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To his astonishment, the officers agreed with Lee's views and in a manner, scoffed Hamilton, that "would have done honor to the most honorable society of midwives."27 Washington preferred to operate by consensus,"
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Ron Chernow |
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ea14e15
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At a time when moguls vied to impress people with their possessions, Rockefeller preferred comfort to refinement. His house was bare of hunting trophies, shelves of richly bound but unread books, or other signs of conspicuous consumption. Rockefeller molded his house for his own use, not to awe strangers. As he wrote of the Forest Hill fireplaces in 1877: "I have seen a good many fireplaces here [and] don't think the character of our rooms ..
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Ron Chernow |
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Unfortunately, Greene's personal finances were in no less disorderly a state than those of the country at large: he had accumulated such heavy debts guaranteeing contracts for the southern army that it gave him "much pain and preyed heavily upon my spirits."38 He also revealed to Washington in August 1784 that for two months he had experienced a "dangerous and disagree[able] pain" in his chest, which sounds like heart disease.39 In June 178..
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Ron Chernow |
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1fb2d15
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People tended either to embrace Hamilton or to abhor him;
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Ron Chernow |
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50a633c
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She liked to quote the maxim, "To be a good wife and mother is the highest and hardest privilege of woman."27"
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Ron Chernow |
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0b6d43f
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douceur
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Ron Chernow |
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Packard and Giles entreated Rockefeller for a donation to secure the school on a permanent footing: "Give it a name; let it if you please be called Rockefeller College, or if you prefer let it take your good wife's Maiden name or any other which suits you."68 Although Rockefeller retired the $5,000 debt, he humbly declined to use his own name. Instead, in a fitting tribute to his in-laws, he opted for the Spelman name, thus giving birth to ..
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Ron Chernow |
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As often is the case with addictions, the fanciful notion of a "gradual discontinuance" only provided a comforting pretext for more sustained indulgence."
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Ron Chernow |
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scheme which requires such a sacrifice. But
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Ron Chernow |
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a1a6c94
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For this reason, I have stressed his evangelical Baptism as the passkey that unlocks many mysteries of his life.
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Ron Chernow |
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7af0618
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Another traveling companion remembered the Rockefellers sitting at a private dining room in a Roman hotel as the paterfamilias dissected the weekly bill, trying to ascertain whether they had really consumed two whole chickens, as these slippery foreigners alleged: Mr. Rockefeller listened for a while to the discussion, and then said quietly: "I can settle that very easily. John, did you have a chicken leg?" "Yes." "Alta, did you have a chic..
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Ron Chernow |
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9b1f233
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On May 19, Representative Elias Boudinot of New Jersey, Hamilton's old patron from Elizabethtown, proposed that Congress establish a department of finance. From the clamor that arose over what would become the Treasury Department, it was clear this would be the real flash point of controversy in the new government, the place where critics feared that European-style despotism could take root. Legislators recalled that British tax abuses had ..
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Ron Chernow |
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84599c7
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The Philadelphia mutiny had major repercussions in American history, for it gave rise to the notion that the national capital should be housed in a special federal district where it would never stand at the mercy of state governments. For Hamilton, the episode only heightened his dismay over the Confederation Congress and the folly of relying on state militias. On the other hand, he thought Congress had been unfairly blamed for failing to f..
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Ron Chernow |
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The issue is much more complicated than that, but there's no doubt that Rockefeller's achievement arose from the often tense interplay between the two opposing, deeply ingrained tendencies of his nature--his father's daring and his mother's prudence--yoked together under great pressure.
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Ron Chernow |
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dfe9c7b
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Hamilton knew the symbolic value of rapid decision making and phenomenal energy. As he wrote during the Revolution, "If a Government appears to be confident of its own powers, it is the surest way to inspire the same confidence in others."72 With support for the Constitution still tentative in some states, Hamilton knew that designing enemies lay in wait to destroy it. To succeed, the government had to establish its authority, and to this e..
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Ron Chernow |
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d5cdec5
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leitmotif
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Ron Chernow |
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357f391
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With only three executive departments, each secretary wielded considerable power. Moreover, departmental boundaries were not well defined, allowing each secretary to roam across a wide spectrum of issues. This was encouraged by Washington, who frequently requested opinions from his entire cabinet on an issue. It particularly galled Jefferson that Hamilton, with his keen appetite for power, poached so frequently on his turf. In fact, Hamilto..
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Ron Chernow |
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85afdbe
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George Clinton, his future political nemesis.
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Ron Chernow |
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d
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Ron Chernow |
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At home, Rockefeller created a make-believe market economy, calling Cettie the "general manager" and requiring the children to keep careful account books.16They earned pocket money by performing chores and received two cents for killing flies, ten cents for sharpening pencils, five cents per hour for practicing their musical instruments, and a dollar for repairing vases. They were given two cents per day for abstaining from candy and a dime..
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Ron Chernow |
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explaining that he did so "from a desire of testifying"
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Ron Chernow |
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fa87978
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Cettie was equally vigilant. When the children clamored for bicycles, John suggested buying one for each child. "No," said Cettie, "we will buy just one for all of them." "But, my dear," John protested, "tricycles do not cost much." "That is true," she replied. "It is not the cost. But if they have just one they will learn to give up to one another."18 So the children shared a single bicycle. Amazingly enough, the four children probably gre..
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Ron Chernow |
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09775da
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the author refers to Washington as Hamilton's "immaculate daddy," --
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Ron Chernow |
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c456cd8
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Cadwallader Colden, the assistant attorney general,
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Ron Chernow |
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117796d
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In March 1780, Congress tried to restore monetary order by issuing one new dollar in exchange for forty old ones,
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Ron Chernow |
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b663b97
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Chase was a tall, ungainly man with a resemblance to Dr. Samuel Johnson and a face so broad and ruddy that he was dubbed "Bacon Face."
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Ron Chernow |
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6f31aed
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In yet another political fracas, Coleman received a caning that left him paralyzed from the waist down.
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Ron Chernow |
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46cc176
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Hamilton always expressed himself frankly, no matter what the consequences.
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Ron Chernow |
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6e151d3
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Hamilton's life was so tumultuous that only an audacious novelist could have dreamed it up. He embodied an enduring archetype: the obscure immigrant who comes to America, re-creates himself, and succeeds despite a lack of proper birth and breeding.
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Ron Chernow |
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344a6f3
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One lady remembered seeing them together that summer "turn and laugh and play with a monkey that was climbing in a neighbor's yard."
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Ron Chernow |
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1f0e9ac
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Unable to curtail his free-handed spending and with his crops faring poorly, he started out 1786 with a paltry eighty-six pounds in cash.
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Ron Chernow |
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08856a5
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I do think we are and shall be great consumers.
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Ron Chernow |
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c5830e9
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General John Cadwalader, who fired a ball through Conway's mouth that came out the back of his head.
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Ron Chernow |
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7f53349
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Hamilton dreaded parties as "the most fatal disease" of popular governments and hoped America could dispense with such groups.7 James Kent later wrote, "Hamilton said in The Federalist, in his speeches, and a hundred times to me that factions would ruin us and our government had not sufficient energy and balance to resist the propensity to them and to control their tyranny and their profligacy."8"
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Ron Chernow |
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061047b
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Hamilton opposed the vogue for state banks that proliferated in the 1790s, less from narrow political motives than from a fear that competition among banks would dilute credit standards and invite imprudent lending practices as bankers vied for clients.
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Ron Chernow |
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135ad78
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He applauded a belated decision to evacuate Garfield from the White House in early September and bring him by train to Long Branch. "During the months of August and September the White House is one of the most unhealthy places in the world," Grant told the press. "He should have been taken from there long ago."20" --
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Ron Chernow |
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April 1776, Benjamin Franklin expressed pleasure "with the ease and affability with which we were treated and the lively behaviour of the young ladies." 9"
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Ron Chernow |
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1c897ad
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Their strategy was to make clients feel accepted into a private club, as if a Morgan account were a membership card to the aristocracy.
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Ron Chernow |
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adc9391
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Other reasons account for Hamilton's failure to snatch the prize. Though blessed with a great executive mind and a consummate policy maker, Hamilton could never master the smooth restraint of a mature politician. His conception of leadership was noble but limiting: the true statesman defied the wishes of the people, if necessary, and shook them from wishful thinking and complacency. Hamilton lived in a world of moral absolutes and was not e..
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Ron Chernow |
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3e02881
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In general, however, their two voices blended admirably together.
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Ron Chernow |
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60cee8d
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The changes in the human condition are uncertain and frequent. Many, on whom fortune has bestowed her favours, may trace their family to a more unprosperous station; and many who are now in obscurity, may look back upon the affluence and exalted rank of their ancestors.
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Ron Chernow |
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6bd2649
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To understand Hamiliton's productivity, it is important to note that virtually all of his important work was journalism, prompted by topical issues and written in the midst of controversy.
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Ron Chernow |
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From the First Philippic of Demosthenes, he plucked a passage that summed up his conception of a leader as someone who would not pander to popular whims. "As a general marches at the head of his troops," so should wise politicians "march at the head of affairs, insomuch that they ought not to wait the event to know what measures to take, but the measures which they have taken ought to produce the event."
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Ron Chernow |
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682f1c5
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The day after the Manhattan Company inaugurated business on Wall Street, two of its directors, Aaron Burr and John Barker Church, celebrated the event in idiosyncratic fashion: with a duel.
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Ron Chernow |