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For all their fratricidal warfare, the Federalists ran a surprisingly close race for the presidency. Jefferson and Burr tied with seventy-three electoral votes apiece, while Adams and Pinckney trailed with sixty-five and sixty-four votes respectively. As expected, New England unanimously backed Adams, while Jefferson captured virtually the entire south. The New York City elections in April 1800, which had pitted Hamilton against Burr in riv..
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Ron Chernow |
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Self-sufficiency and a contempt of the science and experience of others are too prevailing traits of character in this country," he wailed to John Jay." --
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Ron Chernow |
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we know that he read a considerable amount of philosophy, including Bacon, Hobbes, Montaigne, and Cicero.
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Ron Chernow |
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If forced to choose, Hamilton preferred a man with wrong principles to one devoid of any. "There is no circumstance which has occurred in the course of our political affairs that has given me so much pain as the idea that Mr. Burr might be elevated to the Presidency by the means of the Federalists,"
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Ron Chernow |
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It was not until February 11, 1801, that votes cast by presidential electors in the various states were actually opened in the Senate chamber, confirming what was already common knowledge: that Jefferson and Burr had tied with seventy-three votes apiece.
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Ron Chernow |
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Men are rather reasoning than reasonable animals, for the most part governed by their passion,
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Ron Chernow |
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Hamilton wanted logical proofs of religion, not revelation, and amply annotated his copy of A View of the Evidences of Christianity, by William Paley. "I have examined carefully the evidence of the Christian religion," he told one friend, "and if I was sitting as a juror upon its authenticity, I should rather abruptly give my verdict in its favor."13 To"
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Ron Chernow |
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Once Jefferson became president, Hamilton, forty-six, began to fade from public view, an abrupt fall for a man whose rise had been so spectacular, so incandescent.
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Ron Chernow |
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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."70"
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Ron Chernow |
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Hamilton had always regarded the judiciary as the final fortress of liberty and the most vulnerable branch of government. John Marshall remedied that deficiency, and many of the great Supreme Court decisions he handed down were based on concepts articulated by Hamilton. In writing the decision in Marbury v. Madison (1803), Marshall established the principle of judicial review--the court's authority to declare acts of Congress unconstitution..
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Ron Chernow |
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For Hamilton, Jefferson's desire to overturn the Judiciary Act was an insidious first step toward destroying the Constitution: "Who is so blind as not to see that the right of the legislature to abolish the judges at pleasure destroys the independence of the judicial department and swallows it up in the impetuous vortex of legislative influence?"34 Without an independent judiciary, the Constitution was a worthless document."
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Ron Chernow |
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Thanks to Washington and Hamilton, the American economy flourished; thanks to Adams, the Quasi-War with France had receded to a memory. Inheriting domestic prosperity and international peace, Jefferson benefited from exceptional good fortune as America settled down for the first time since the Revolution.
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Ron Chernow |
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The free school is the promoter of that intelligence which is to preserve us as a free nation." With an unaccustomed rhetorical flourish, he affirmed that in the near future "the dividing line will not be Mason & Dixons but between patriotism, & intelligence on the one side & superstition, ambition & ignorance on the other."75 He wound up with an eloquent appeal for separating church and state: "Encourage free schools and resolve that not o..
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Ron Chernow |
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Frederick Douglass paired Grant with Lincoln as the two people who had done most to secure African American advances:
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Ron Chernow |
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In 1870 he oversaw creation of the Justice Department, its first duty to bring thousands of anti-Klan indictments. By 1872 the monster had been slain, although its spirit resurfaced as the nation retreated from Reconstruction's lofty aims. Grant presided over the Fifteenth Amendment, which gave blacks the right to vote, and landmark civil rights legislation, including the 1875 act outlawing racial discrimination in public accommodations.
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Ron Chernow |
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While drinking almost never interfered with his official duties, it haunted his career and trailed him everywhere, an infuriating, ever-present ghost he could not shake. It influenced how people perceived him and deserves close attention. As with so many problems in his life, Grant managed to attain mastery over alcohol in the long haul, a feat as impressive as any of his wartime victories.
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Ron Chernow |
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Without Washington's guidance or public responsibility, he had again revealed a blazing, ungovernable temper that was unworthy of him and rendered him less effective. He also revealed anew that the man who had helped to forge a new structure of law and justice for American society remained mired in the old-fashioned world of blood feuds. When it came to intensely personal conflicts, New York's most famous lawyer still turned instinctively n..
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Ron Chernow |
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Julia would gladly have stayed for one more term and had no qualms about scrapping George Washington's precedent. "Oh, Ulys! was that kind to me?" she protested. "Was it just to me?" "Well," he replied, "I do not want to be here another four years. I do not think I could stand it." Rather than feel sympathy for her husband's plight as a profoundly overburdened president, Julia chose to feel "deeply injured."
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Ron Chernow |
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These same banks, ironically, would shortly be hauled before the Pujo Committee as the abominable Money Trust. What the public wouldn't know was that the Money Trust had been forged, in part, by Washington itself in its quest for foreign influence.
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Ron Chernow |
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So it may be said, with undoubted truth, that the whiskey drinkers made Mr. Jefferson the President of the United States.
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Ron Chernow |
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Back at 23 Wall Street, Lamont received a wire from Jack Morgan expressing disgust with Mexico. Jack thought it a point of family honor to make sure Mexico repaid his father's 1899 loan: "I did not think any Government of modern times would so frankly proclaim its complete dishonesty or its abandonment of all decent finance or morals. Hope you did not have too trying a time, and congratulate you in getting out before they stole your pocketb..
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Ron Chernow |
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I will venture to pronounce it one of the most ludicrous performances which has been exhibited to public view during all the present controversy-Alexander Hamilton
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Ron Chernow |
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This treasured gift retained a secret meaning for Eliza, for it had been a tacit gesture of solidarity from Washington when her husband was ensnared in the first major sex scandal in American history. The
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Ron Chernow |
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the practice of mankind ought to have great weight against the theories of individuals.
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Ron Chernow |
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has seldom been without its evils. It is to this source we are to trace many of the fatal mistakes which have so deeply endangered the common cause, particularly that defect which will be the object of these remarks, a want of power in Congress.
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Ron Chernow |
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Where revolutions, by their nature, resisted excess government power, the opposite situation could be equally hazardous. "As too much power leads to despotism, too little leads to anarchy, and both eventually to the ruin of the people."
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Ron Chernow |
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In his response to Livingston, Hamilton made clear that some family members thought he was excessively preoccupied by the opposite sex. "I exercise [my pen] at the [risk] of being anathematized by grave censors for dedicating so much of my time to so trifling and insignificant a toy as--woman." Though Livingston, apparently, had spurned his advances--he chides her apathy--he concludes philosophically that "I shall probably be in a fine way"..
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Ron Chernow |
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Like her youngest son, Julia administered stern lectures on republican virtue. Before supper, two noblewomen stopped by to school her in palace etiquette. "Mrs. Grant," one said, "I hope you will not feel fatigued. Our Queen always receives standing." Julia replied breezily, "Oh, I am sure I will not feel the fatigue. You must remember I too have received for the last eight years and always standing."32 Julia was at pains to remind the two ..
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Ron Chernow |
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He cleverly assumed that he was addressing loyal people and made common cause with them: I have come among you, not as an enemy, but as your friend and fellow-citizen, not to injure or annoy you, but to respect the rights, and to defend and enforce the rights of all loyal citizens. An enemy, in rebellion against our common government, has taken possession of, and planted its guns upon the soil of Kentucky and fired upon our flag . . . He is..
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Ron Chernow |
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As a lender of last resort, the House of Morgan favored like-minded institutions of similar character and background. Kidder, Peabody was just such a firm. It didn't hustle business or steal clients and always played by Morgan rules. In 1930, it was hit by multiple blows. The Italian government removed $8 million in deposits, and the new Bank for International Settlements instructed Kidder to switch big sums to a Swiss bank. This led to ano..
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Ron Chernow |
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Whitney brought in his friends Edwin Webster, Chandler Hovey, and Albert H. Gordon to take over the company's name and goodwill.
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Ron Chernow |
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Delenda est Carthago: Carthage must be destroyed and obliterated.
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Ron Chernow |
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Callender denied the authenticity of Maria Reynolds's billets-doux to Hamilton and conjectured that Hamilton had forged them, filling them with spelling errors to make them seem plausible. Quite understandably, Callender could not conceive that someone as smart and calculating as Hamilton could have stayed so long in thrall to an enslaving passion. Hamilton could not have been stupid enough to pay hush money for sex, Callender alleged, so t..
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Ron Chernow |
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orders.
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Ron Chernow |
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Returning to his Manhattan town house on Christmas Eve, Grant, sixty-one, pivoted to hand the driver a holiday tip when he slipped on the icy pavement and crashed to the ground, tearing a thigh muscle and possibly fracturing his hip. Until then a robust man, he crumpled over in excruciating pain and was hoisted up the steps by servants. Through anxious winter weeks, he remained bedridden or hobbled about on crutches. Before long, his discom..
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Ron Chernow |
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Burr is said to have remarked, "Had I read Sterne more and Voltaire less, I should have known the world was wide enough for Hamilton and me."61"
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Ron Chernow |
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to arm and exasperate the negroes in the South."75 Some Washington observers floated scenarios of a constitutional showdown in which Johnson would deploy Grant and the military to silence Congress. Suddenly Grant's political tendencies became of more than theoretical interest. Ben Butler, now a Radical Republican, wondered privately whether "Grant can be trusted to disobey positive orders of his chief? When the hour of peril comes, shall we..
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Ron Chernow |
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Steuben
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Ron Chernow |
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The remedy is for people to stop watching the ticker, listening to the radio, drinking bootleg gin, and dancing to jazz . . . and return to the old economics and prosperity based upon saving and working.
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Ron Chernow |
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Grant explained to Porter his aversion to profanities, saying "swearing helps to rouse a man's anger; and when a man flies into a passion his adversary who keeps cool always gets the better of him."50"
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Ron Chernow |
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After all, the devil's work was now sprinkled with holy water.
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Ron Chernow |
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He has no desire to rise by the fall of others; no glorying over another's abasement;
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Ron Chernow |
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democracy,
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Ron Chernow |
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Philadelphia was a cosmopolitan city, praised by a highborn British visitor as "one of the wonders of the world," "the first town in America," and one that "bids fair to rival almost any in Europe."27 Larger than either New York or Boston, it supported ten newspapers and thirty bookshops. Largely through the civic imagination of Benjamin Franklin, it boasted an astounding panoply of cultural and civic institutions, including two theaters, a..
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Ron Chernow |