but that is the mercantile lism that you're railing against you have to remember alexander alexander hamilton fought against thomas jefferson in favor of mark into lism alexander stille until the later years of jefferson of course when he actually adopted hamilton's not only in dr brace hamilton some right when he became president right when we came president you know it only took power which is what happens the politicians they say one thing before they get elected and then when they get elected why charlie gibson is no different i know when jefferson was fighting hamilton hamilton was a secretary of the treasury jefferson was secretary of state they were both in george washington kept right so let's talk about the middle class that you really want to create a middle class even paul krugman has argued have made of the basis of one of his thesis that free trade is what alleviate the wrong i debated him on a cruise ship i mean this is the us pariah why how can you say that paul crosses president bill clinton is wrong i mean all of the greatest minds they were after

you mentioned your alexander hamilton book, "alexander hamilton, american". if you would like to chat with mr. brookhiser about his body of work his numbers are on the screen, 737-0001. for those in the east and central time zone 0002. in the mountain and pacific time zones you can contact us electronically, e-mail booktv@c-span.org who or contact us on our twitter account would.com/booktv if you have a question for richard brookhiser. you talked-about your "alexander hamilton, american" book and you write about him. having risen from island poverty, never forgot economies are about the people who work in them. like revolutions they must compensate for what ever evils they produced by bringing to life talents averages which might otherwise have languished in obscurity. >> in any book, any biography you have to find the central frame or the thing about the character that you can understand and you can identify with. what struck me with hamilton was just that. here is a man born -- he grows up on st. croix. his parents are not married. his father takes off when

hated alexander hamilton. and i just finished my hamilton book, so i'm sitting in the back of the room thinking, this is terrible. this is like god is pronouncing against my guy. so, i wait until the finishes the answer and then i piped up and i said, arnold, and he said, well, yes, benedict arnold was worse than hamilton. so i thought, whew, i got it on record that the on major general in history to commit treason was the worst guy than the first treasurery secretary, so i felt i won that point. >> host: as regular viewers of book tv know this is our in department program. the first sunday of every month we feature one author and his or her body of work. this month it's author and historian and seniored for at national review, richard brookhiser. here's his books. >> oo you mentioned your alexander am hamilton -- if you would like to chat with misbrookhiser about his body of work, the numbers are up on the screen, 202-this area code, 7370001. in >> host: you talked about your alexander hamilton, comma, america

they don't know that alexander hamilton is going to be secretary of the treasury. nobody is even thinking about that. they are thinking about can i survive the next hour, and they're very often in a situation where they don't know what's happening. confusion reigns all around and that's important to remember. if you're trying to get inside that time and understand the humans' situation and to feel it. i don't think you can really know anything until you feel it, brian. i think that you've got to -- you've got to care. otherwise you can get all the facts and figures and statistics in the encyclopedia. and facts and figures aren't necessarily the truth. and i'm -- i'm drawn into the time and the experience as it happened to the people who were there. and if i have -- if i have someone watching over my shoulder judging me in my mind, in my subconscious mind even, it isn't the reviewers or the other scholars, it's those people. are they going to read what i wrote or what i'm writing and say, yeah, you or are they going to be saying, look, you're way off mark here. that

what didn't you write about in the book and why so little on alexander hamilton? guest: because i'm never writing about what they're going to become later. i'm writing about what they're doing at that point. hamilton and monroe both appear briefly because they were very minor parts of the story at that point. they were very good, young officers, and they're portrayed as that. but they weren't people of real consequence in the way that knox and greene were. i also write about people like john greenwood, the little boy from boston, and joseph hod continues, the massachusetts shoe maker, who is one of my favorite characters of all. those people played a real part in that time, in that moment, we know, because they wrote about it. you have to remember that all that we know is what we have in diaries and letters. there were no correspondence reporting what a terrific job alexander hamilton just did, nor were there correspondents like we had covering the civil war. all we have the order early books and government records of various kinds and the diaries and letters. so i

given the assignment to write to general knox, knox at this time, the commander at west point, alexander hamilton was given the task to write to general washington. hamilton and washington had a tortured relationship. alexander hamilton arrived in america just before the revolution, timing is everything. went to college, became a lawyer, then the war broke out, joined the army, became a captain. distinguished himself. a fine soldier. came to the attention of general washington who invited this young man to be his secretary

alexander hamilton was given the task to write to general washington. hamilton and washington had a tortured relationship. alexander hamilton arrived in america just before the revolution. timing is everything. went to college, became a lawyer, then the war broke out. he joined the army, became a captain in the artillery, distinguished him, a very fine soldier. came to the attention of general washington who invited the young man to be his secretary, which he accepted. and he served washington until one day at headquarters, washington was going up the stairs, colonel hamilton coming down the stairs. the commander in chief said to the colonel, colonel, i wish to see you immediately. the colonel responded, i'll be with you in a few minutes, sir. not the right answer to the commander in chief. washington turned on hamilton, berated him in front of his fellow officers. hamilton then resigned as secretary. returned to the army

he was a curator of of exhibition alexander hamilton. he is a contributor to the national review and writees a column for the american observer. now before we begin this terrific program this evening i would ask as always that you please turn off your cell phones and now please, join me in welcoming our guest to the new york historical society. thank you. [ applause ] [ inaudible ] >> we're both really federalists, so that's all that really matters. before we begin, i want to embarrass our guest by adding a little more praise. we had been in a founder's revival for the last ten or 12 or perhaps more years. and like the founding itself, it's been a collective enterprise. many writers involved in making different contributions. but also, like the founding, there's been an indispensable man and i believe that's joe ellis. he was there at the beginning of the founder's revival. he brought the knowledge and the unimpeachable credentials of the academy and he joined them with a lit rate readable style. it's a pureless combination and i'm very

the jeffersonian, the first secretary of state and alexander hamilton's arch rival in the presidencygeorge washington, favors small business, small government, and small banking against its launcher counterparts. today it's cited by libertarians but the jeffersonians were not in free markets but to protect the smaller markets from larger ones. >> eliot: there was a new deal up through nixon of a vision of what government should do, and then there is what you called the dismantling of the economy and it's not surprising we've seen slower growth, greater inequity. what now resides of the jeffersonian are tradition, and how does it stack up with romney and obama. >> there has been a neo-jeffersonian consensus going back to jimmy carter and in many ways, richard nixon, embraced much of the new deals vision of government and business as partners in development. jimmy carter and reagan with the government was the enemy. you could simply dismantle regulation as possible and market would produce wealth and then tax the social safety net. it was the vision of the government as an un umpire ra

the alleys and are -- the alexander hamilton post, which represents the lgbt-focused veterans agency. "on behalf of the 200 lgbt war veterans, alexander hamilton post in san francisco would like me to speak a few words on behalf of our lgbt elders. our country would not be strong or successful if it were not for them. sexual orientation does not diminish the sacrifices that made for our nation. these citizens carry the burden to ensure that our society, with all its complexities, could succeed courage to those in the 1970's and 1980's, i cannot imagine what you winter in the early years. we owe you a great deal of gratitude. thank you again and got less all of you today." -- god bleesss all of you today" "discrimination can take many forms, including discrimination of omission, refusal of rice to receive visitors, denial of access to hormone therapy, being threatened for expressing gender identity, being segregated, being harassed on the basis of hiv status, refused the right to visit a partner, and refusal of life-planning documents the dead -- of life-planning documents. we have wor

[laughter] >> alexander hamilton fell for it hook, line and sinker. [laughter] and if you really want to appreciate alexander hamilton, the read his letter to his my fiancee about -- >> he's writing his fiancee about how cool this woman is and how he just wished he could be a brother to her. [laughter] and you really wonder, well, what kind of brother? >> after hamilton needed relief, lafayette took over. reading one of lafayette's -- leading one of lafayette's biographers to suggest that lafayette may have had a sexual interest in mrs. arnold. >> and then george washington shows up, and washington being a family friend, and washington, i've got the tell you, two years of reading about the american revolution, to me, only makes you like washington more. and washington, you know, is very sympathetic, shows up at her bedside, says what's wrong, mrs. arnold, and she'll have nothing to do with him. she says that's the imposter who's going to murder my child. and so she can't recognize this man who's a family friend supposedly. and she just, you know, she

in the know comes from the kernel in westchester saying for his excellency size only so of alexander hamiltonhad wrecked this goes to sleep in a chair and when general washington comes back he is mystified. what's going on? hamilton wakes up and says the messenger brought this note for you. washington opens it up and it all falls together because he is figured out, what does he say, whom can we trust now because arnold has betrayed us. in the meantime no peggy. >> right, so peggy shippen, as soon as she left washington get across west point in effect to give her husband more time to escape, she launches on something that was a little bit of history that has been written about this -- we call it the mad scene because peggy shippen goes completely crazy. i mean like hysterically bad. she start shrinking. there are hot coals and her husband's head and they are going to put hot coals in her head and she says her husband has flown through the ceiling and he is gone. she says that general washington is trying to murder her child and she will not let him. and she shrieks down the hallway, runs aroun

you can read alexander hamilton's report on manufacturing. in makes almost the identical arguments. in a world where we are competitive with other nations and other nations setting up industries we need to make sure -- we need to make sure we are providing incentive for the personal economic incentives for new industries. and justification for funding through hamilton's argument. hamilton makes the argument we need infrastructure and road that support manufacturing and the argument that we need the right tax incentives and the right work force that is educated and even jefferson who was on the other side comes around to the view that the government needs to support manufacturing. this becomes the american economic system and influences abraham lincoln and is the governing philosophy of america's rise in industrialization. herbert hoover when i got to the commerce department wondered why would you name the commerce building after the president responsible for the depression? not to be trey my partisan leanings. i developed a lot of respect for hoover. he was not the best president bu

you can read alexander hamilton's report ten pages and he makes the argument. hamilton says in the world where we are competitive with other nations and other nations are setting up the industry's, we need to make sure that we have fair trade and we need to make sure that we are providing incentives, economic incentives for the new industries and we can almost get the justification for funding that through the argument. hamilton makes the argument that we need infrastructure and we need the right tax incentives and the right of the work force that is educating. even jefferson. people say jefferson was on the inside but he comes around with the view that we need to support manufacturing. this becomes the american economic system it influences henry clay and abraham lincoln is the governing philosophy of america's rise in industrialization. herbert hoover when i got to the commerce department i wondered why would you name the commerce building after the president responsible for the depression not to betray my partisan leanings? but i developed a lot of respect fo

the vote in new york was going to be so close that alexander hamilton kept writing madison saying all is lost if you don't pass this constitution in virginia. no pressure. but everything is lost. [laughter] and, in fact, new york only ratifies the constitution after more than a month's debate after virginia ratifies ask only then by three -- and only then by three votes. and only then because the federalists agree to this unanimous declaration they're going to call for a new constitutional convention unless and until there's a bill of rights that comes out of the first congress. so what the anti-federalists do is say, let's set this aside. that measure fails by 88-80 votes. just eight votes. james madison didn't even know the if he was going to participate in the virginia ratification convention. indeed, if it'd been scheduled earlier, madison wouldn't have been able to make it. he was up in new york. and, in fact, he gives his first speech in a long career in public service, gives his first speech in support of his candidacy to be part of this ratification convention, and aren't we g

[laughter] among the founders to have sent e-mails is alexander hamilton what thomas jefferson and one to get on the record and then move on if he's sitting there pleading his case and jefferson is looking sort of blow seng in that vaguely charming we had. he's not like fdr that you can leave. anyone that left his company thought he agreed with them. it's to get for the moment and not such a great way to get through the day as it turns out to he is my contact with davis and goes, grabs the fly it begins pulling apart. davis begins to realize that man of for quite as well as he hoped. a second story. there you have the man that can snap a fly, pulled apart and ferociously focused when he needs to be to read often making you thinking he is not focused. he traveled through. it was a couple of days' ride from monticello to washington. he stopped at an inn and falls into a conversation with a fellow guest and they have a lovely, wide ranging discussion the next morning the other guest mr. jefferson is up and out and the other guest had never called his name and he said to the inn keeper who

animal teeth alexander hamilton's or? >> the road to a correspondence. it was in the context of how we get this nation pact to begin to appreciate the importance of government. of course, we have found republican principles, small or republican in government by the people without the trappings of the crown, strike executive-branch. but hamilton was very interested in how we actually get the people to respect the national government. most importantly to how do we give foreign powers to respect this. you know, if the government isn't highly visible and you don't have a powerful army. if we don't have the trappings of authority people never really buy into government. >> ec was wrong. >> at the key is wrong. if you look at most objective of the government, national governments caught through mechanisms like the tariff tent -- taxation, excise taxes , visible tax collectors. we used a tariff embedded in the price of goods. sir you cannot see the cost broken out. where did the correct this? literally offshore. literally before ships arrived. we have customs h

and the one from alexander hamilton is also a legal paper from 1795. this autograph, by john quincy adams, where he signed as the secretary of state and it's routine, departmental business from january 16th of 1818. john quincy adams, who's one of america ew's great secretaries of state, arranging with england for the joint occupation of the oregon territory and obtaining from spain, the cessation of the floridas which included eastern louisiana. he also formulated the doctrine with president monroe on the monroe doctrine. and he was sixth president of the united states in 1825. the oldest document we have in the collection is this full letter that was written by vol vol tair. he was a french philosopher and flown as "the father of ten lightenment." this letter was written in 1732 and the letter is thanking the author for his criticism or review of his book of history. the history of charles xii. as father of enlightenment, this is the basis of the american revolution. and i think that's probably why the collector included these documents as well as th

while soaking over that, he learned of some very rude remarks that a man made about by alexander hamilton during that campaign. he sent hamilton a note demanded that he retract remarks or explain them. hamilton wrote a rather mouthed response. things evolve from there and he ended up fighting the famous dual in new jersey. it ended very badly for hamilton. he died. i always love this illustration. i put it in the book. is the illustration all the books about the dual for 100 years. it was in the books i read about as a boy and what i love about it is hamilton is grabbing his head even though he was shot in the torso so it's not terribly accurate. although plainly hamilton lost the duel it's hard to say that burr one of because he really was ruined by the duel. he was indicted for murder in new york state. he was also indicted for murder in new jersey and he had to flee into philadelphia to avoid arrest. so you have a sitting vice president of the united states under indictment for murder in two states and on the lam from the law. this was a remarkable turn of events, and aaron burr unders

he told former secretary alexander hamilton in a duel. mr. brands represents a different standard than your politician to a collection of letters between aronberg and his daughter, theodosia. this is about an hour and 15 minutes. >> i am delighted to speak here. i was like to speak in washington with where the audiences are well informed and engaged. having just finished teaching a semester for the year at the university of texas, isolated to speech or not it's the people you don't have to be here. there will be no tests. i say this sincerely. i'm very flattered you took the time in your evening to come listen to me. i think that my students by and large are interested in the subject, but i know perfectly well that if they did not test, it did, academic papers or rather, bo, the sympathies to be empty. none of you have to be here, but she did, and i find that very flattering. i could i supposed to be a test at the end. the title of my talk on which i forgot until jamie just mentioned is the unknown aaron burr. i'm going to tell you what i rea

it was written on the night before his duel with alexander hamilton. and he knew perfectly well he might not survive the next day. so he wrote a letter to theo explaining what she should do with his letters and papers. and this is one of the reasons for the negative opinions that have developed over time regarding aaron burr, because he says burn all these letters, especially the ones that are bound up in this red ribbon. and, well, he survived, but the letters didn't. and whether theo did away with them, whether they were lost at sea with theo, i don't know. um, but there is one interesting aspect about all this, and that is that relationships like burr's with theo are a rich source for historians, but only when the individuals in the relationship are far apart. i'll bet that many of you in this room read david mccullough's biography of john adams. and you'll know that mccullough's secret weapon in that book was abigail adams. in fact, i was at a conference or a meeting or something where somebody asked david mccullough, well, now you've written about

you part of alexander hamilton. you've probably heard of james madison and john jay, the authors of the federalist papers. e85 essays in defense of the constitution. so most people that read the constitution and think that they understand the constitution look at the document and maybe look at it for newspapers and say that's a. but it's deeper than that. in fact, it goes much deeper than that. i would argue in the book, and i say this in the federalist papers are not as important as using. they were written in new york, and he didn't have much of an impact in new york itself. because the state of newark on the ratify the constitution by three votes. three votes. so these 85 essays that people say are the definitive source on the constitution didn't have much impact at the time. but there are others and there were other members of that generation who perhaps were more important than people like james madison. james madison was often called the father of the kosygin but i say that's a misnomer. the historical scholar

andrew jackson, first of all celebrated the fact that he had killed alexander hamilton.everybody in the west.burr was a great man and went burr talked about, tart to know exactly what he did but when he talked about a possible independent future for the west, it was entirely consistent with american philosophy of politics including that of thomas jefferson but even more importantly, it was the almost inevitable outcome of geography, because once you cross the mountains, the rivers all ran downstream and the rivers were the essence of commerce. they were the avenues of transport. and jefferson himself sometimes wondered whether louisiana's fate was with the united states. and so, burr was simply, i don't know if he was articulating or were simply letting people articulate what they thought their future might be. because if you lived in new orleans in 1805, it took forever to get to washington or new york and you could well ask yourself, how can those people in the east govern? that was part of what he was up to. would he have waged war against the united states? i doubt i

emerged as the focal point of the opposition in the first congress to secretary of the treasury, alexander hamilton's plan for the states -- for the federal government to assume the debts of the states. see, hamilton realized this would get every start off to a good footing. it would restore the public credit of the states. it would cement the union and tie the union together. well, the southern states had more or less paid off their bills. the northern states more or less had not. the southern states wanted to know why they should pay twice for their war debts when they had been frugal and in their opinion had worked hard to pay down their debt. the northern states said if you won't come to our aid, what's the point in bees in this union with you at all if we can't rely on you for this? people were talking about secession, a bout of influenza hit washington, dc, nearly killed george washington. a very precarious time for the country. thomas jefferson runs into alexander hamilton who was usually very polished, very well dressed, clean shaven, looking none of those things in front of his house. and je

as alexander hamilton pointed out, until t people have amended the constitution iis llti alluponhemselves vilyo noge of the people's sentiment can warn their representatis in a departure from it. with this background in mind we turn to the iowa srmecot' e bnula bug by 12 individuals who resided in six communities across iowa. i want to talk just a minute about them because sometimes people forget that this lawsuit was about t lesf al pe aot trac lu oe atover sa-sex marriage. let me read the description of these individuals from the courts's opinion. like most iowans the plaintis e red igg mbf be o their communities. they include theurse and business manager and insurance analyst, stay at home parent, church organist and piano ciorea aerplee someave ildr andthers hope to have children. some are foster parents. they prize their liberties and live within the borders with the lle t r ht protected. a belief embraced by our state motto. iowa's state motto is our liberties reprise and r rights we will maintn. gog backo the opion, itheomli sred oer iands, most in one way. they were sexually and r

he had followed alexander hamilton over broad presidential powers. then about the third week of august, 1803 -- that was the fourth of july. about the third or week of august he gets a letter from france saying napoleon was having second thoughts. so severeson says, well, i do think we have the power there, and, boom, it's done. [laughter] franklin roosevelt, when he was taking the critical steps to preparing us and providing aid to britain in the runup to the great contest over liberty in the middle of the 20th century explicitly pointed to the louisiana purchase as a model for what an executive should do in a teem of crisis. in a time of crisis. jefferson himself said that the duty of a magistrate is to the line of the law, but it is not the highest duty. that the survival and success of the country is your highest obligation. one person's imperial president i is another person's hero. one person's tyranny is another person's brilliant reform. part of what we have to struggle with from age to age in america is realizing that some generations there'

. >> alexander hamilton fell for it hook, line, and sinker.and if you really want to appreciate alexander hamilton, read his letter to his fiancÉe he's writing his fiancÉe just about how cool this woman is and how he wishes he could be a brother to her. we don't know what kind of brother. after hamilton need relief, lafayette took over, leaving one of lafayette's biographers to right, maybe lafayette had a sexual interest in. spent i've got today, two years agreement about the american revolution to me only makes you like washington more. and washington is pretty sympathetic, shows up at her bedside and says what's wrong, ms. shippen? mrs. arnold the and showed nothing to do with them. she said that's not george washington. that's an imposter. that's an imposter is going to murder my child. so he can't recognize this man was a family friend. she just goes stark raving mad. for the entire day. really alarming people. and you want to talk about what was found? >> we had the day with the mad scene. and then one of my jobs in our research was to g

again, going there with alexander hamilton, though. but i don't think -- i think it was something that grew on washington. and by the way, washington never lost his instincts for taking the battle to the enemy. and indeed, frankly, in the last campaign, you know, he didn't intend to go to yorktown. he intended to try to retake new york. which tells you a couple things. first of all, he was willing to set aside his own strategic which tells you a couple things. first of all, he was willing to set aside his own strategic prejudices, if you will, and allow circumstances to govern his actions and those of the army. so, i think that's maybe the answer to your question. i'm not sure there was ever a time when he resigned himself to this. i think he always understood the war as more than a conventional military conflict. it was a war for mind, more than capitals and armies. i think you can make the case that washington is a much more moderate general than he is generally described. >> how big was the army went wh it went into valley forge and

imperfectly contained the opposing schools of thought personified by secretary of the treasury alexander hamilton and secretary of state thomas jefferso of state thomas jefferson. inevitably, the arist to cat who considered himself a friend to man versus hamilton with a belief in regional sin and no shortage of personal experience to back it up. taking note of hamilton's reputation as a lady's man, washington had given his name to the house ped, a large headed amorous tomkat. like fire and frost, they were temperamental opposites who not even washington could reconcile. he performed a juggling act with historic consequences. two centuries before bill clinton and his aggressive young campaign team declared that it's the economy stupid, washington resolved to put his country's credit on a sound basis. quote. i think i see a path as clear and direct as a ray of light, he wrote. which if pursued will ensure permanent felicity to the commonwealth. to support hamilton's audacious scheme to have the federal government assume state debts left over from the war, was a perfectly logical expression of this

alexander hamilton.nder hamilton, and there's a million things he has not done, but just you wait, just you wait -- >> that's him performing. it's awesome. i want you to give us -- you are writing a cycle of hip-hop songs about alexander hamilton. you say in the beginning of that clip when you are speaking at the white house and you are doing it because you think hamilton is somebody that embodies hip-hop? >> and by saying that, he is really the quote unquote american dream story. he is an immigrant, first of all, and he was orphaned by age 10. he is somebody that wrote himself out of his circumstances. he wrote a poem about a hurricane that destroyed st. croix. he became washington's aide to that, and his beef with jefferson are basically the things you debate every morning. that was the beginning of the two-party system. and so it was -- it's somebody who is brilliant and always thought he was the smartest guy in the room. and very self-destructive in a lot of ways. first sex scandal with maria reynold

the first treasury secretary is alexander hamilton. the first secretary of war is henry knox. and the most important off-stage adviser is representative james madison. washington has known all these men for years. they know each other. jefferson and madison are dearest friends. madison and hamilton are federalist papers co-authors. hamilton and knox are fellow war veterans. what could go wrong? well, the two things that almost immediately go wrong are arguments over finance and foreign policy. the financial arguments have a lot to do, i think with the backgrounds of the parties involved. hamilton, the treasury secretary, started life as a merchant's clerk in the virgin islands. he knows international business and finance from the inside, from the ground up, and he likes and it it gave him his opportunity in life because it was businessmen and in st. croix who sent him to new york and-to-get a college education and then that's where he joins the army, american revolution. jefferson and madison are virginia planters. positive their deal wings international business and finance a

alexander hamilton said war is the greatest challenge and that area of human that is best suited to control by the executive. administration by the executive. i think that the basic trade off between and this responds with regard to the point, you can have a government by legislature which we have seen in a lot of parliamentary systems of government. they trade off and it's hard for legislatures to enact quickly. they make less mistakes and the more who participate, the less likely they make an error. foreign affairs and our constitution creates more checks that tries to make it harder for policy to get past. there is no great harm from slowness. there is always the states that can regulate. there is not like there is a vacuum or federal action. foreign affairs however, there is that kind of cost from enaction. there is advantage for acting faster. one minute left, i will bring it back to the actual topic of the panels which is czars in libya. i agree with czars that are constitutionally problematic, but administration is aed about idea, but presidents took it on to get so involved with leg

some federalist number 70, alexander hamilton says a vigorous executive is necessary to protect against the irregular and high handed combinations which sometimes interrupt the ordinary course of justice, which emanate, from, quote, unquote, the humors of the legislature. tom and i worked in the legislature, and there's not a lot of humors there and that's why they rectified that andand it's not talked about this sort by the president to convince a congress to enact his or her program and it calls furnace an aadditional security against laws that would be unfriendly to the public good. so in one respect, i think the reason why we have this disjunction is because we have presidents who feel now today that it is their role to promote an active domestic policy and almost integrate themselves with the legislature and this is something that not only runs against the framers, i don't think it explains why president obama is getting so low -- obama care and the t.a.r.p. and the stimulus. and he gets blamed for all of those but they were actually written in congress. i love all the names like g

alexander hamilton arrived in america just before the revolution, timing is everything. went to college, became a lawyer, the war broke out, joined the army, became a captain. distinguished himself. a fine soldier. came to the attention of general washington who invited this quloung myoung man to be his secretary which he accepted and served washington until one day, at headquarters, washington was going up the stairs, colonel hamilton was coming down the stairs, the commander in chief said to the colonel, colonel, i wish to see you immediately, the colonel responded, i'll be with you if a few minutes, sir. not the right answer to the commander in chief. washington turned on hamilton, berated him in front of his fellow officers, hamilton then resigned as secretary, returned to the army and later distinguished himself at the battle of yorktown which brought him back to some degree in washington's good graces. hamilton then left the army and was a congressman from new york. so hamilton is given the assignment of addressing washington. i doubt that anyone really expected th

i think that alexander hamilton had the highest s.a.t.s of anybody at the founders. he's a really brilliant guy. that scared the wits out of jefferson and madison. jefferson writes madison, take him on. no one else can take him on singularly. cut him to pieces. he is a host unto himself. so the brilliance of hamilton's financial program, both the funding of the debt and the assumption of the state debts and the creation of the national bank is a stroke of genius. what needs to be remembered is that up until then the united states is regarded by the financial capitals of the world, especially amsterdam's bank, as a banana republic. we can't pay our debts. we are -- you know, we're totally -- >> we're a failing interest. >> yeah. we're like -- >> forget the principle. >> yeah. yeah. hamilton is single hand deadly creating a new credit system and a new stability. from a purely economic point of view there can be no argument that hamilton's reforms were absolutely correct and brilliant. they were perceived by jefferson and madison as a fundamental threat to the interest