[Sam Gamgee]

If we define federalists as those of Hamilton's ilk and anti-federalists as Jefferson and others, I think the anti-federalists have been proven right by history. The Executive has been a massive failure. I count 55 years of tyrannical Presidents just for the 20th century. That doesn't include the mediocre and inept. Hamilton's federalism was the backdrop that gave us a big bank and big government. Hamilton himself was little more than a lackey to Great Britain who thought the US should do whatever it could to suck up to their former enemy. I consider him one of the villains of US history.

[Jacquerie]

I think the anti-federalists have been proven right by history.

If you mean defeat of the constitution, and continuance of the Articles of Confederation, the American union would have totally dissolved before 1790.

Had that happened, there is no telling how the European powers would have divvied up North America.

[Publius]

I would recommend Alexander Hamilton: A Biography by Forrest McDonald. It takes a look at Hamilton as a "lawgiver", and it's pretty balanced.

[Jacquerie]

Hamilton himself was little more than a lackey to Great Britain

In a time when a small minority of former 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 possible hanging if captured.

Alexander Hamilton lead an assault on a British redoubt at Yorktown.

He resisted the call for a military takeover 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 constitutional convention the next year.

On June 18th of the federal 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 offer a new plan of government.

[Jacquerie]

Hamilton's federalism was the backdrop that gave us a big bank and big government.

Good grief you don't know of what you speak. Take Pulius' advice in #24 and educate yourself.