MORE ABOUT ALEXANDER HAMILTON and JEFFERSON
CENTRAL GOVERNMENT: One of the classic arguments against Hamilton is his desire for an overly strong central government and his abuse of the Constitution for that end. Of course, Jeffersonians make this argument but forget that Jefferson "abused" the Constitution when it suited him and never fully supported it in the first place. Madison demonized the national bank and criticized its lack of constitutional authority but then rechartered it after realizing its necessity. When Madison first argued against Hamilton's use of the "necessary and proper clause" to justify the bank, Elias Boudinot humiliated him by reading Madison's Federalist 44 aloud in Congress. "No axiom is more clearly established in law or in reason than wherever the end is required, the means are authorized; wherever a general power to do a thing is given, every particular power for doing it is included." The Jeffersonians' attacks on Hamilton's central government were clothed in virtue but were really just partisan politics. Hamilton clearly stated that government could get too big and had to be restrained in The Federalist Papers.
HAMILTON AND UNION: Hamilton became the great forger of our national union long before Lincoln. During the Revolutionary War Hamilton spent four years in military service at Washington's side. During this same time Jefferson was back home in Virginia looking after Virginia's interests - although not militarily. Jefferson's devotion to the Union of the nation was never honed like Washington's and Hamilton's. Jefferson and Madison continued to think like Virginians or Southerners throughout their years opposing the Washington administration, while Washington and Hamilton were thinking as Americans. To any "American" or war veteran it was obvious after the war that the complete lack of federal power during the war had been a disaster and would prove to be destructive to the country's future. Hamilton's debt assumption plan and revenue policies were founded upon the goal of Union for the states. He saw America as a United States (USA). Jefferson wanted a Loosely Affiliated States (LAS).
JEFFERSON, THE "MAN OF THE PEOPLE": Ron Chernow says of Jefferson: "Jefferson fancied himself a mere child of nature, a simple, unaffected man, rather than what he really was: a grandee, a gourmet, a hedonist, and a clever, ambitious politician." He goes on to explain how Jefferson - despite "crushing" debts - returned from France with 86 crates of French furniture and dishes, 2,000 books, 63 paintings, and 280 bottles of wine. So, when Jefferson showed himself around the White House dressed in casual attire, it's safe to say that was an affectation, not a sign of virtuous simplicity as he is so lovingly portrayed. Of course, there is no greater symbol of Jefferson's hypocrisy than Monticello. Jefferson spent his life and other people's money renovating and improving Monticello and died in terrific debt as a result. What money he did have was derived from slave labor.
PUBLIC DEBT: Hamilton is often insufficiently quoted as saying, "A public debt will be to us a public blessing." This is a typical, Jeffersonian misquote. What he said was, "A public debt, if not excessive, will be to us a public blessing." Hamilton's assumption policy was designed to create a Union of the chaos that existed after the Revolutionary War - and it did. When Jefferson came to Washington to complain about Hamilton's policies and to try to get him removed from Washinton's cabinet, Washington told him he thought Hamilton's policies had been terrifically successful. Jefferson concluded by this that Washington was senile rather than admit that he, Jefferson, was wrong.
PRIVATE DEBT: Jefferson lived his life in extravagance and was in terrific debt his whole adult life despite having 200 slaves who worked for him, having inherited a large estate and having married into an even larger estate. He was by all logic an aristocrat. His debts were primarily to English bankers which explains his Anglophobia as it did for many Southern plantation owners.
In contrast, when Hamilton retired as Secretary of the Treasury he went home to work (as the most sought after lawyer in New York) and earn money to get out of debt he incurred while serving as Treasury Secretary and making a tiny salary. There's a famous story about the French minister Talleyrand - who had escaped the French Revolution with his head in tact and had come to America. He was walking home late one night in New York and passed Hamilton's office and could see him working at his desk. He said, "I have just come from viewing a man who had made the fortune of his country but now is working all night in order to feed his family." In Europe it would have been expected that such a man as Hamilton would have been rich, having profitted from his work in the government. Hamilton was always scrupulous about his ethics as a public servant, putting the reputation of the Treasury Department ahead of his own interests.
directly behind the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
