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Book Review
Canada and the United States
| Douglas Ambrose and Robert W. T. Martin, editors. The Many Faces of Alexander Hamilton: The Life and Legacy of America's Most Elusive Founding Father. New York: New York University Press. 2006. Pp. x, 300. $45.00.
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| This book is a collection of essays growing out of a conference organized by Hamilton College to mark the two-hundredth anniversary of Alexander Hamilton's death in 2004. Overall, the collection suggests that, despite what may strike some as a surfeit of Hamilton scholarship in recent years, meticulously researched and thought-provoking work on the first treasury secretary continues to pour forth. |
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In an introductory summary of his life, Douglas Ambrose sets out the questions that have long surrounded Hamilton: "Was he a closet monarchist or a sincere republican? A victim of partisan politics or one of its most active promoters? A lackey for British interests or a foreign policy mastermind? An economic genius or a shill for special interests? The father of a vigorous national government or the destroyer of genuine federalism? A defender of governmental authority or a dangerous militarist?" (p. 11). The ten essays that follow address many although not all of these questions. Stephen Knott, who has done for the Hamilton image in the American mind what Merrill Peterson did for Thomas Jefferson's, provides a condensed version of his argument and adeptly traces the vicissitudes of Hamilton's reputation over two centuries. Given Knott's grasp of the subject, it would have been interesting to hear more from him on the reasons for the revival of interest in Hamilton since the early 1990s and the recovery of his reputation among historians. The recent decline of Jefferson's standing (due partly to his views on race) does not really suffice as an explanation. |
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Robert M. S. McDonald's essay, "The Hamiltonian Invention of Thomas Jefferson," tries to show that by attacking Jefferson in the newspapers in 1792, Hamilton managed to promote Jefferson's standing as the opposition's chief leader and stimulate the development of a Republican party press. It is true that Hamilton's attacks proved to be counterproductive, but McDonald might give greater weight to the fact that the "Philadelphia newspaper wars" had begun before Hamilton's columns appeared: that is, when Jefferson and James Madison installed Philip Freneau as their journalistic attack dog at the National Gazette. James H. Read's insightful contribution argues that the long and bitter argument between Hamilton and Jefferson was "neither parallel nor symmetrical" (p. 78). Whereas Jefferson consistently saw Hamilton as an abettor of corruption and subverter of the constitution, Hamilton's animus toward Jefferson was triggered not so much by the Virginian's political views as by his deviousness and habit of maligning Hamilton personally. When urgent public issues arose, argues Read, Hamilton moderated his criticism of Jefferson and gave him due credit for acting in the national interest. There is much to be said for this argument, although it does not altogether apply to the foreign policy debates of 1792–1793. After all, Hamilton harshly criticized the secretary of state's handling of the British minister George Hammond and the peace treaty controversies, and conducted a running battle against Jefferson over the treatment of French privateers. If Hamilton gave public credit to Jefferson for requesting Edmond Genêt's recall, he did so partly to rub in the fact that Jefferson had initially been a strong supporter of the disastrous French envoy. |
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