Jefferson and Hamilton Quotes

“Were people to mingle only with those of like mind, every man would be an insulate being." Thomas Jefferson”
― John Ferling, Jefferson and Hamilton: The Rivalry That Forged a Nation

“But England’s degeneration had also allegedly occurred because its modern financial system had produced unimaginable riches for the few and deepening poverty for the many, widening the gap between rich and poor, and cursing the land with a malignant tyranny that ate away at the liberties once enjoyed by Englishmen.”
― John Ferling, Jefferson and Hamilton: The Rivalry That Forged a Nation

“The feelings of politicians are rarely transparent.”
― John Ferling, Jefferson and Hamilton: The Rivalry That Forged a Nation

“For leaders, wars are filled with guesses.”
― John Ferling, Jefferson and Hamilton: The Rivalry That Forged a Nation

“Jefferson reflected, "I think of her (a college infatuation) perhaps too much for my peace of mind. " Nevertheless, he was robbed of his considerable verbal powers when he got the chance to speak to the object of his affections.”
― John Ferling, Jefferson and Hamilton: The Rivalry That Forged a Nation

“Jefferson attributes to a college professor and mentor his lifelong habit of questioning conventional wisdom.”
― John Ferling, Jefferson and Hamilton: The Rivalry That Forged a Nation

“Today’s America is more Hamilton’s America. Jefferson may never have fully understood Hamilton’s funding and banking systems, but better than most he gleaned the potential dangers that awaited future generations living in the nation state that Hamilton wished to bring into being. Presciently, and with foreboding, Jefferson saw that Hamiltonianism would concentrate power in the hands of the business leaders and financiers that it primarily served, leading inevitably to an American plutocracy every bit as dominant as monarchs and titled aristocrats had once been. Jefferson’s fears were not misplaced. In modern America, concentrated wealth controls politics and government, leading even the extremely conservative Senator John McCain to remark that “both parties conspire to stay in office by selling the country to the highest bidder.”43 The American nation, with its incredibly powerful chief executive, gargantuan military, repeated intervention in the affairs of foreign states, and political system in the thrall of great wealth, is the very world that Jefferson abhorred.”
― John Ferling, Jefferson and Hamilton: The Rivalry That Forged a Nation

“In Notes, Jefferson condemned manufacturing states as the basest of societies for the greatest number of citizens. Jefferson believed that an inevitable “Corruption of morals” occurred in a manufacturing state. Manufacturers were ensnared in the demeaning vortex of a never-slackening chase after wealth. Their unquenchable thirst for money, and their dependence on the vagaries of the marketplace, drove them inescapably to vice and venality. Moreover, all who were dependent on the success of the manufacturers—merchants, shopkeepers, tradesmen, laborers—were compromised and shaped into “fit tools for the designs of ambition.” Cities would inevitably become manufacturing centers, he said, and just as assuredly most urban dwellers would be fated to live in squalid surroundings. He painted a stark picture: “great cities add just so much to the support of pure government, as sores do to the strength of the human body.”

In manufacturing societies, only those at the top of the economic structure were truly independent and more or less in control of their destiny. The political system likely to evolve in such societies would be little different from those in monarchical kingdoms. In both, a “heavy-handed” executive would manage affairs on behalf of the oligarchy. The ruling elite would harbor an “unfeeling” fear and scorn for the great mass of the citizenry, “rendered desperate by poverty and wretchedness.” The lifeblood of the realm would be the generation of fortunes for those at the top. Among other things, this dynamic in the course of time would transform the polity into a military state. As in ancient Rome, when Caesar said, “With money we will get men … and with men we shall get money,” the manufacturing state would grow ever more pugnacious and expansive. No barriers to the pursuit of riches—most assuredly not the welfare and happiness of the great preponderance of the people—could be tolerated.”
― John Ferling, Jefferson and Hamilton: The Rivalry That Forged a Nation

“young desire it, the middle aged are not averse, the old alone are opposed to it [and they soon] will die.”
― John Ferling, Jefferson and Hamilton: The Rivalry That Forged a Nation

“To deal with what a High Federalist claimed was the “army of spies and incendiaries scattered through the continent,” two acts authorized the deportation of aliens who were already in the country.44”
― John Ferling, Jefferson and Hamilton: The Rivalry That Forged a Nation

“Pointing out the possible, and expensive, entanglements that could come with widespread commercial enterprise, the author calculates the Great Britain was at war half the time between 1689 and 1783.”
― John Ferling, Jefferson and Hamilton: The Rivalry That Forged a Nation

“The author characterizes Hamilton's tone in the Federalist papers by saying that he never spoke of problems but of being at the last stage in the crisis.”
― John Ferling, Jefferson and Hamilton: The Rivalry That Forged a Nation

“He was convinced that public service and private misery were inextricably linked.”
― John Ferling, Jefferson and Hamilton: The Rivalry That Forged a Nation

“Alexander Hamilton reflected as early as the middle of the Revolutionary War that rallying at the last minute was part of the national character of his countrymen.”
― John Ferling, Jefferson and Hamilton: The Rivalry That Forged a Nation

“Washington’s”
― John Ferling, Jefferson and Hamilton: The Rivalry That Forged a Nation

“Established churches not infrequently formed an alliance with the aristocracy , joining arm in arm against change.”
― John Ferling, Jefferson and Hamilton: The Rivalry That Forged a Nation

“Jefferson was the rare student who came to college already knowing that there could be joy in studying.”
― John Ferling, Jefferson and Hamilton: The Rivalry That Forged a Nation