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but the reality is that Alexander Hamilton was the first in a long line of "big-government Beltway conservatives

I still think you are making a huge jump about a completely different time in history but yes, I see your point... in some cases he supported federal power over state power. However, I must confess that in looking at America's long history, there were some times I can tell you that this conservative would NOT have supported states' rights at any cost which doesn't mean I don't support incresased states rights on some issues now.

One of the things that's often overlooked about the early United States is that the original states weren't as nice and orderly and clearly-defined as our states are now. Much of the region along the Appalachians was disputed territory among different "states," and the area in which the Whiskey Rebellion was centered (in what is now southwestern Pennsylvania) was subject to competing claims from both Pennsylvania and Virginia (and maybe Maryland, too).

The settlers who lived in that area were fighting off attacks from bands of British soldiers and their Indian allies for almost two years after the last "official" battle of the American Revolution at Yorktown -- with no help from anything representing a "Federal" military force. In my opinion, they rightly considered the imposition of an excise tax on whiskey -- whose burden fell disproportionately on those poor farmers in the Appalachians who distilled whiskey from their crops because of the high cost of transporting raw crops to market in the coastal cities -- by that same Federal government to be an 'effing outrage.

One interesting aspect of the whole thing is that the entire Appalacian region became a hotbed of simmering resentment against any imposition of Federal power. Strong traces of this can still be found today. Moonshining and stock car racing can trace their roots to this whole mindset.