[justshutupandtakeit]

My love of Hamilton is of the last two yrs. after I actually took the time to learn about his life and his achievements.
He essentially gave his life for his new country. From the late teens till its end he was on the front lines of the fight for freedom.

Immediately he became a spokesman for the Revolutionary cause who was so effective that the British tried to bribe him over to his side.

He spent the last of his college money given to him by his friends in the Islands to outfit an artillary unit in the militia. His training of it made it so effective than it came to the notice of Washington after saving him from being captured by the British.

He was the chief aide to Washington for 5 yrs and was essentially his auxillary brain. Washington trusted him implicitly and needed only to give him rudimentary instructions for a task to be accomplished. In fact, he wrote Washington's Farewell Address.

He not only was at the Constitutional Convention but gave the longest speech there and at the connivance of Washington the last.

He changed the NY constitutional convention from 2-1 against to adopting the constitution.

He wanted to make the United States a strong nation, a modern nation not a weak, backward one like Jefferson whose idea of a nation of farmers was not only impossible but would have been a disaster in every conceivable way if implemented.

He wrote 2/3s of the greatest work of political philosophy ever written by an American.

His financial program immediately made the credit of the nation the strongest in the world and was so successful that Jefferson left it alone (after opposing it with every lie conceivable) upon achieving office and when the lunatic Republicans allowed the National Bank to die Monroe had to have it rechartered. That is how important it was to the economic and financial health of the nation and government. His opponents never understood it and reverted to outright lies about its working and necessity.

Hamilton was for a strong military and understood international power far better than his enemies. He knew that without a strong government the nation would be reconquered by Britian or portions by the other European powers on this continent. After yrs. of Jeffersonian neglect and disregard of the military the British burned Washington with a few thousand men since we had no army to speak of or navy. Had it seriously wanted to reconquer the country or pick off portions it probably could have.

He was a brilliant military man. A lawyer whom even Marshall revered. Founded the first bank in NY, founded the NY Post- the oldest newpaper in the country.

I could go on and on about the achievements and life of Hamilton. He was a man of incomparable integrity and bravery neither of which can be said of Jefferson.

[billbears]

backward one like Jefferson whose idea of a nation of farmers was not only impossible but would have been a disaster in every conceivable way if implemented

Would this include the non-farmers such as Burr, Trumbull, Pickering, and the rest of the Federalists who wanted to leave the union as early as 1803? In their mercantilistic empires they must have dreamed of at night? Farmers.... that's what we and men like Jefferson are to you, we think differently therefore we must somehow be lesser than such 'learned' men as Hamilton.

[stainlessbanner]

I can respect Hamilton's life, but differ with him on philosophical differences. However, Jefferson's life accomplishments were extraordinary:

1775 Elected to Continental Congress.
1776 Drafted Declaration of Independence. Elected to Virginia House of Delegates. Appointed to revise Virginia laws.
1777 Drafted Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, passed by General Assembly in 1786.
1778 Drafted Bill for the More General Diffusion of Knowledge.
1779-81 Served as Governor of Virginia.
1783 Elected delegate to Congress.
1784-89 In France as Commissioner and Minister.
1787 Published Notes on the State of Virginia.
1790-93 Served as first United States Secretary of State.
1794 Began commercial manufacture of nails on Mulberry Row.
1797-1801 Served as United States Vice President.
1797-1815 Served as president of the American Philosophical Society.
1801-09 Served as United States President.
1803 Louisiana Purchase concluded. Lewis and Clark expedition launched.
1809 Retired from presidency and public life. Remodeling of Monticello and construction of dependencies largely completed. Vegetable garden platform completed.
1815 Sold 6,700-volume library to Congress.
1817 Cornerstone of Central College (later University of Virginia) laid.
1822-25 Monticello roof recovered with tin shingles.
1824 Historic reunion with the Marquis de Lafayette at Monticello.
1825 University of Virginia opened.
1826 Died at Monticello, July 4.

"The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time."

-A Summary View of the Rights of British America, Thomas Jefferson

[Frumious Bandersnatch]

I could go on and on about the achievements and life of Hamilton. He was a man of incomparable integrity and bravery neither of which can be said of Jefferson.

Now wait a sec.  I also have high regard for Hamilton.  But to defame Jefferson is out of line.  It wasn't, after all, Jefferson who turned the Society of St. Tammany's into a political organization.