He thought the sovereignty of the states only enfeebled the union. The fundamental defect is a want of power in Congress, he declared. He favored granting Congress supreme power in war, peace, trade,...
He thought America’s character would be defined by how it treated its vanquished enemies, and he wanted to graduate from bitter wartime grievances to the forgiving posture of peace.
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...
He now subjected the Articles of Confederation to a searching critique. He thought the sovereignty of the states only enfeebled the union.
He generally spoke with much animation and energy, and with considerable gesture. His mind was filled with all the learning and precedence required for the occasion, enabling him to make numerous exte...
He endorsed the dollar as the basic currency, divided into smaller coins on a decimal basis. Because many Americans still bartered, Hamilton wanted to encourage the use of coins. As part of his campai...
Hamilton’s list of the advantages of manufacturing has a quintessentially American ring: Additional employment to classes of the community not ordinarily engaged in the business. The promoting of emig...
Hamilton’s first act in Philadelphia paid homage to Franklin. The sage had opposed salaries for executive-branch officers, hoping such a measure would produce civic-minded leaders, not government offi...
Hamilton, wanting the bank to remain predominantly in private hands, advanced a theory that became a truism of central banking—that monetary policy was so liable to abuse that it needed some insulatio...
Hamilton stole the moral high ground from opponents and established the legal and moral basis for securities trading in America: the notion that securities are freely transferable and that buyers assu...
Hamilton showed that, for all his misgivings about the Constitution, he could be cooperative and play a serviceable part. The convention showed good judgment in choosing him, given his literary gifts...
Hamilton did not think Burr would be a harmless, lackadaisical president. He is sanguine enough to hope everything, daring enough to attempt everything, wicked enough to scruple nothing, Hamilton told...
Growing up as a miniature adult, burdened with duties, he developed an exaggerated sense of responsibility that would be evident throughout his life.
Grant adopted unusual precautions, returning to the Willard Hotel twice daily for meals and staying indoors at night. When he set eyes on images of John Wilkes Booth, he immediately recognized the sin...
For this boy destined to be the world’s greatest heir, money was so omnipresent as to be invisible—something there, like air or food or any other element, he later said—yet it was never easily attaina...
For part of his Parisian stay, Jefferson was joined by his two daughters. The younger one, Polly, arrived in 1787 in the company of his light-skinned fourteen-year-old slave, Sally Hemings, who was ca...
For Hamilton, the federal government had a right to stimulate business and also, when necessary, to restrain it. As Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., has observed, Hamilton’s enthusiasm over the dynamics of in...
Fisher Ames observed of Hamilton that the common people don’t want leaders whom they see elevated by nature and education so far above their heads.
Finally, he flung his hat on the ground in disgust and fumed, Are these the men with whom I am to defend America?
Delenda est Carthago: Carthage must be destroyed and obliterated.