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wSunday, July 11, 2004 |
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If the NY Post was a paper with any decency whatsoever, the following
piece would have ran today. But instead they chose to ignore their
founder, the greatest human being who ever lived.
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200 Years After His Death, Hamilton's Legacy Remains in Doubt
Michael Malice
Tomorrow marks the 200th anniversary of Alexander Hamilton’s death. Yet
his many accomplishments seem in great danger of being forgotten.
Amazingly it is Republicans, his political quasi-descendants, who are
trying to replace Hamilton on the $10 bill with Ronald Reagan. The
Democratic party was founded by Thomas Jefferson specifically to
organize against Hamilton and his Federalist principles.
A recent ABC news poll found that by 54 percent to 36 percent, most
people oppose replacing Alexander Hamilton’s portrait on the $10 bill
with Reagan’s. Hamilton has graced the bill since 1928.
A simple majority of both houses of Congress is required to make
changes to the currency. But that hasn’t stopped Senator Chuck Schumer
(D-N.Y.) from fighting to keep Hamilton on the currency. “Hamilton was
a great man,” Schumer said in a recent interview. “He probably had a
more profound effect on this republic than Ronald Reagan.”
Hamilton biographer Richard Brookhiser readily concedes Reagan’s
stature. “But Alexander Hamilton is the founder of our prosperity and
our national strength. Keep him where he is.” Most of his
contemporaries believed that America would—and should—always remain an
agrarian farming society. More than anyone of his time, Hamilton saw
the crucial role stock markets would play in the decades ahead.
Slade Gorton, Washington’s Republican former Senator, was on Capitol
Hill last month lobbying to preserve the diminutive New Yorker’s image.
Gorton is an advisory-board member of the Alexander Hamilton Historical
Society.
“Hamilton was the prophet of the capitalist system that Ronald Reagan
so admired,” said historian Ron Chernow. He “was the most influential
American who was not president and had a more lasting impact on
American society and economy than all but a few presidents.”
In 1787 the Continental Congress authorized a Constitutional
Convention. As a delegate Hamilton was extremely influential in
steering the new Constitution into a vehicle to cement the states into
one nation.
Disgusted with the growing consensus towards centralization, two New
Yorkers left the Convention, leaving Hamilton to be the state's only
signer of the new Constitution. A loophole was even inserted in Article
II to allow foreign-born Hamilton to be eligible for the Presidency.
Hamilton is more responsible than any other individual for New York
joining the United States. Over two-thirds of the New York delegates
who would vote on ratification were chosen specifically for their
opposition to the Constitution.
Hamilton began his battle by penning the bulk of The Federalist,
seeking to convince New Yorkers of the value of the Constitution. His
speeches at the state convention convinced his political opponents to
ratify, by a margin of 30 to 27.
Recently Columbia University released its list of the 250 Greatest
Columbia Alumni. John Jay and Gouverneur Morris, two other members of
the Federalist party, took first and second place to Hamilton’s third.
Mere months after enrolling he would be George Washington’s
aide-de-camp and personal secretary.
The familial relationship soured when Washington complained that
Hamilton had kept him waiting, treating him with disrespect. The
consummate New Yorker, Hamilton refuses to back down to anyone.
“[S]ince you have thought it necessary to tell me so, we must part,” he
told the General.
Recognizing his intellect, Washington later mended fences with Hamilton
and invited him to be the first Secretary of the Treasury. The paper
money issued by the states as payment to the soldiers was being
exchanged for pennies on the dollar.
As Treasury Secretary he struck a deal with Jefferson, conceding that
the nation’s capital move to the Potomac in exchange for redeeming the
paper money for face value and without regard to whom the money was
originally issued. This bill was pivotal in establishing the brand name
of the US Government.
Because of Hamilton’s maneuvering, to this day treasury bills are
regarded as one of the safest forms of investment.
Starting on September 28th and through February 2005 the New-York
Historical Society will offer an exhibition on Hamilton, “The Man Who
Made Modern America.” It will include the pistols used in his fatal
duel, original copies of the U.S. Constitution and the Declaration of
Independence, and handwritten correspondence between Hamilton and his
friends and enemies.
More information is available at http://www.alexanderhamiltonexhibition.org/.
In many ways Hamilton was the most modern of the Founding Fathers. In
addition to founding the Bank of New York, the New York Manumission
(abolitionist) Society and the New York Post, he retains the dubious
honor of being at the center of the nation’s first sex scandal. He was
blackmailed by his mistress’s husband, James Reynolds.
Reynolds later intimated that he knew of corruption inside Hamilton’s
Treasury Department. When Hamilton was called upon by several
Congressmen to answer the charges, he admitted what had really
happened. But future President James Monroe leaked matters to the
press, so Hamilton published a pamphlet detailing the complete ugly
affair.
What Hamilton remains most famous for is his 1804 duel with
Vice-President Aaron Burr. The duel is being reenacted today on the
very spot in Weehawken, New Jersey.
The ceremony will begin with a wreath laying at the Alexander Hamilton
monument in upper Weehawken at 7:00AM, the time when the duel took
place. This will be followed by the reenactment at 10:00 AM at Lincoln
Harbor Park, with descendents of Hamilton and Burr facing off. The
actors will arrive in rowboats, dressed in costumes of the period and
will be using replicas of the original pistols.
In the afternoon there will be a panel discussion featuring noted
authors and historians Thomas Fleming, Joanne Freeman and Chernow.
For thirty days following his murder, New Yorkers wore crepe on their
arms in deference. But in death his greatness is still, quite
literally, obscured. Hamilton lies buried at Trinity Church, at the
crossroads of Broadway and Wall Street. But his monument is not the
largest even in the tiny cemetery. That honor belongs to historical
footnote John Watts, the last royal recorder of the city of New York.
posted by Michael Malice at 3:52
PM
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