Cincinatus: Wrong ...
Yashcheritsiy: Spoken like someone with a superficial knowledge of the founders, at best.
From the Article: A lot of people living in the United States in 1790 believed (as a lot of people do today) that the debts incurred during the American Revolution should just be ignored. What modern people would think of as the United States didn't begin until 1789. The debts run up before that time were under a different government, so why should the new government be responsible for that debt?Hamilton was indeed a big government guy.Alexander Hamilton ... believed that the new nation needed a good reputation on the international scene. If the United States was known to honor its debts, it would find it easier to get loans. Hamilton pointed out that this would be especially useful in a national emergency. Moreover, Hamilton wanted the federal government to take up all the state debt as well. He believed that it would help foster kinship among Americans by uniting them against a common problem.
Hamilton attempted to pay off the revolutionary war debt with a whiskey excise tax. The tax fell on a limited population (farmers living in the frontier) and was punitive in amount, and stifled commerce. It was met with what is now known as the Whiskey Tax Rebellion. The war resulted in Washington taking the field in an unsuccessful attempt to quash the rebellion in Pennsylvania. The war dragged on until the tax was repealed; the government failed to break even on the levy (the cost of the war exceeded the tax receipts). Distillation enterprises were driven from Pennsylvania and North Carolina to Kentucky and Tennessee (which were not members of the Union at the time), and underground in North Carolina and Virginia -- situations that persist to this day.
Hamilton believed in a strong federal government to the detriment of states rights. He favored free enterprise, but regarded it as an tool to fund his beloved government. He implemented draconian taxes, believed in unnecessary government regulations, and would have loved the modern day IRS.
I strongly admire our Founding Fathers and owe them an immeasurable debt of gratitude, but they, including Hamilton, were not entirely without fault.
Precisely. And they were hardly a monolithic group who all saw eye to eye and marched in lock-step. More often than not, they spent their time squabbling with each other, both privately and publicly.
Also, there weren't too many tears shed at the time when Jefferson's political ally Aaron Burr shot and killed Hamilton.
Sorry, but no. TR’s assertion that Hamilton “would have loved how the Grand Experiment turned out” is almost assuredly not true, as is your own assertion that Hamilton “would have loved the modern day IRS.”
This is especially the case given Hamilton’s own defence of a Constitution which specifically forbade an income tax (at that time), as well as his specific arguments in Federalists #33 and 34 in favour of concurrent taxation power versus entire subordination the states to the federal government on the issue of taxation.
Personally, I view the difference between Jeffersonians and Hamiltonians as one of industry and commerce vs. landed wealth. In a sense, Hamilton represented the development of capitalism as we understand it today while Jefferson represented pre-capitalist landholder values.
The tax fell on a limited population (farmers living in the frontier) and was punitive in amount, and stifled commerce. It was met with what is now known as the Whiskey Tax Rebellion.
I also recall that the reason that whiskey was often made in those areas is that Corn and other cereals were very easily damaged and wasted by weather, poor storage conditions and rodent predation.
Turning your corn into whiskey insured a product that could travel long distances and would be well received and paid for. Thereby benefiting the farmers and the merchants who took the risk of transporting the whiskey from farm to markets on the east coast.
The Whiskey TAX was a not only an affront to the farmers but literally took the money needed by the farmer to continue to buy needed supplies to survive on the frontier. It’s no wonder they fought back. And in some ways the Whiskey Rebellion might have damaged beyond repair the fragile new nation of the United States of America.
Also Hamilton is also known as the Father of the Revenue Cutter Service that eventually became the Coast Guard we know today.
I find many of these postings silly. Hamilton believed in a strong federal government, but would never have advocated our BIG government. He had some strange ideas of government, but always advocated efficiency. That is not what we have now. Argument refuted.
Some of you say that he would like today’s government and IRS; oh? From where do you draw these strange fantasies? Hamilton hated debt - - it’s written all over his history and youz guys are saying he’d love today’s government? It’s quite a contradiction.
I’d like to see some citations attached to all these charges, which I consider to be simple stretches of the imagination. Well, after all, it is politics.