Washington and Hamilton – The Alliance That Formed America

Townhall.com ^ | May 15, 2016 | Christoper N, Malagisi

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

“the Confederation United States would have soon dissolved with nothing ^{civil war} to replace it. “

Not entirely a bad thing in my mind.

It was only too possible for neighboring states, each with vague/grandiose definitions of their own extents, to default into military conflict. Of course, that happened anyway, in 1861 - but had it happened in 1800 the British would have picked up the pieces.

[Jacquerie]

I’ve given up responding to the Hamilton Haters. Let ‘em wallow in ignorance.

States joined the Confederation to deal with war. With peace, there was no reason to continue with the charade. The AC wasn’t government, and by 1787 enough adults recognized the need for government to secure the foundational maxims of the revolution.

[Pelham]

” and without French support, we would have been destroyed by Britian.”

We probably owe our victory at Yorktown to Admiral François Joseph Paul De Grasse’s 3,000 French Marines, and even more importantly to his ships driving off the British fleet at the Battle of the Chesapeake Capes.

Of course I like to think that the turning point of the war was the militia action called the Battle of Williamson’s Plantation, where my Carroll ancestor dispatched Christian Huck, the commander of the Tory troops. Of the 115 Loyalists present 24 survived the Patriot slaughter. This was a harbinger of what was to come at King’s Mountain and Cowpens.

[mrsmith]

Bull.
Madison was the heart and linchpin of the Founding.

Hamilton made a great contribution, but not comparable.

[Pelham]

” However, there must be some legitimate controversy over Hamilton’s embrace of big government and big banks, or else otherwise reasonable folks like the Mises Institute would not write about it. “

Libertarians have their own biases and exaggerate what “big government” amounted to in 1789. Moreover there were maybe three banks in all of the United States when Hamilton became Secretary of the Treasury.

If you want to read a decent book on Alexander Hamilton get a copy of Forrest McDonald’s biography. McDonald began with a bias against Hamilton when he began researching his book but ended up regarding him as an indispensable genius without whom the nascent United States would have failed.

Hamilton’s financial genius converted the crushing debt and near worthless currency inherited from the Articles government into a valuable asset in the form of a funded public debt and a currency that was valued equal to gold. This was no small feat and the American gov’t would have collapsed if he hadn’t managed to do it.

[LS]

Actually, Ron Chernow’s bio is better. He does show Hamilton’s faults, but he did more work in Hamilton’s papers than anyone.

[Pharmboy]

Beautifully stated. “The bastard son of a Scottish peddlar” (the way Adams and others referred to him) was always the smartest guy in the room (yes—even when Jefferson was there). He was battlefield-brave beyond what might be expected of even the courageous; his centralized government power was that of 18th century newborn America, and should not be confused with the big government monstrosities of the 20th century and present time.

Jefferson was a Democrat; Hamilton was a conservative as translated into the present.

[Jacquerie]

John Adams, Patrick Henry and the Anti-Federalists could easily, and without criticism, extol the virtues of monarchy.

Alexander Hamilton could not.

[Pelham]

thanks-