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.
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