Citizen Hamilton: The Wit and Wisdom of an American Founder

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Rowman & Littlefield, 2006 - 177 páginas
A man of extraordinary talent and boundless energy, Alexander Hamilton left a remarkable legacy in America's history. A member of George Washington's staff during the American Revolution, a delegate to the Constitutional Convention, an author of the Federalist Papers, and the nation's first secretary of the treasury, he played a seminal role in the nation's founding.

In this elegant collection, Donald R. Hickey and Connie D. Clark bring together enlightening, important, and amusing selections from Hamilton's speeches, published writings and personal letters. As we come to understand Hamilton's thoughts on subjects as diverse as the Constitution, love, war, liberty and honor, we find that his words are often as applicable in our own time as they were in his.

From Citizen Hamilton
American Character
"The people of the United States are a people equally sober and enlightened; their notions of liberty are rational and orderly."
Constitutional Law
"A sacred respect for the constitutional law is the vital principle, the sustaining energy, of a free government."
Dueling
"My religious and moral principles are strongly opposed to the practice of dueling, and it would even give me pain to be obliged to shed the blood of a fellow creature in a private combat forbidden by the laws."
Finding a Husband
"Get a man of sense, not ugly enough to be pointed at, with some good-nature, a few grains of feeling, a little taste, a little imagination, and above a good deal of decision to keep you in order, for that I foresee will be no easy task."
Happiness
"Experience more and more convinces me that true happiness is only to be found in the bosom of one's own family."
Money
"The effects of imagination and prejudice cannot safely be disregarded in anything that relates to money."
Optimism
"It is a maxim of my life to enjoy the present good with the highest relish and to soften the present evil by a hope of future good."
The People
"The fabric of American Empire

 

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Alexander Hamilton was born on January 11, 1757 on the West Indian Island of Nevis. His mother died in 1769, around the same time his father went bankrupt. Hamilton joined a counting house in St. Croix where he excelled at accounting. From 1772 until 1774, he attended a grammar school in Elizabethtown, New Jersey, and went on to study at King's College. Hamilton entered the Revolutionary movement in 1774 at a public gathering in New York City with a speech urging the calling of a general meeting of the colonies. That same year, he anonymously wrote two pamphlets entitled, A Full Vindication of the Measures of Congress from the Calumnies of Their Enemies and The Farmer Refuted. When the Revolutionary War began, Hamilton joined the army and became a Captain of artillery, where he served with distinction in the battles of Long Island, White Plains, Trenton and Princeton. He was introduced to George Washington by General Nathaniel Greene with a recommendation for advancement. Washington made Hamilton his aide-de-camp and personal secretary. He resigned in 1781 after a dispute with the General, but remained in the army and commanded a New York regiment of light infantry in the Battle of Yorktown. Hamilton left the army at the end of the war, and began studying law in Albany, New York. He served in the Continental Congress in 1782-83, before returning to practice law, becoming one of the most prominent lawyers in New York City. In 1786, Hamilton participated in the Annapolis Convention and drafted the resolution that led to assembling the Constitutional Convention in 1787. He then helped to secure the ratification of the Constitution of New York with the help of John Jay and James Madison, who together wrote the collection of 85 essays which would become known as The Federalist. Hamilton wrote at least 51 of the essays. In 1789, Washington appointed him the first Secretary of the Treasury, a position at which he excelled at and gained a vast influence in domestic and foreign issues, having convinced Washington to adopt a neutral policy when war broke out in Europe in 1793. In 1794, Hamilton wrote the instructions for a diplomatic mission which would lead to the signing of Jay's Treaty. He returned to his law practice in 1795. President John Adams appointed Hamilton Inspector General of the Army at the urging of Washington. He was very much involved with the politics of the country though, and focused his attentions on the presidential race of 1800. Hamilton did not like Aaron Burr and went out of his way to make sure that he did not attain a nomination. Similarly, when Burr ran for mayor of New York, Hamilton set about to ruin his chances for that position as well. Burr provoked an argument with Hamilton to force him to duel. Hamilton accepted and the two met on July 11, 1804 at Weehawken, New Jersey. Hamilton was shot and mortally wounded and died on July 12, 1804.

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