Jefferson and Hamilton

When Fisher Ames, exuberant over his unhorsing of Samuel Adams, and eager to try his lance on others, reached New York to take his place in the House of Representatives, he was...

The genius for whom the Nation had been waiting, who walked briskly and with a martial air[92] into the Treasury, and sat down at the almost effeminate mahogany desk with the wo...

There was quite enough in the picture of the handsome, penniless Hamilton, at the age of thirty-two, striding upon the national scene with the air of a conqueror to undertake th...

Hamilton was at the high tide of his popularity and power when Congress next convened in Philadelphia. His funding system had established the Nation’s credit, and the genius and...

In the personal appearance of Thomas Jefferson there was little to denote the powerful, dominating leader and strict disciplinarian that he was. Unlike Hamilton, he did not look...

‘If New York wanted any revenge for the removal,’ wrote Mrs. Adams to her daughter soon after reaching Philadelphia, ‘the citizens might be glutted if they could come here, wher...

When Jefferson assumed the task of organizing the opposition to the policies of the Federalists all the forces most susceptible to organization and intelligent direction were ar...

There was little in the reception of Hamilton’s famous ‘Report on Manufactures’ during the congressional session of 1791-92 to foreshadow the part it was to play in American pol...

The winter of 1792-93 was notable in many ways. Not within the memory of the oldest inhabitant of Philadelphia had one so mild been known. As late as February there had been no...

Up to this time Jefferson had been fighting under a disadvantage. In the field of finance he was unable to cope on equal terms with his great protagonist. The mass of the people...

Scarcely had Jefferson reached his quiet hilltop when Madison submitted the resolutions based upon his chief’s Commercial Report, and the English party was instantly in arms. Th...

During the remainder of the short session of Congress, feeling ran high. The Jeffersonians made a second foolish attempt to trace some act of official turpitude to Hamilton, and...

Exuberant over their success in capitalizing Washington’s consent to the treaty, the Federalists returned to Philadelphia in an ugly mood. With celerity and _éclat_, the Senate...

It is a pity that in the days of the Adams Administration it was not the fashion to paint group portraits of the President and his Cabinet. Had it been the custom, a purely comm...

Scarcely had Adams entered upon his office when he found himself confronted with the possibility of a war with France. Some time before, Gouverneur Morris, the American Genêt in...

The meeting of Congress in the early winter of 1797 found the war party in fine fettle and the Jeffersonians fighting desperately for peace. Early in the session, Adams called f...

It is not surprising that the first notable victim of the Terror was Matthew Lyon whom we have seen insulted at various points when homeward bound from Philadelphia. Bitter thou...

Meanwhile, the Federalist leaders, having, as they thought, cowed and crushed the Democrats, were engaged in an internecine strife for control. There was to be war--at all hazar...

When Congress convened in the winter of 1799, the Federalists thoroughly appreciated the desperation of their situation. The tide of public opinion was rising against them rapid...

Finding that persuasion had failed to shake the fidelity of the second-class leaders, Hamilton bethought himself of coercion. The moment he returned to New York, he wrote Charle...

The final contest was staged in the new capital at Washington. It was as though destiny had arranged a new setting for the new drama on which the curtain was now rising. In the...