If The Future As It Has
Since Come Forth Had Then Been Foretold For It, Would Not Such A
Prophecy Have Been A Prophecy Of Success?
That Constitution is now
at the period of its hardest trial, and at this moment one may
hardly dare
To speak of it with triumph; but looking at the nation
even in its present position, I think I am justified in saying that
its Constitution is one in which no Englishman can disbelieve. When
I also say that it is one which every Frenchman must envy, perhaps I
am improperly presuming that Frenchmen could not look at it with
Englishmen's eyes.
When the Constitution came to be written, a man had arisen in the
States who was peculiarly suited for the work in hand: he was one of
those men to whom the world owes much, and of whom the world in
general knows but little. This was Alexander Hamilton, who alone on
the part of the great State of New York signed the Constitution of
the United States. The other States sent two, three, four, or more
delegates; New York sent Hamilton alone; but in sending him New York
sent more to the Constitution than all the other States together. I
should be hardly saying too much for Hamilton if I were to declare
that all those parts of the Constitution emanated from him in which
permanent political strength has abided. And yet his name has not
been spread abroad widely in men's mouths. Of Jefferson, Franklin,
and Madison we have all heard; our children speak of them, and they
are household words in the nursery of history. Of Hamilton,
however, it may, I believe, be said that he was greater than any of
those.
Without going with minuteness into the early contests of democracy
in the United States, I think I may say that there soon arose two
parties, each probably equally anxious in the cause of freedom, one
of which was conspicuous for its French predilections and the other
for its English aptitudes. It was the period of the French
Revolution - the time when the French Revolution had in it as yet
something of promise and had not utterly disgraced itself. To many
in America the French theory of democracy not unnaturally endeared
itself and foremost among these was Thomas Jefferson. He was the
father of those politicians in the States who have since taken the
name of Democrats, and in accordance with whose theory it has come
to pass that everything has been referred to the universal suffrage
of the people. James Madison, who succeeded Jefferson as President,
was a pupil in this school, as indeed have been most of the
Presidents of the United States. At the head of the other party,
from which through various denominations have sprung those who now
call themselves Republicans, was Alexander Hamilton. I believe I
may say that all the political sympathies of George Washington were
with the same school. Washington, however, was rather a man of
feeling and of action than of theoretical policy or speculative
opinion.
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