Alexander Hamilton

by Ron Chernow

would willingly risk my life, tho’ not my character, to exalt my station.

he came to detest the tyranny embodied by the planters and their authoritarian rule, while also fearing the potential uprisings of the disaffected slaves. The twin specters of despotism and anarchy were to haunt him for the rest of his life.

You know I am renowned for gallantry and shall always be able to entertain you with a choice collection of the prettiest things imaginable. . . . You shall be one of the graces, or Diana, or Venus, or something surpassing them all.6

Both then and forever after, the poor boy from the West Indies commanded attention with the force and fervor of his words.

Ambition was reckless if inspired by purely selfish motives but laudable if guided by great principles.

Hamilton always expressed himself frankly, no matter what the consequences.

“lead an honourable life or to meet with resignation a glorious death.”

Hamilton came to this conclusion by means of study. It’s not that he was a prophet, is that he was diligent in learning about his enemy.

Live up to your potential, and you will stand out.

Washington had limited formal schooling, never attended college, and had trained as a surveyor as an adolescent.

As a teenager who knew the insecurities of an outsider and was eager to earn respect, Washington tried to advance into polished society through a strenuous program of self-improvement. He learned to dance and dress properly, read biographies and histories, and memorized rules of deportment from a courtesy manual.

Early disappointments with people left Washington with a residual cynicism that was to jibe well with Hamilton’s views.

he would never openly criticize Washington, whose image had to be upheld to unify the country.

“his family and connections do not entitle him to so distinguished a predominance.”

Both respect of and defiance of authority is eternal. In all ages of time, man has respected and disrespected man irregardless of wealth, intelligence, and background. True courage is knowing when to stand against authority. True humility is knowing when to bow down to it.

“it would be our misfortune, since the British government could not find another commander so incompetent to send in his place.”

Once again the young aide did not hesitate to talk to a general as a peer.

There was an element of ecstatic defiance, an indifference toward danger, that reflected his youthful fantasies of an illustrious death in battle.

he guarded his reputation jealously throughout his life,

How was Hamilton affected by his first duel? He saw two gentlemen who had exhibited exemplary behavior and fought for ideals rather than just personal animosity. The object had not been to kill the other person so much as to resolve honorably a lingering dispute. Both Laurens and Lee walked away with their dignity more or less intact.

When avarice takes the lead in a state, it is commonly the forerunner of its fall.

a public official who betrays his trust “ought to feel the utmost rigor of public resentment and be detested as a traitor of the worst and most dangerous kind.”

the duke noticed that some things were so blindingly self-evident to Hamilton that he was baffled when others didn’t grasp them quickly—an intellectual agility that could breed intolerance for less quick-witted mortals.

Prejudice and private interest will be antagonists too powerful for public spirit and public good.”

What a baller.

Only in such passages do we see that Hamilton, for all his phenomenal success in the Continental Army, still felt unlucky and unlovely, still cursed by his past.

employing all your leisure in reading. Nature has been very kind to you. Do not neglect to cultivate her gifts and to enable yourself to make the distinguished figure in all respects to which you are entitled to aspire.”

If you cannot, my dear, we are playing a comedy of all in the wrong and you should correct the mistake before we begin to act the tragedy of the unhappy couple.

For all the merriment and high spirits, few guests could have overlooked the mortifying contrast between the enormous Schuyler clan, with their Van Cortlandt and Van Rensselaer relatives, and the lonely groom, who didn’t have a single family member in attendance.

“I am a stranger in this country. I have no property here, no connections. If I have talents and integrity . . . these are justly deemed very spurious titles in these enlightened days.”

By dint of his youth, foreign birth, and cosmopolitan outlook, he was spared prewar entanglements in provincial state politics, making him a natural spokesman for a new American nationalism.

Yet anger way it seems Hamilton was prepared by God to help establish the Republic.

“As too much power leads to despotism, too little leads to anarchy, and both eventually to the ruin of the people.”

“I lose all taste for the pursuits of ambition. I sigh for nothing but the company of my wife and my baby.”

It’s crazy that the system seemed rigged so that there was a dependence or necessity to own slaves.

But the difficulty will be to keep a complaining and suffering army within the bounds of moderation.”

It seems like Hamilton is saying that there’s utility to an upset mob. They can be loud enough that it’s impossible to ignore and they can take just enough action to effect change in politicians. They must not be satisfied enough so that they are ineffective neither must they be too agitated less they cause harm.

Convinced that appearances, not reality, ruled in politics, he never wanted to allow misimpressions to linger, however briefly, in the air.

“I used to tell him that he was not content with knocking [his opponent] in the head, but that he persisted until he had banished every little insect that buzzed around his ears.”

“The law is whatever is successfully argued and plausibly maintained,”

In the essay, Hamilton said that, as a revolutionary veteran, he had “too deep a share in the common exertions of this revolution to be willing to see its fruits blasted by the violence of rash or unprincipled men, without at least protesting against their designs.”40 He railed against the baleful precedent that would be set if the legislature exiled an entire category of people without hearings or trials. If that happened, “no man can be safe, nor know when he may be the innocent victim of a prevailing faction. The name of liberty applied to such a government would be a mockery of common sense.”41

The Spectator by Joseph Addison and Richard Steele; he frequently recommended these essays to young people to purify their writing style and inculcate virtue.

I feel that nothing can ever compensate for the loss of the enjoyments I leave at home or can ever put my heart at tolerable ease.

In

“Give all power to the many, they will oppress the few. Give all power to the few, they will oppress the many.”

For Archibald McLean, The Federalist Papers were a dreadful flop, an unfortunate publishing venture best forgotten.

If success was to be measured by book sales alone, The Federalist would be considered an outright failure. It doesn't seem obvious to me that Hamilton or Madison intended to make money, at least not a fortune, from the publication of this book. No one asked them to write this. Furthermore, it was a big risk. Seven months of constant scribbling, and for what? That maybe, maybe, those reading it would have a change of opinion. It seems that this "masterpiece" was written out of love for the cause. It seems that many of the best endeavours are pursued based on measures that are not strictly limited to financial advancement, but that financial advancement can be an indicator or tail of the endeavors' success.

“His eloquence . . . seemed to require opposition to give it its full force.”

“If men were angels, no government would be necessary.”

“a dangerous ambition more often lurks behind the specious mask of zeal for the rights of the people than under the forbidding appearance of zeal for the firmness and efficiency of government.”

dangerous greatness.”

“War, like most other things, is a science to be acquired and perfected by diligence, by perseverance, by time, and by practice.”

“the fiery and destructive passions of war reign in the human breast with much more powerful sway than the mild and beneficent sentiments of peace.”