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Show ALEXANDER HAMILTON. The Commoner copies some imperial sentiments senti-ments delivered by Alexander Hamilton in the Federal convention of 1783, and tries to make the point from them that Hamilton did not believe in Popular government; that hence those who admire Hamilton now cannot shake off an inherent belief that the people are not qualified to govern themselves. them-selves. That is not very profound reasoning. The war closed in 1783, and the country, when Hamilton delivered that speech, had been drifting like a rudderless ship at sea for four years. Hamilton Ham-ilton loved order and believed in law; there were Qo successful republics to cite as examples of hat a free people could do; the British Government Govern-ment was a constitutional monarchy under which llle people were personally absolutely free, and it Was not strange that Hamilton was more impressed im-pressed with it than any other then existing government. gov-ernment. It is absolutely clear, too, that had he been talking for any other race under the sun ex cept the Anglo-Saxons on our shores, the perfect per-fect wisdom of his words would long ago have been made apparent. See how the experiment of trying the people's rule in Spanish America has succeeded. The one exception is that of Mexico under Diaz, and Diaz is more such a man as Hamilton Ham-ilton himself was than any public man of the present day. But when a Constitution was finally agreed upon it was Alexander Hamilton more than any other five men who influenced its adoption; the soundest timbers in the frame of it were Hamilton's; Hamil-ton's; when it was finally adopted and a government govern-ment under it was put in motion, it was Hamilton's Hamil-ton's genius more than that of all the others in high office combined tliat made it a success, and finally it was Hamilton's influence that made the election of Thomas Jefferson to the Presidency possible. It will not do, at this late day, to try to discount either the patriotism or the services of Alexander Hamilton. As soldier, scholar, orator, statesman, financier, he had such a combination of attributes as no other man of his age possessed. The steady judgment of George Washington leaned upon him with perfect trust, and that trust was never once betrayed. Men that say he had imperial ways speak truly. He believed in the sovereignty of mind; as he mingled with men he found so much that was dull and small that he thought more of himself him-self by comparison. He carried his head high, but after all his chiefest characteristics were, outside out-side his all-encompassing intellect, his absolute integrity, his perfect sense of justice, and his scorn of all demagogues and frauds. He would have lost his right arm rather than to have made a demagogue speech for a personal office, but when necessary he with voice and pen appealed to the people to support a measure or a cause, and he gave better reasons why they should than any other man of his age could give. From the hour when he a schoolboy mounted the rostrum and appealed to the people to assert themselves and to fight for their rights until he was in the fullness full-ness of his career cut off by death, he filled a prouder place than any other one of his countrymen. country-men. He believed in the sovereignty of mind, and the perfectness of the structure of our government govern-ment is more due to his work than to that of any other one man, not excepting even the great Washington. |