HAMILTON AND THE CONSTITUTION
Hamilton is seldom given the credit he deserves for the Constitution. Madison is called the "Father of the Constitution", however, Hamilton was probably more responsible for the Constitution than any other man - including Madison. Hamilton conceived of, organized and wrote 60% of the Federalist Papers. However, do a web search of The Federalist Papers and you'll find many sources that give Madison primary credit for their creation. In reality Madison was the fourth person Hamilton invited to contribute after John Jay, Goeverneur Morris and William Duer. Thomas Jefferson was in France during the entire process of the creation and ratification of the Constitution. As a result, and undoubtedly due to his narcissistic tendencies, he was skeptical about it from the beginning and famously suggested that posterity shouldn't be in bondage to its predecessors' notions about government - thus the Constitution should be rewritten every generation. This was a notion that Hamilton and Madison - and any one else with a brain - disagreed with.
PRIOR TO ANNAPOLIS: In 1782, knowing of the inadequacies of the Articles of Confederation, Hamilton convinced the state of New York to agree to a resolution calling for a constitutional convention. Unfortunately the other states ignored this. A year later he was elected to congress and began the campaign for a convention. Congress wasn't interested at the time. This was four years prior to the eventual Constitutional Convention.
THE ANNAPOLIS CONVENTION: Many historians believe that Hamilton was more responsible for the culmination of the Constitutional Convention than any other person. Hamilton went to the Annapolis Convention not to discuss inter-state rights to waterways - which was the official purpose - but to urge the convening of a national convention. At the Annapolis Convention he and Madison helped move the discussion from trade abuses between the states to the need for a national convention to improve the Articles of Confederation. Only 12 delegates had attended the Annapolis Convention and Hamilton was certainly one of the most vocal. Very little is known about specifics at this convention but we know that Hamilton wrote an overly spirited first draft calling for a constitutional convention. He was directed to soften this by his colleagues prior to sharing it.
THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION: Hamilton left Annapolis and returned to New York where he introduced the proposal to send a New York delegation of five to Philadelphia. The number was cut to three by his fellow New Yorkers who didn't favor federal power out of self-interest and who were opposed to a new constitution. The argument of the time against a central government is often painted as a virtuous "states-rights" argument, but most American politicians opposed any federal power simply to protect their own state-level power and prestige at a great cost to the nation. Hamilton was sent to the convention flanked by two anti-federalist delegates who nullified his actions by voting against any move toward federal power. As a result he had little impact at the Constitutional Convention's deliberations. As the Virginia and New Jersey approaches seemed to reach an impasse he rose and gave a six-hour speech that impressed everyone but nobody seemed to like. He advocated life-long service by the President - although with potential removal for bad behavior. People were appalled by this because it sounded too king-like.
COMMITTEE OF STYLE: Hamilton was a member of the Committee of Style that took the contributions of the "Framers" from the convention and created the actual language of the articles of the Constitution. The Bill of Rights was added later. Hamilton's friend Gouverneur Morris wrote the actual language of the Constitution from which Jacob Shallus drafted the official copy. Morris also authored the famous preamble himself.
THE FEDERALIST PAPERS: Following the Convention the press in New York took to misrepresentation of the Constitution to kill its chances of acceptance by New Yorkers. In response Hamilton orchestrated the effort of a series of articles in the paper defending and arguing for the Constitution that became the Federalist Papers. Hamilton recruited only New Yorkers at first because New York was the key battleground for ratification, but he turned to Madison when others declined. There were 85 installments. Hamilton wrote 51, Madison 29 and John Jay 5. Hamilton wrote six in just one week at one point while still carrying on his law practice. They had very little time before the deadline for ratification so they couldn't research their topics. They wrote from what they knew off the top of their heads. On many occasions the man from the print office was there in person waiting for the next day's article while it was being written. Hamilton wrote the first piece as he sailed down the Hudson River from Albany with Eliza. William Duer contributed to the Federalist project but his contributions weren't used. Hamilton's friend Gouverneur Morris was too busy with work to assist.
Next time you get a $10 bill, think of the Constitution.
Hamilton's Statue in front of Hamilton Hall at Columbia University - his alma mater.
