Hamilton, as the Treasury Sec under Washington, gave us our first independent national bank, the precursor to the Federal Reserve Bank. He and Jefferson, then Sec. of State, were at loggerheads from then on. Aaron Burr once talked Monroe and Hamilton out of dueling, only to engage in the same act seven years later...While Burr’s reputation was on the decline at the time of his famous duel, the best man won. Hamilton was a Federalist synonymous with today’s statist democRATs. In retrospect, it’s a shame that Monroe didn’t take him out at the earlier occasion.
Jefferson wasn’t exactly a good alternative to Hamilton either, given his endorsement of the French Revolution.