting with The Federalist and continuing with his Treasury tenure, when he had to expound constitutional doctrines to accomplish his goals. He lived, in theory and practice, every syllable of the Constitution. For that reason, historian Clinton Rossiter insisted that Hamilton’s “works and words have been more consequential than those of any other American in shaping the Constitution under which we live.”

Some Notes from the Paperback

Ch 19 “City of the Future”: the affair with Maria Reynolds; the SEUM (Society for Establishing Useful Manufactures) and Hamilton’s prescient plan to make America an industrial power; William Duer’s antics and downfall

Ch 20 “Corrupt Squadrons” – enmity between Hamilton/Federalists and Jefferson/Madison/Republicans; the rise of factions/parties; Philip Freneau and the National Gazette, rival to the Gazette of the United States; 18th century “journalism” – more like opinions based on lies.

Ch 21 “Exposure” – Hamilton’s affair unmasked. Quote: “The Reynolds affair was a sad and inexcusable lapse on Hamilton’s part, made only the more reprehensible by his high office, his self-proclaimed morality, his frequently missed chances to end the liaison, and the love and loyalty of his pregnant wife.” My thought: how interesting how the men bent on exposing Hamilton’s corruption backed off immediately when he confessed that his misbehavior was an extra-marital affair, not any official shenanigans. “The small delegation seemed satisfied with Hamilton’s chronicle, if not a little flustered by the awkward situation. They apologized for having invaded his privacy.” This brings to mind how the press ignored Kennedy’s and Bush’s dalliances, and how Democrats were disgusted by Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky, but not enough to remove him from office. It is only now that a scandal of this kind can (sometimes) derail a politician’s career. #MeToo

Chapter 22 “Stabbed in the Dark” – The enmity between Jefferson (with Madison on his side) and Hamilton continues. Another adversary was Aaron Burr, “a lone operator, a protean figure who formed alliances for short-term gain”. Hamilton, a man of deep principles, despised Burr’s transactional character. Virginian congressman William Branch Giles and Marylander John Mercer piled on as well.Philip Freneau continues to publish lies about Hamilton, and former Treasury Dept clerk Andrew Fraunces accused Hamilton of wrongdoing. Hamilton was attacked and maligned from all sides, accused to using his office to benefit himself, which he never did. Washington “distraught over his bickering cabinet”. The malicious intent behind the attacks reminds me of the infighting in Congress today, One wonders how the nation survived it.

Chapter 23 “Citizen Genêt” – Jefferson’s Republicans were in love with the French despite the excesses and violence of the aftermath of the Revolution; Washington, Hamilton, and the Federalists were appalled by these excesses and more attracted to England–which the Republicans hated. Edmond Charles Genêt served as minister to the U.S. “Vain, extravagant, and bombastic”, he “did not behave with the subtlety and prudence expected of a diplomat”. Complications as Hamilton and Washington try to keep the US out of the war between France and England and other European countries.

Chapter 24 “A Disagreeable Trade” – An epidemic of yellow fever in Philadelphia; the Hamiltons both get sick. Shades of 2020. After-effects slow Hamilton down… a little. A break between Washington and Jefferson, who resigns as Secretary of State. The Republicans take over Congress–bad news for Hamilton, who begins to dream of leaving government.

Chapter 25 “Seas of Blood” – England makes trouble. Chief Justice John Jay is sent to negotiate with the British. The violence in France worsens. French refugees come to America.

Chapter 26 “The Wicked Insurgents of the West” – The Whisky Rebellion of Western Pennsylvania was a huge challenge for Hamilton. He persuades Washington to make a show of great force and the tax-hating farmers back down. Hamilton deeply unpopular, leaves government service, needing to earn money to pay off debts, after writing Report on a Plan for the Further Support of Public Credit, a plan to pay off the federal debt.

Chapter 27 “Sugar Plums and Toys” – Hamilton returns to work as a lawyer in private practice, spends lots of quality time with Eliza and the children. He works to get John Jay’s very unpopular treaty with England approved. He continues to write voluminously under various pseudonyms.

Chapter 28 “Spare Cassius” – (I gave up taking notes here)