(Source: stuckinephemeralsilliness, via publius-report)
"As to the love of liberty and country you have given no stronger proofs of being actuated by it than I have done. Cease then to arrogate to yourself and to your party all the patriotism and virtue of the country."
— Alexander Hamilton directed to Thomas Jefferson, ‘Objections and Answers respecting the Administration of the Government’, August 18, 1792 (via publius-report)
Hamilton Trolls Jefferson, Results In What You Would Expect
“But Hamilton was not only a monarchist, but for a monarchy bottomed on corruption; In proof of this I will relate an anecdote, for the truth of which, I attest the God who made me. Before the President set out on his southern tour in April, 1791, he addressed a letter of the fourth of that month, from Mount Vernon, to the Secretaries of State, Treasury and War, desiring that if any serious and important cases should arise during his absence, they would consult and act on them. And he requested that the Vice President should also be consulted. This was the only occasion on which that officer was ever requested to take part in a cabinet question. Some occasion for consultation arising, I invited those gentlemen (and the Attorney General, as well as I remember,) to dine with me, in order to confer on the subject. After the cloth was removed, and our question agreed and dismissed, conversation began on other matters, and by some circumstance, was led to the British constitution, on which Mr. Adams observed, ‘purge that constitution of its corruption, and give to its popular branch equality of representation, and it would be the most perfect constitution ever devised by the wit of man.’ Hamilton paused and said, ‘purge it of its corruption, and give to its popular branch equality of representation, and it would become an impracticable government: as it stands at present, with all its supposed defects, it is the most perfect government which ever existed.’ And this was assuredly the exact line which separated the political creeds of these two gentlemen.”
Thomas Jefferson, Anas.
Along with the Caesar incident, I get the distinct feeling Hamilton lacked the part of his brain that deters really bad decisions: ‘Should I really say this to this person? No? Say it anyway. It’ll be a riot.’
"Mr. Jefferson has hitherto been distinguished as the quiet, modest, retiring philosopher; as the plain, simple, unambitious republican. He shall not now, for the first time, be regarded as the intriguing incendiary, the aspiring turbulent competitor.
How long it is since that gentleman’s real character may have been divined, or whether this is only the first time that the secret has been disclosed, I am not sufficiently acquainted with the history of his political life to determine; but there is always a ‘first time’ when characters studious of artful disguises are unveiled; when the visor of stoicism is plucked from the brow of the epicurean; when the plain garb of Quaker simplicity is stripped from the concealed voluptuary; when Cæsar coyly refusing the proffered diadem, is seen to be Cæsar rejecting the trappings, but tenaciously grasping the substance of imperial domination.
"— Alexander Hamilton, ‘Catullus’, September 29, 1792. And Jefferson did show everyone he was a simple republican farmer. By running for president. Neither Hamilton nor Adams bought it. (via publius-report)
On August 31, 1772, St. Croix and its neighboring islands was hit with one of the worst hurricanes in its history, leaving wide spread destruction and famine. Hamilton wrote a melodramatic letter to his father describing the event. The residents were impressed by the seventeen-year-old’s literary talents, and helped secure him the funds to send him to the American continent for further education.
‘Honored Sir. I take up my pen just to give you an imperfect account of the most dreadful hurricane that memory or any records whatever can trace, which happened here on the 31st ultimo at night.
‘It began about dusk, at North, and raged very violently till ten o’clock. Then ensued a sudden and unexpected interval, which lasted about an hour. Meanwhile, the wind was shifting round to the South West point, from whence it returned with redoubled fury and continued so till near three o’clock in the morning. Good God! what horror and destruction - it’s impossible for me to describe - or you to form any idea of it. It seemed as if a total dissolution of nature was taking place. The roaring of the sea and wind-fiery meteors flying about in the air - the prodigious glare of almost perpetual lightning - the crash of the falling houses - and the earpiercing shrieks of the distressed, were sufficient to strike astonishment into Angels. A great part of the buildings throughout the Island are leveled to the ground - almost all the rest was very shattered - several persons killed and numbers utterly ruined - whole families running about the streets unknowing where to find a place of shelter - the sick exposed to the keenness of water and air - without a bed to lie upon - or a dry covering to their bodies - our harbour is entirely bare. In a word, misery in all its most hideous shapes spread over the whole face of the country - a strong smell of gunpowder added somewhat to the terrors of the night; and it was observed that the rain was surprisingly salt. Indeed, the water is so brackish and full of sulphur that there is hardly any drinking it.
‘My reflections and feelings on this frightful and melancholy occasion are set forth in following self-discourse.
‘Where now OH! Vile worm, is all thy boasted fortitude and sufficiency? - why dost thou tremble and stand aghast? how humble - how helpless - how contemptible you now appear. And for why? the jarring of the elements - the discord of clouds? Oh, impotent presumptuous fool! How darest thou offend that omnipotence, whose nod alone were sufficient to quell the destruction that hovers over thee, or crush thee into atoms? See thy wretched helpless state and learn to know thyself. Learn to know thy best support. Despise thyself, and adore thy God. How sweet, and unutterably sweet were now, the voice of an approving conscience; Then couldst thou say, hence ye idle alarms, why do I shrink? What have I to fear? A pleasing calm suspense! A short repose from calamity to end in eternal bliss?…’
-Alexander Hamilton to James Hamilton, Royal Danish American Gazette, September 6, 1772.
"The Great man and I have come to an open rupture. Proposals of accommodation have been made on his part but rejected. I pledge my honor to you that he will find me inflexible. He shall for once at least repent his ill-humour."
— Alexander Hamilton to James McHenry, February 18, 1781. I understand Hamilton was too hypersensitive to be on the receiving end of Washington’s temper, especially after four years of working for him, but I just enjoy how he acts like a whiny bitch by trying to teach Washington a lesson. (via publius-report)
(via annie-wyatt)
Jefferson’s copy of The Federalist, sent by Angelica Church who had received it from her sister Elizabeth Hamilton.
“My beloved husband wrote the outline of his papers in the Federalist on board of one of the North river sloops while on his way to Albany, a journey (or rather a voyage) which in those days usually occupied a week. Public business so filled up his time, that he was compelled to do much of his studying and writing while traveling.”
Elizabeth Hamilton, A Godchild of Washington.
(via annie-wyatt)
"Perhaps myself the first, at some expense of popularity, to unfold the true character of Jefferson, it is too late for me to become his apologist. Nor can I have any disposition to do it. I admit that his politics are tinctured with fanaticism, that he is too much in earnest in his democracy, that he has been a mischievous enemy to the principle measures of our past administration, that he is crafty & persevering in his objects, that he is not scrupulous about the means of success nor very mindful of truth, and that he is a contemptible hypocrite. But it is not true as is alleged that he is an enemy to the power of the Executive, or that he is for confounding all the powers in the House of R[epresentative]s. It is a fact which I have frequently mentioned that while we were in the administration together he was generally for a large construction of the Executive authority, & not backward to act upon it in cases which coincided with his views."
— Alexander Hamilton to James Bayard, January 16, 1801. Hamilton helps get Jefferson elected because for all of his purposed disinterestedness, with his love of fame Jefferson was predictable. (via publius-reporter)
"For Jefferson, Hamilton was not so much an individual as an archetype of monarchism and corruption; and what was at stake in the conflict with Hamilton was nothing less than the survival of republicanism. For Hamilton, Jefferson always remained recognizably an individual, with his own peculiar blend of virtues and flaws. Moreover, Hamilton’s view of Jefferson’s politics was never as extreme as Jefferson’s view of Hamilton’s politics. Jefferson accused Hamilton of deliberately aiming to subvert the Constitution in the interests of a foreign power (England). Hamilton - while he disagreed with Jefferson’s constitutional ideas - did not question Jefferson’s basic loyalty to the Constitution and recognized that Jefferson’s enthusiasm for revolutionary France was limited by his commitment to upholding American sovereignty."
— James H. Read, “Alexander Hamilton’s View of Thomas Jefferson’s Ideology and Character,” The Many Faces of Alexander Hamilton. I like this description because I think it cuts to the point: Hamilton knew Jefferson would put his ambitions and desire for fame ahead of any real supposedly Jacobin tendencies, which is why he chose him over Burr. Though he may have honestly believed it, Jefferson created a boogieman and wrote in far more extremist (and combined with Hamilton’s indiscretions, more influencing) tones, making him the superior politician. (via publius-reporter)
T.J. v Hammie Part 10, In Which We Last Left Our Heroes In The Schoolyard
This is exactly what I needed in my life.
(via francesca-langer)
Washington, Hamilton and Jefferson go fishing.
I made a collage of Hamilton’s nose(s) because I use my time wisely.
"Old Mrs. Hamilton…active in body, clear in mind…talks familiarly of Washington, Jefferson, and the fathers. I told her how greatly I was interested…on account of her husband’s connection with the government. ‘He made your government,’ said she. ‘He made your bank. I sat up all night with him to help him do it. Jefferson thought we ought not to have a bank and President Washington thought so. But my husband said, ‘We must have a Bank.’ I sat up all night, copied out his writing, and the next morning, he carried it to President Washington and we had a bank."
— Alexander Hamilton: The National Adventure: 1788-1804. Nice passive-aggressive jab at Jefferson. (via publius-reporter)
