Making America

Reading about the Revolutionary War and the years immediately thereafter, I’ve become fascinated by Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton and how they came to be archenemies.  At a time when the survival of our young nation was at stake, the Republicans led by Jefferson and the Federalists led by Hamilton hated and feared one another. Each party believed that if the other came to power, the country, along with its hopes and promises, would be destroyed. If the Federalists came to power, the country would revert to monarchy, as in England.  If the Republicans ruled, there would be chaos and a reign of terror as in post-revolutionary France.

The newspapers were driven by partisanship, some supported by the Republicans, others supported by the Federalists. News was filled with innuendo, venomous personal attacks and outright fabrications, ‘fake news’. Many of the most qualified citizens refused to serve in public office, not wishing to live with the inevitable scrutiny and character assassination. Party leaders were accused of colluding with foreign powers, Hamilton with the British and Jefferson with the French.  The welfare of some foreign economies was tied to the American economy. Foreign agents, especially foreign journalists, were suspected of meddling in American politics in order to influence government policy and election outcome. It all sounds eerily familiar.

Jefferson had his admirers and detractors.  To his admirers, he was a great scholar and philosopher, author of the Declaration of Independence, spokesperson for religious tolerance and advocate for the rights of all men.  To his detractors, he was a Revolutionary War coward, an inflexible ideologue, a slave owner and hypocrite.

Hamilton, too, had his admirers and detractors. To his admirers, he was a Revolutionary War hero, constitutional theorist, advisor and confidant to George Washington, and visionary first Secretary of the Treasury. To his detractors he was brash, egotistical, ill-tempered, power hungry, and indiscrete in his personal affairs.

Historians continue to weigh the merits and faults of these two antagonists, these two founding fathers.  Jefferson and Hamilton continue to have their admirers and detractors. Based on what I’ve read, here’s what I think. Each of them had significant flaws, significant shortcomings. Yet each was an original, a brilliant and visionary thinker.  Each was a towering leader during a perilous time in American history, a time when the new country needed brilliant and visionary leadership. The challenge they faced was not how to ‘make America great again’.  Their challenge, more difficult yet simply put, was how to make America.

Currently, Hamilton’s star is rising, his reputation resurrected in Ron Chernow’s biography Alexander Hamilton and the Broadway show it has inspired.  Now, having read the book, I look forward to someday seeing the stage interpretation of Hamilton, the musical. That’s a rap.