All show of decorum
With the Neutrality Proclamation, Hamilton continued to define his views on American foreign policy: that it should be based on self-interest, not emotional attachment; that the supposed altruism of n...
With finely honed political instincts, George Clinton saw that Hamilton was overreaching, and he secretly aided King’s candidacy in order to drive a wedge between the Schuylers and the Livingstons. Wh...
With a ready tongue and rapier wit, Hamilton could wound people more than he realized, and he was so nimble in debate that even bright people sometimes felt embarrassingly tongue-tied in his presence.
Willing to take heat on the issue, Grant showed courage and fairness in endorsing merciful treatment for Lee. Although it would meet with opposition in the North to allow Lee the benefit of Amnesty, G...
Whoever considers the nature of our government with discernment will see that though obstacles and delays will frequently stand in the way of the adoption of good measures, yet when once adopted, they...
While other founding fathers were reared in tidy New England villages or cosseted on baronial Virginia estates, Hamilton grew up in a tropical hellhole of dissipated whites and fractious slaves, all f...
When he sent a defiant annual message to Congress in early December, it polarized the situation even further. He accused Congress of burdening southern states with black voting rights even though blac...
When Hamilton heard about British depredations, he did not behave like a pawn of British interests. Rather, he drew up for Washington contingency plans to raise a twenty-thousand-man army to defend co...
When Franklin suggested on June 28th that each session start with a prayer for heavenly help, Hamilton countered that this might foster a public impression that embarrassments and dissensions within t...
What mattered was that people trusted the government to make good on repayment: In nothing are appearances of greater moment than in whatever regards credit. Opinion is the soul of it and this is affe...
Washington was then unanimously elected president of the convention.
Washingtongrew as a leader because he engaged in searching self- criticism. I can bear to hearof imputed or real errors, he once wrote. The man who wishes to stand well in theopinion of others must do...
Unlike Jefferson, Hamilton never saw the creation of America as a magical leap across a chasm to an entirely new landscape, and he always thought the New World had much to learn from the Old.
To endure such suffering required stoicism reminiscent of the ancient Romans, so Washington had his favorite play, Addison’s Cato, the story of a self-sacrificing Roman statesman, staged at Valley For...
To embarrass Madison, Elias Boudinot read aloud in Congress some passages about the necessary and proper clause from Federalist number 44, notably the following: No axiom is more clearly established i...
To curb further abuse, Hamilton recommended a Supreme Court that would consist of twelve judges holding lifetime offices on good behavior. In this manner, each branch would maintain a salutary distanc...
Tis only to consult our own hearts to be convinced that nations like individuals revolt at the idea of being guided by external compulsion.
Thomas Jefferson’s resignation as secretary of state on December 31, 1793. The Virginian had failed to eject Hamilton from the cabinet and had lost the contest for Washington’s favor.
This was a powerful argument for Washington, who had gone to Philadelphia feeling that the war would be incomplete without a new Constitution; now, he knew, the Constitution would be incomplete withou...