Posted on 10/07/2017 11:23:41 AM PDT by Kaslin
Donald Trump made a lot of hay on the campaign trail by decrying the foreign adventurism of previous administrations.
Trump positioned himself as the righteous outsider ready to rein in the executive overreach of his predecessors.
None of that began with Barack Obama or George W. Bush, but Americans with short historical memories readily identified illegal and ill-advised wars as a major problem in America, particularly since some of those wars were often carried on without any congressional input.
See Obama in Libya for example.
But what if the problem of executive overreach in foreign policy began long before either Bush or Obama took the oath of office? What if this problem originated in the very first administration? What if Alexander Hamilton and not Bush or Obama is to blame?
This might seem rich. Hamilton, after all, drafted George Washington’s “Farewell Address,” a message that implored Americans to avoid problematic permanent alliances with European powers.
That would seem to suggest that Hamilton was a non-interventionist.
But he wasn’t, and he didn’t follow his own advice.
Hamilton consistently violated the foreign policy directives of both Washington and Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson by clandestinely working with a British agent. Hamilton was even given a code name, Agent No. 7. We usually call that a spy and Hamilton did not let either Washington or Jefferson know he was trying to move the United States into a permanent commercial relationship with Great Britain. That would be espionage.
Hamilton didn’t stop there. His insistence on Washington drafting a “Neutrality Proclamation” was intended to keep the United States out of a relationship with France, not Great Britain, and even here he suggested Washington stretch the constitutional authority of the executive branch by issuing a proclamation.
That power is not listed in Article II of the Constitution. It had to be invented. Hamilton himself had argued in Federalist No. 69 that the president would not have unilateral control of war and peace. As in other instances, he lied.
Both Jefferson and James Madison believed Washington via Hamilton had opened a Pandora’s Box. Madison wrote several essays attacking Washington’s proclamation after it was issued. Hamilton rejoined, and their lively exchange became known as the Pacificus/Helvidius debates. Hamilton considered these essays to be his finest work next to his work in the Federalist.
Because the power of declaring war was specifically lodged in the House of Representatives, Madison argued that questions of war and peace had to be decided by Congress, not the president. The president could make treaties, but he could not unilaterally tell the world the United States was staying neutral. That smacked of monarchy.
Hamilton didn’t care. That is what he wanted in 1787. The fact that he argued against it never changed his mind that monarchy would surely come to the United States. Getting there a bit faster was not problematic.
And Washington’s “Neutrality Proclamation” set the stage for future unconstitutional actions by the executive branch, namely the engagement of American soldiers in combat without congressional authority. George H.W. Bush famously told Congress he didn’t need them to send troops into Iraq. His notification of military action was simply a “courtesy call.”
Theodore Roosevelt instigated an uprising in Colombia to gain access to land for the Panama Canal in 1903. He reasoned that Congress should debate him, not the issue. His Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine was another example of unconstitutional executive overreach by a man who loved Hamilton’s vision of American everlasting glory.
Even Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation was considered constitutionally dubious. While no one would question the ultimate outcome of the measure, Lincoln himself simply created the authority to issue the Proclamation out of thin air by reasoning that it would “best subdue the enemy.” Very Hamiltonian of him. Former Supreme Court Justice and ardent abolitionist Benjamin Robbins Curtis complained that the proclamation would set a dangerous precedent for future presidents. He should have been pointing the finger at Hamilton, not Lincoln.
Trump’s non-Hamiltonian foreign policy declarations while on the campaign trail were one of the reasons Americans enthusiastically supported his candidacy. They are tired of endless wars brought about through deception and unilateral executive action.
Americans want energy and activity from their president, but they also expect him, albeit half-heartedly, to follow the Constitution.
Hamilton never did, which is why his disease of big, unconstitutional government is the gift that keeps on giving. That plan works well for the political class.
They don’t have to fight the wars.
Right On Target!!
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Aaron Burr did us a favor.
Alexander Hamilton may have been a war hero, but his actions afterwards were absolutely the worst, horrendous.
“That power is not listed in Article II of the Constitution. It had to be invented. Hamilton himself had argued in Federalist No. 69 that the president would not have unilateral control of war and peace. As in other instances, he lied.”
This article doesn’t even cover Hamilton’s penchant for a large, central government and the means of supporting it by taxing everything and anything.
Hamilton was directly responsible for the almost break up of the recently formed US via the whiskey tax and the whiskey rebellion. Thereby paving the way for our current large central government today.
The so-called “whiskey tax” was the first tax imposed on a domestic product by the newly formed federal government.
Good job Hamilton.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whiskey_Rebellion
I want to know why “uniform rule of naturalization” changed to UnNaturalization.
“They never have to fight the wars”, and pay the price we do.
I’ve read some particularly bad screeds at FR about AH, but this is the worst.
that’s the dumbest god damned thing I’ve ever read. it’s barely even worth the time it takes to write two sentences condemning it’s mindlessness.
indeed. I had no idea so many people on FR failed history.
They couldn't hide from you then, and they can't now. Watch your six.
"Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everyone you meet." Sec Def, Gen James "Mad Dog" Mattis
;^)
“The dogs of war” are hungry, and straining against the leash. When the time comes, you’ll have lots of company.
Thanx 4-Responding!
Best
Dick Gaines aka: Gunny G
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At a time when a small minority of colonists took up arms against Great Britain, Alexander Hamilton was among them.
He served as an artillery officer and subsequently on the Staff of General Washington. Like the other senior military and political officers of the new country, he risked death by hanging if captured.
Alexander Hamilton lead an assault on a British redoubt at Yorktown.
He resisted the call for a military coup of the hapless non-government under the Articles of Confederation.
He was a delegate to the Annapolis convention of 1786 and largely responsible for the federal convention the next year.
On June 18th of the convention he launched a strategic assault on the minds of deadlocked delegates. His all-day speech in support of a parliamentary system as an alternative to the Randolph and Paterson Plans shocked his fellow delegates into making the decision to dump the Articles of Confederation and design a new plan of government.
As the motive force behind The Federalist, he defended the Constitution, primarily against NY Governor George Clinton, whose state stood to lose lucrative impost revenue.
As Treasury Secretary he steered the nation from the brink of ruin to a sound financial basis.
It is fair to say that absent the efforts of Alexander Hamilton, the Confederation United States would have soon dissolved with nothing to replace it.
It often develops into an Orwellian-like Two Minute Hate. Crazy.
That's that "Living Constitution" stuff that Liberals have always seized upon to get what they want. Hamilton's bad influence on our government goes a lot further than just foreign interventionism. His Mercantilist and banking ideas created the "establishtment" monstrosity with which we are currently dealing today.
Your comments are right on about AH.
Great guy, during the war. Good to have him on our side.
Re Hamilton...
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We believe what we choose to believe.
All education is self-education, not public education or indoctrination.
The truth is out there for those who seek it, that is the only prerequisite.
*****
Hit piece, author must be a hardcore Jeffersonian.
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