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The very character of your unqualified assessment gives me cause for doubt. We may not share the metrics for what constitutes success.

Hamilton, witlessly or otherwise, contributed greatly to giving our enemies the tools with which to destroy, just as Bush, with the Patriot Act, has given Hillary just the tools she needs to institute a total police state. Consider the symmetry in principle, but not intent.

I agree that Jefferson was more demagogue than statesman. Still, the observations he uttered were worthy admonitions then, just as they are most often used now: admonitions against government debt (via centralized banking) and standing armies (overextended commitments to protect investors abroad), and admonitions for the individual right to keep and bear arms. Considering the land grabs we see across the West, the slow destruction of our children in public schools, and the over-commitment of troops while our borders remain exposed, you may yet see what ignoring those principles cost when (not if) those powers are used against the people.

Success in the material world for this nation means it is strong, independent and wealthy. All those flowed from Hamilton's program. Those are my metrics, are yours different?

Government is the only "tool" our enemies need. Without Hamilton's program our enemies would have just used much simpler tools to strangle the infant nation in its cradle. Our nation survived the Slavers' Revolt only because of the tools Hamilton provided the government. Paranoid fantasies about Hillary and the Patriot Act are irrelevent to this discussion. There is no power which cannot be used against Good by Evil.

Jefferson never understood the Hamilton program nor banking nor anything about modern economics. His own personal crushing load of debts warped his view of the financial world. Modern capitalism is impossible without a banking system. Hamilton's debt program was much more than mere debt and was actually the creation of a money supply (when there was almost no specie within the country) created by capitalizing the WORD of the US government. It was one of the most brilliant financial achievements of any age. Our debt became the most highly rated IN THE WORLD within months of its passage. Nor do standing armies have anything to do with protection of investments today. Jefferson and others' hysterical fear of them just seems quaint or delusionary. Like fear of witches.

Anyone taking much of what Jefferson said on almost any subject is skating on thin ice. He is one of the most over-rated presidents in our history with one major achievement which resulted from pure blind luck.