OCR Text |
Show K HAMILTON AND THIS CAMPAIGN. B As the campaign comes on apace, it would B be good for all Americans to re-read the life of B ' Alexander Hamilton. After the close of the great B j war for Ave years the country drifted, impotent B ' for good, without cohesion, a mere assemblage of B independent States; so poor that affairs grew IB j ,1 worse and worse year by year, torn by jealousies, B, j I with no fixed policlos, often on the brink of civil B i war, and altogether the scorn of Europe. B ' i It was a condition which threatened to end in B total anarchy. B Then Alexander Hamilton determined to pick B up the tang.ed and raveled threads of the helpless B gcvernment and out of them weave a fabric of B ; stability out of the chaos to create a nation. The B 'f work he performed, the opposition he encountered B have no parallel. It was through him that the BK Constitutional convention was called; It was i ' t ' through him that it was accepted by a majority of B ' I h States. When he made his demands of what B liii should be incorporated in that instrument his H 'j l friends told him he asked more than could be ac- H t ceded to, and he replied: "I know it, but I know S ' ij I, that body They will cut down a good many of WBk ':' f these propositions, but they will accept as much jBr 1 tf j as is necessary. If I asked for less I could not HB I M-S get what I want." BB p In that fight he was backed by John Adams HH ' t John, afterward Chief Justice Marshall, Phick- HB5 ney and Madison. He was opposed by Governor Hfl j Clinton, Aaron Burr and a score more of the high- BBrllJ j eat Intellects of the country, but he finally won. B '' The chief est arguments his opponents used BGf pre that it was taking the Independent power from the States, that the aim was to establish a monarchy. But Hamilton triumphed and Washington Wash-ington was elected President. He chose Hamilton for Secretary of the Treasury, that a financial system might be planned and built, and on Hamilton's Ham-ilton's advice, Thomas Jefferson, who had been several years in France, was made Secretary of State. Then the real work began. The thought of Hamilton was to establish a national bank, fund the debt and to so adjust the finances that a revenue rev-enue would be obtained to carry on the government, govern-ment, to meet the interest oid supply a sinking fund for the debt, to increase the commerce, to build up manufactures. Then Madison and Monroe Mon-roe turned against him, and from the first Jefferson Jeffer-son fought every one of his propositions; fought the bank, the tariff, everything, and the opposition press of the country proved to a demonstration that the real design was to make Washington King and to steal the liberties of the people. When, to get more revenue, Hamilton proposed an excise ex-cise law, that was seized upon as an act of usurpation, usur-pation, "taxing the comforts of the people," and the officers who sought to collect the tax were ridden on rails. When the nucleus of an army and navy was proposed, that was but to fix things so that when Washington should finally be proclaimed pro-claimed King, he would have the means to enforce his title. The heart of the great chieftain who had led the armies to victory was well-nigh broken, for he was sensitive to public opinion, but he held his place, Hamilton was his chiefest support, sup-port, and between the two the nation was firmly established on an enduring basis. When, later, Jefferson became President, he accepted what Hamilton had wrought out, never thinking to change one of his policies. He made Gallatin his Secretary of the Treasury, told him to employ all the help needed to correct the blunders and frauds of Hamilton, but he did not interfere with BBBBHBBBBH the tariff, the excise law, the army or navy or West Point Gallatin, after two months of investigation, reported re-ported to his chief that there was nothing to undo or to change, that Hamilton's system was as perfect per-fect as it was wonderful, but Jefferson did give Burr a state dinner after he killed Hamilton. The crowning glory of his administration was the Louisiana Purchase, but even this Hamilton had insisted on eight years before. Hamilton was the bravest, truest, wisest and most brilliant man of his age. It is good to recall him now, for the slogans of the Democracy in the coming campaign cam-paign will be but echoes of the same cries that were raised against the men from whom all the grandeur of this Republic dates. |