trust the people and wish to draw all power from them into the hands of a higher class, and second those who identify themselves with the people, have confidence in them, cherish and consider them as the most honest and safe although not the most wise depository of the public interest." It was to the latter class that he desired to belong, and his career shows that his desires were satisfied. His life was spent on behalf of the people in whom he had implicit faith. He believed he had rendered his best service to them when he had secured to them the fullest enjoyment of the blessings of liberty, the breath and pulse of his being. If Jefferson was one of the greatest party leaders, and many think him the greatest in our history, that leadership was due to the value he placed upon liberty, and to his efforts expended to secure its blessings to the people, without regard to rank or distinction. Questions on the Text 1. What was the leading note in Jefferson's political philosophy? 2. How did he regard the growth of urban population? 3. What significant lesson in arbitrary government did he learn in 1769? State its effect upon his theory. 4. Indicate the influence upon him of Patrick Henry. 5. Indicate his public service. 6. Show why the Declaration of Independence was a good expression of his political theory. 7. Point out specific facts which indicate the debt liberty owes to his personal influence. 8. Name three significant phases of liberty suggested by his epitaph. 9. What part had he in disestablishment in Virginia? 10. Explain primogeniture, and point out Jefferson's attitude. II. Reconcile his passion for liberty with his record as a slaveholder. 12. Point out his attitude toward slavery as an historical institution. 13. How did his residence in France influence him? 14. Indicate the strength of liberty in influencing certain leaders. 15. Upon what grounds was he charged with inconsistency as President? 16. Is political consistency evidence of statesmanship? 17. Point out the significant feature in the government of the State University of Virginia as outlined by Jefferson. 18. Into what two classes did Jefferson place men? CHAPTER V ALEXANDER HAMILTON, THE REPRESENTATIVE OF POWER IN GOVERNMENT. The Leadership of Hamilton.-In a Republic, leadership of the masses is not synonymous with statesmanship. Political following is not essentially a result of superior talents. Not infrequently the reverse is true; however, in the latter case the leadership is spasmodic. Popularity partakes of the qualities of the heart, rather than of the head. It is stimulated by the unselfish service for man. Herein lies the ground where partisan leadership may dangerously approach demagogy. Alexander Hamilton was by nature disqualified for that sort of leadership common in Republics which arouses the enthusiasm of the masses. His were the arts of argumentation rather than of emotion. His persuasiveness was that of the logician, not of the rhetorician. His statement was as colorless as the conclusions of the syllogism. His language was as free of ambiguity as his mind was of sophistry. There was no circumlocution in his methods. He went straight to the heart of the issue with the rapidity of the lightning's flash, and the cleavage was not less decisive. His logic neither consulted the interest of colleague, nor spared the feeling of opponent. Such talents are occasion for the keenest attachments on the one hand, and the intensest hatreds on the other. His intimate friends were not satisfied with the utmost praise, as his enemies were not with the fullest censure. His attributes were such as appealed to the aristocratic, rather than to the democratic, elements, in his circle of influence. This won for him the odium of a respecter of persons; one who aspired to win the favor of the wealthy and well-born and cared little for the good opinion of the masses of mankind. On the other hand, this conviction won for him the opposition of the advocates of extreme democracy, chief of whom was Thomas Jefferson. In Contrast With Jefferson.-As liberty was the key to Jefferson's political philosophy, so power or authority was the key to Hamilton's. His was the instinct of order, and his brief life is the best commentary upon its importance to man. He did not depreciate the value of liberty, in fact, he regarded it as the end of government; but he felt it was enjoyed only when regulated in government. Liberty without government was to him unthinkable. Liberty unregulated by authority was anarchy, the greatest enemy to mankind. His remedy for this nightmare, was government. The greater the dangers from the former, the stronger the needs of the latter. Source of Hamilton's Philosophy. This conviction was due partly to his mental organization, and partly to the times in which he lived and the manner of his life. Born in the Island of Nevis, one of the West Indies, in 1757, he grew to manhood in the most stirring times ending in one of the great revolutions of the world. His poverty of birth left him to meet and conquer the world as he found it. After a short apprenticeship as a clerk he landed on the continent at Boston, then wended his way to New York, the place of his future activities. His ambition to achieve was early revealed in a note to his boyhood friend, in which he said: "I contemn the groveling condition of a clerk to which my fortune condemns me, and would willingly risk my life, but not my character, to exalt my sta tion. He concluded this letter of dissatisfaction with the significant words: "I shall conclude by saying I One of the earliest as well as wish there was a war. latest objects of his ambition successful soldier. was the career of a He His Introduction to the Public. His precocity had attracted the attention of men of influence and he was induced to enter college. He first applied to Princeton. His originality is reflected by his insistence upon the privilege to enter for the purpose of pursuing only the studies which he named. Unable to secure this concession, he entered Columbia, then King's college. Here, as ever after, he busied himself with issues of public concern, rather than lessons in a text-book. His combative turn took him where controversy was heard. was continually turning over in his mind the questions. of the hour and was ready to express an opinion when opportunity offered. This habit developed that other one, so well-known in him, of talking to himself. People who saw him, relate how he would walk with head down, with lips moving, and frequently talking aloud. At the time of the enactment of the Boston Port Bill, he was a student. A great meeting was planned, known as the "Meeting in the Field," to consider measures of interest to the Colonies. Up to this time, young Hamilton's sympathies had been rather with the Ministry, but they were rapidly changing. He attended the meeting and was permitted to speak. It is reported. that he began by saying, "I am more profoundly concerned by what has not been said than anything I have yet heard said." The immediate effect of his words. upon his hearers was electric. This stripling, a college boy of seventeen, displayed such talent as gave promise of the most gifted and versatile genius that had yet appeared in the Colonies. |