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.54
That the retaliation would also be highly personal. That Hamilton could be so sensitive to criticisms of himself and so insensitive to the effect his words had on others was a central mystery of his p...
Say, when speaking of the glorious example you have exhibited to mankind, ‘Had this day been wanting, the world had never seen the last stage of perfection to which human nature is capable of attainin...
Pork with a little change of the sauce?
Peroration,
Memories of Valley Forge and Morristown would powerfully affect the future political agendas of both Washington and Hamilton, who had to grapple with the defects of a weak central government
Many Federalists emerged as strict constructionists and denied that the Constitution permitted the purchase. Beyond legal reservations, they worried that this new American territory would weaken Feder...
Love of fame, the ruling passion of the noblest minds, which would prompt a man to plan and undertake extensive and arduous enterprises for the public benefit. 54 Ambition was reckless if inspired by...
It is a maxim founded on the universal experience of mankind that no nation is to be trusted farther than it is bound by its interest.
In April, the president-elect had stopped at Morris’s opulent residence. The treasury, Morris, will of course be your berth, Washington confided. After your invaluable services as financier of the Rev...
Have also learned from experience that the greater part of our happiness or misery depends upon our dispositions and not upon our circumstances.
Government.
Factions can become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government.
Everything that Hamilton planned to create to transform America into a powerful, modern nation-state—a central bank, a funded debt, a mint, a customs service, manufacturing subsidies, and so on—was to...
Emissary to England to continue talks about the matters discussed. On October 7, Washington discussed such an appointment with Hamilton and Jay and accepted Hamilton’s suggestion that Gouverneur Morri...
Democracy,
Capture the Republican nomination instead of Grant. With Johnson acquitted, everyone knew, Grant would get the party nod. Significantly, the seven Republicans who voted for acquittal all campaigned fo...
Cannot doubt, from the evidence that I possess[,] that the National Gazette was instituted by him [Jefferson] for political purposes and that one leading object of it has been to render me and all the...
Bolstered southern power by scrapping the rule that had once counted an African American as only three-fifths of a person for electoral purposes. Despite suppressing the vote of blacks, white southern...
Bibulous,