Many things beyond the absence of Laurens troubled Hamilton that summer, especially the shortsighted failure of the states to grant mandatory taxing power to Congress in the Articles of Confederation,...
May 1780, he had fresh cause to meditate on the failings of Congress when news came of a calamitous defeat: the British had taken Charleston, capturing an American garrison of 5,400 soldiers, includin...
Mr. Adams is vain, suspicious, and stubborn, of an excessive self-regard, taking counsel with nobody.9 Jefferson predicted to Létombe that Adams would last only one term and urged the French to invade...
No longer regarded as the Federalist leader, he had acquired the uncomfortable status of a glorified has-been. He still had a law office in lower Manhattan—in 1803, he moved it from 69 Stone Street to...
On August 5, he sent Stanton a one-sentence letter: Public considerations of a high character constrain me to say, that your resignation as Secretary of War will be accepted.5 Johnson knew that if Sta...
On December 5, 1792, members of the electoral college assembled in their respective states. The outcome gratified Hamilton and corresponded with his expectations. Washington was chosen unanimously as...
On Easter Sunday, Nash led a mob of several hundred whites, armed with rifles and a small cannon, who opened fire on the courthouse, setting it ablaze. Even though its black defenders ran up a white f...
On July 16, the thick gloom finally lifted at Philadelphia when delegates agreed to a grand bargain, the so-called Connecticut Compromise, proposed by Roger Sherman of Connecticut and others. The majo...
On July 4, in his sixth Continentalist essay, Hamilton, with a nod to Morris, applauded the appointment of federal customs and tax collectors to create in the interior of each state a mass of influenc...
Once Hamilton was initiated into the cause of American liberty, his life acquired an even more headlong pace that never slackened.
Once Morris had finished his speech, the casket was transferred to a grave site in the Trinity churchyard, not far from where Hamilton had studied and lived, practiced law and served his country.
One lady remembered seeing them together that summer turn and laugh and play with a monkey that was climbing in a neighbor’s yard.
One scandalized British soldier complained that the American riflemen conceal themselves behind trees etc. till an opportunity presents itself of taking a shot at our advance sentries, which done, the...
One thing that hasn’t aroused dispute is the exemplary nature of Washington’s religious tolerance. He shuddered at the notion of exploiting religion for partisan purposes or showing favoritism for cer...
Other reasons account for Hamilton’s failure to snatch the prize. Though blessed with a great executive mind and a consummate policy maker, Hamilton could never master the smooth restraint of a mature...
Out of the blue, a veteran named Charles Wood, manager of a brush factory in upstate New York, sent Grant a $500 check and offered him a $1,000 interest-free loan for a year, renewable if necessary. G...
Patrick Henry, the leading antifederalist, warned delegates who supported the Constitution, They’ll free your niggers.
People tended either to embrace Hamilton or to abhor him;
Perhaps the true legacy of his boyhood was an equivocal one: he came to detest the tyranny embodied by the planters and their authoritarian rule, while also fearing the potential uprisings of the disa...
Prejudice and private interest will be antagonists too powerful for public spirit and public good. 69
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