He was very ambitious, so I have no doubt that he wanted to be president. But I think he was much more suited for the role that he ended up playing. As Treasury secretary, he had the technocratic skills necessary to restore American credit, adopt state debt and create a central bank.
He also was sophisticated enough to justify his activities in political terms. And as a lawyer he could argue that they were legitimized by the Constitution. Remember: when he became Treasury secretary, the country was bankrupt; American debt was sel ing for 10 or 15 cents on the dollar. But Hamilton felt it was important to honor it. He provided the country with an economic and financial maturity that enabled it to give the Constitution and federal government a fair test. A: I think that at the time of his death, Hamilton was already wandering in the political wilderness, his political career effectively over because the Jeffersonians were solidly in control.
But I think he still had great contributions to make in two areas. At the time of the duel, he was projecting a series of volumes on the history of political institutions, and he said that those books would be to the Federalist Papers what wine was to water, which makes me very sad that we never got to read them. Also he was one of the preeminent lawyers of his day, so I think he would have gone on to argue major cases and write distinguished briefs.
So I think he would have continued to matter, even as he remained in political exile. P ick up your copy in stores today. Contact us at letters time. An illustration of the duel between politicians Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr TIME Books. Either way, his political career would be over. After Hamilton's and Burr's seconds tried without success to settle the matter amicably, the two political enemies met on the dueling grounds at Weehawken, New Jersey on the morning of July Each fired a shot from a.
Burr was unscathed; Hamilton fell to the ground mortally wounded. He died the next day. Instead of reviving Burr's political career, the duel helped to end it. Burr was charged with two counts of murder. After his term as vice president ended, he would never hold elective office again. And his next plot to gain power would end with charges of treason. Discover the fascinating story of Elizebeth Smith Friedman, the groundbreaking cryptanalyst who helped bring down gangsters and break up a Nazi spy ring in South America.
Her work helped lay the foundation for modern codebreaking today. What we can learn from counterfactual history. Meanwhile, President Thomas Jefferson was ham-handling his second term in spectacular fashion. When British and French navies began seizing American merchant ships, Jefferson banned all his nation's vessels from the high seas. Soon 40, sailors rioted in our ports. Businesses collapsed and New England talked treason.
A newspaper described it as "cutting a man's throat to cure a nosebleed. What if he hadn't died after that duel in ? We can't know for sure, obviously. But here are some ideas:. The Hamilton who survived the duel would have run for president against Jefferson's handpicked successor, brilliant but colorless James Madison -- and won going away. He would have taken the country in a new direction, creating a trained army to win the War of , absorbing Canada and changing the nation's name to The United States of North America.
Read More. Finally, President Hamilton would have tackled the greatest problem America faced: slavery. Hamilton detested the so called"peculiar institution. Southerners would have been reassured by Hamilton's plan, which extended the emancipation process over twenty five years.
This gave them time to adjust to a free economy. The ex-slaves would have been urged to migrate to land set aside for them in the Far West or in Texas. That policy would have reduced the South's fear of a race war. There were some worrisome aspects to President Hamilton's reign, as Jefferson and other naysayers often pointed out to no avail.
The last letter Hamilton wrote before the duel warned a fellow Federalist that democracy was a"disease" which America had to somehow cure. In Hamiltonian America, dissent was barely tolerated.
The individual states were encouraged to enforce tough libel laws, making newspapers tame supporters of the regime. President Hamilton also insisted on maximum federal control of all aspects of American life. The settlement of the west, the curriculums of public schools and even colleges, the regulation of the legal and medical and scientific professions, all came under federal supervision.
Special attention was given to the federal judiciary; all the judges were personally selected by President Hamilton and their powers were steadily expanded, reducing state courts to virtual nullities.
The Christian Constitutional Society was another Hamiltonian idea that troubled some people. He had proposed it in , after the Federalists lost the White House to Jefferson. Its purpose was the inculcation of Christian values and the denunciation of those who espoused other values or attacked the Constitution.
It was organized into local clubs, state councils and a national council, consisting of a president and twelve members. An enthusiastic Hamilton addressed a national convention each year when they met in Washington D. Critics muttered that Alexander the Great was not satisfied with being president. He was also running for pope. President Hamilton refused to retire after two terms, like George Washington. As he made clear in a speech at the Constitutional Conventionn in , Hamilton believed a president should stay in office for life -- unless he was defeated at the polls.
The result was a steady accumulation of personal and family power. Little was said publicly about the enormous fortunes Hamilton's sons acquired thanks to their federal connections. When they and their children and their friends began winning seats in the Senate and in Congress, a semblance of an American royal family began to loom on the horizon. Hamilton remained in office for twenty two years, dying in the White House in He issued a statement on his deathbed, urging his successors to return to George Washington's example, claiming only the"necessities" of the nation's situation persuaded him to remain in office so long.
Some critics whispered that"Alexander the Great" never said this -- it was cooked up as a cover for the growing dissatisfaction with the"family circle" government that was running America. The Hamiltons were astute enough to find willing acolytes who ran for president in succeeding years; behind the scenes they remained firmly in control. Thanks to the Hamiltonian revolution, there was no Civil War. There were no , dead Americans in a conflict that left the South an economic desert for a half century.
America would have become one of the great industrial powers of the world by , challenging England's hegemony and reducing her imperial arrogance. The British surrendered South America as a U. In neither country was anything like a labor movement tolerated much less encouraged. Americans were repeatedly told there was no such thing as class struggle.
Again and again, the White House assured the voters that no people ever enjoyed as much material happiness -- which was true enough. Only a minority noticed that beneath the surface of American life, as the rich got richer and the middle class more prosperous, rumbled a potentially ominous discontent. A handful of historians, ignoring frowns from Washington and hints of reduced government grants, began debating whether it was a good thing that Aaron Burr had missed on July 11, Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.
This is why you tick me off sometimes, Mr. PS I think Hamilton was largely seen as overly ambitious and trying to punch above his weight.
His insistence on the title 'General' kinda says it all. I suspect most people thought he was promoting war as much or more out of his own ambition, than for the public good. And what was he general of? An army that existed largely on paper. A classic case of short-man's and born-on-the-wrong-side-of-the-blanket's disease.
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