After reading Ron Chernow's excellent biography of Alexander Hamilton, I'm placing Hamilton at or near the top. I'm a huge fan of Jefferson and Adams but believe Hamilton had more impact than either one.
1) He was Washington's right hand man during the war and frequently was in charge of the army. It seems clear he was Washington's most trusted adviser before and after the war. He was Parcells' Belichick.
2) The impact of the Federalist Papers is well documented. Hamilton was easily the most productive of the founders. While Jefferson was toying with inventions and conspiring with the French, Hamilton was doing real work for the union.
3) He laid the foundation for our financial system and without his work the fledgling republic may have failed. He is in large part responsible for NY becoming the financial capital of the world.
There's no doubt it was a team effort with some incredibly capable and hard working men being at the right place and time in history. If Hamilton isn't the most influential, he is definitely the most underrated.
Putin
-dust_bowl
- Simo Family
I believe he killed just one man, Charles Dickinson.
Most underrated is George Mason. The Virginia Declaration of Rights that he authored was enormously influential, with clear echoes in the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights. If I'm not mistaken, it was the first governing document of its kind that embraced the Lockean concept of natural rights inherent to all, regardless of class, which could not be legislated away by a ruling body.
It was John Jay who introduced the idea.
Not true. You had to be natural born or a citizen at the time of the adoption of the Constitution. The clause had no impact on Hamilton because he was a citizen at the time of the adoption of the Constitution.
Because he was born in the Caribbean.
He was very unpopular due to being a Federalist, the whisky excise tax and he was born a bastard. He was also being blackmailed for boning a married woman. Jefferson paid newspapers to spread lies about him.
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Because he was born in the Caribbean.
His place of birth had nothing to do with it.
He was also divisive at the time.
The Constitution does not explain the meaning of "natural born".[26] On June 18, 1787, Alexander Hamilton submitted to the Convention a sketch of a plan of government.[27] The sketch provided for an executive "Governour" but had no eligibility requirements.[28] At the close of the Convention, Hamilton conveyed a paper to James Madison he said delineated the Constitution that he wished had been proposed by the Convention; he had stated its principles during the deliberations. Max Farrand wrote that it "...was not submitted to the Convention and has no further value than attaches to the personal opinions of Hamilton."[29] Article IX, section 1 of Hamilton's draft constitution provided: "No person shall be eligible to the office of President of the United States unless he be now a Citizen of one of the States, or hereafter be born a Citizen of the United States."[30]
On July 25, 1787, John Jay wrote to George Washington, presiding officer of the Convention:
Permit me to hint, whether it would not be wise and seasonable to provide a strong check to the admission of Foreigners into the administration of our national Government, and to declare expressly that the Command in chief of the American army shall not be given to, nor devolve on, any but a natural born Citizen.[32]
While the Committee of Detail originally proposed that the President must be merely a citizen, as well as a resident for 21 years, the Committee of Eleven changed "citizen" to "natural born citizen", and the residency requirement to 14 years, without recorded explanation after receiving Jay's letter. The Convention accepted the change without further recorded debate.[33]
Thanks. I'm reading Founding Brothers again and I'll put that on the list.
I've been spending all summer reading various presidential biographies and if there's one thing that caught my attention, it's that nothing has changed in 240 years. Nothing.
Something about Jefferson has always rubbed me the wrong way. A LOT of our Founding Fathers owned slaves, but something about Jefferson has always stuck out. Maybe the whole Sally Hemings thing. And I thought I read somewhere that Jeff treated his slaves badly (of course, "treating slaves well" is an oxymoron). Also, he wrote something like, "Nothing is more clear than that these people should be free..." Just, not while he could use them and make money offm them and live large on them, I guess.
Chernow's bio of Washington is fantastic. You really walk away from it saying, "Yup, he's the father of the country." He was less about brilliance than resoluteness, gravitas, and self-sacrifice. Mount Vernon went to shit while he was away for years at a time fighting, but he refused to be paid. Stayed with the troops in the field at a time when generals did not do that. Freed his slaves when he died (or set it up so they'd be freed after Martha died).
Interesting fact/thought: Washington was childless (he adopted Martha's as his own). What if he'd had a son? How great would the public cry have been to institute his son as successor? There was a wide streak of monarchism alive even after the Revolution. Related, Washington stepped down from the presidency of his own accord -- key as a precedent for democratic elections, peaceful/stable change of admins and parties. Again, Washington was just great.
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AP, I recommend reading Chernow's Washington bio as well. Just got done with it last month.
Thanks. I'm reading Founding Brothers again and I'll put that on the list.
I'm assuming that's worth a read since you're reading it a second time?
The bottom line is Jefferson's plan would have led to disaster and he blamed Hamilton for passing the constitution.
And prior to reading up on him, I didn't appreciate the profound impact Washington stepping down really had at the time.
lol, great minds ...
As for GW not having kids ... what a shame. There are so many assholes in this country who felt the need to over populate the world with their weak seed. We need descendants of Washington ... and Einstein.
hard to find credible sources though from almost 250 years ago. A lot of what I read, I'll read something else that contradicts the other source or calls it exaggerated. Anything not written and saved becomes questionable (and even some of the written stuff is biased). And there is a lot of questionable historical accounts from the revolutionary war era.
The bottom line is Jefferson's plan would have led to disaster and he blamed Hamilton for passing the constitution.
Agree with your points. Hamilton was by far the best founding father. The musical is a must see as well.
As for the others (Jefferson, Washington, Madison etc..). They were racist slave owning hypocrites. It's very funny we see the wacky libertarian types go on about their pro-freedumbs while they worship those racists. My guess is we see them erased from the history books in the next 50 years and replaced by real heroes like MLK, FDR, Hamilton etc...
CNN BREAKING NEWS: CNN has learned that Secretary of the Treasury Jack Lew has shot and mortally wounded Vice President Joseph Biden during a duel in Weehawken New Jersey earlier today. Shocking video taken by Lew's second on his IPhone shows Biden being too slow to trigger before being struck in the chest by Lew's fire. Biden has been rowed across the Hudson to a local residence where he is not expected to survive.
The cause of the rift between the two men seemed to arise from Lew believing his daughter's honor had been befouled when Biden touched her inappropriately as they posed for a photo. Lew approached Biden immediately after seeing the photograph and proceeded to swipe him across the face with a leather glove. The duel was arranged shortly thereafter.
I agree with Greg, you can't judge them based on today's standards.
LOL "a benevolent master"? He was a racist scumbag. He wanted rights (only negative rights mind you) only for white males. We need kids to look up to the Hamiltons and FDRs. Not white-supremacist!
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....and his beliefs on slavery were complex as well. Reducing him to good or bad based in 21st century hindsight is a mistake. We could write an entire book here on Jefferson and slavery - he was by most accounts a fairly benevolent master by the standards of the time, and he repeatedly wrote of slavery as a wicked institution. As governor of Virginia he led a successful effort to stop the importation of slaves, and later did the same as president. He also publicly advocated gradual emancipation. On the other hand, unlike many of the Founders he very rarely freed his own slaves and he certainly didn't view blacks as being intellectually equal to whites. For now, it's enough to say that he often had enlightened ideals that, despite the conflicted feelings he seems to have had, did not often translate into taking action to end slavery.
LOL "a benevolent master"? He was a racist scumbag. He wanted rights (only negative rights mind you) only for white males. We need kids to look up to the Hamiltons and FDRs. Not white-supremacist!
MLK was anti-homosexual, at a time when practically everyone was anti-homosexual. Why is he a hero, but not someone before him that was racist, when everyone was racist.
If you apply that standard there is really no one suitable.
I'm not saying who should or shouldn't be a role model or given hero status, but your criteria seems selective.
I also didn't know until I read the book, his oldest son died in a duel 2 years earlier.
buford, I see you're all over it as usual.
MLK was anti-homosexual, at a time when practically everyone was anti-homosexual. Why is he a hero, but not someone before him that was racist, when everyone was racist.
If you apply that standard there is really no one suitable.
I'm not saying who should or shouldn't be a role model or given hero status, but your criteria seems selective.
Eliminate everyone who EVER opposed gay marriage and we may need a Constitutional amendment to lower the minimum age you have to be to be President.
As for GW not having kids ... what a shame. There are so many assholes in this country who felt the need to over populate the world with their weak seed. We need descendants of Washington ... and Einstein.
And Hulk Hogan!
Washington screwed him. SMH