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CHAP. XV.]

HAMILTON'S CHARACTER.

643

fostered the conservative feeling-our government might have kept that track until it became fixed in it; and now we might have that mild mixed government in spirit which was the ideal of the middle men. But as Morris truly said, " meaning very well, he acted very ill, and approached the evils he apprehended by his very solicitude to keep them at a distance."1 In plainer words, Hamilton upbuilt democracy by his overaction against it. He forced the people to choose between it and a consolidated system having all the spirit of monarchy, and which the people believed he ultimately (in some "crisis") intended to give the form of monarchy. He thus rashly and unnecessarily threw all into the scale, and he lost all.

Finally, Hamilton was not a great or a wise man in practice, in the sense in which the words are used to mark the distinction between the efficient performer and the visionary theorist. With the terms "projector," "speculative dreamer," "philosopher," etc., often tauntingly on his lips in respect to opponents, none in all the number formed half so many purely chimerical schemes, or half so often failed in them, as himself. The figures cast on the wall by a magic lantern are scarcely more evanescent, and considering the people and circumstances among whom they were formed, scarcely more unsubstantial than those which swiftly followed each other through his teeming brain. When his authority became full blown, each year brought a new grand scheme from him, embracing public affairs generally, and it would now be difficult to believe that they were the propositions of an American statesman-that they were not forgeries to impeach his common sense-did we not find them in an authorized and family edition of his works.

But Hamilton, in addition to remarkably clear and vigorous intellectual capacities, possessed one kind of practical greatness -that of execution. Whether his theory was sound, or his practice wise, the executive process was marked by promptness and strength. His mental operations were rapid and lucid. His best judgment, if not his only judgment, came to maturity on the investigation of minutes or hours, instead of days or weeks. He could give a fertile display of reasons for his opinion, always fortified by a plausible, and when he was in the

1 Letter to Walsh, Feb. 5, 1811.

644

HAMILTON'S CHARACTER.

[CHAP. XV.

right, by a piercing logic. He had at ready command a store of apt and sonorous words. Whether it was his business to do, to speak, or to write, he was ready on the instant; and his activity and industry never flagged until his cause was won or lost.

Hamilton had that superlative confidence in himself, that unbounded self-esteem which in the weak provokes derision, in the able, inspires confidence. In his party he assumed the tone of an absolute and undisputed dictator. The position was conceded to him for a time, partly from his real ability and partly because those were the only terms on which his coöperation could be secured. Circumstances gave him a weight possessed by no other man in that party. None liked to provoke his hostility by opposition or disobedience. Mr. Adams ventured to do so and it proved fatal to him. Morris softens these characteristics of his friend by giving them the name of "a pertinacious adherence to opinions he had once formed." This pertinacity extended from things of prime importance down to almost inconsiderable details, and it was evinced as freely in matters where other men were by law or custom intrusted with the sole decision, and compelled to assume the sole responsibility, as in those where he was properly a principal sharer in both. The Г boy who at twelve years old "wished there was a war" to enable him to "exalt his station ;" who at twenty thought it was a sacrifice to become an aid-de-camp of Washington; who always "did violence to his feelings" while he remained in that post; and who at twenty-four refused to "consent to an accommodation" with the latter for a hasty word followed by an ample apology, would never be expected, in after life, to doubt his own infallibility and right to command, or that the world was "his oyster" made specially for his opening and for his disposition of its contents.

All these traits added to that executive power which we have said Hamilton possessed. To act with the greatest velocity and intensity, the mind of the actor must be troubled with no misgivings about the accuracy of its own conclusions. Nor must it pause to ask too scrupulously whether the rights of opinion, the feelings or the delicacies of others are to be invaded. The most efficient political executive is a despot. The most efficient actor elsewhere is he who acts on the principles of a despot.

CHAP. XV.]

HAMILTON'S CHARACTER.

645

We believe Hamilton was earnest and honest in his political principles. If he stooped, when his inner views were publicly sought, to

"with a tricksy word,

Defy the matter;"

if he attempted to induce the public to take the substance by disguising the name, it was because he thought such resorts were necessary to induce the multitude he scorned to submit to that good government which he verily believed he was preparing for them. Clothed with supreme power, he would probably have made a just prince. Under a tyranny, he might have proved a conspirator. The features of Hampden and the features of Strafford blend strangely in his political physiognomy. But those of the latter largely predominate. If he had none of the originating power of a Franklin or Jefferson, he would probably have rendered himself conspicuous in any age or under any government. Such minds as Franklin's and Jefferson's come but once in a century. Such minds as Hamilton's are common in every generation. They belong to the ambitious, energetic, talented class who push their way upward to high office, who wield authority with success, who perhaps fill fame's trumpet with their reputations as generals or prime ministers, who receive honorable mention on the historic page, but who pass away without having contributed a new thought, or a meliorating fact to the currents of human civilization.

We have thought it would tend to a clearer view of affairs in the Cabinet, and subsequently, to present an outline of Hamilton's character in advance of the facts on which much of our view rests. No one will be asked to receive that view, or any part of it, except so far as it is supported by unsuspected and decisive testimony. We certainly will ask no credit for a line of the latter from unfriendly or prejudiced quarters; and, indeed, almost the only testimony offered will be Hamilton's own, and in his own words.

END OF VOL. I.

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