Jefferson and Hamilton by John Ferling Read Free Book Online

Preface
    The sun struggled to peek through the scudding winter clouds as Bill and Hillary Clinton strode briskly up the steps of Monticello, Thomas Jefferson’s majestic mountaintop home outside Charlottesville, Virginia. It was January 17, 1993. Just three days away from becoming America’s forty-second chief executive, Clinton had chosen to embark on his inaugural festivities at the residence of his namesake, the nation’s third president.
    The visitors were given a tour of the mansion, after which they joined a motorcade for the journey to Washington. When Clinton took office in a festive ceremony on January 20, he spoke of Jefferson in his inaugural address, describing the Founder as an apostle of change. Jefferson, said President Clinton, had believed in democracy and knew that periodic “dramatic change” was essential in order to “revitalize our democracy” and “preserve the very foundations of our nation.” To endure, Clinton said, America “would have to change,” but the changes must come within the framework of “America’s ideals” as set forth by Jefferson: “life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness,” and the equality of all humankind. As it had been during Jefferson’s time, Clinton continued, each generation was compelled to “define what it means to be an American.” 1
    Clinton returned for a second visit to Monticello only seventy-five days into his presidency, and throughout his term he spoke so often of his predecessor that a national news magazine referred to Jefferson as “Bill Clinton’s muse.” Clinton even enlisted Jefferson in the fight for national health insurance, avowing that Jefferson would be shocked to learn that not every American had access to affordable health care. As had Jefferson, Clinton said that he believed “democracy would rise or fall not on the strength of some political elite, but on the strength of ordinary people who hold a stake in … how our society works.” 2
    Clinton’s successor, George W. Bush, said little about Jefferson. Bush was drawn more toward a different founder, Alexander Hamilton. On May 30, 2006, a spring-soft morning in the capital, Bush walked from the Oval Officeto the Rose Garden to announce the appointment of a new secretary of the Treasury. In his remarks, the president said that he hoped his appointee, Henry Paulson, would follow the example of Alexander Hamilton, the first Treasury secretary, in overseeing the “management of public finances” that were crucial to “the health and competitiveness of the American economy.” Above all, Bush desired that Paulson would, like Hamilton, use his talent and “wisdom to strengthen our financial markets and expand the reach of the American Dream.” 3
    George Washington was the one who made things happen, but while he was the prime mover in Revolutionary America, it was Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson, more than any others, who shaped the new American nation. The strong central government, our system of finance, and the industrial vigor of the United States are Hamilton’s legacy. America’s bedrock belief in equality, its quest for novelty, and the continental span of the nation were bequeathed to succeeding generations by Jefferson.
    Hamilton’s and Jefferson’s contrasting views on the shape of the new American republic—its government, society, and economy—sparked a bitter rivalry. Furthermore, the ideas and issues that divided those two Founders have persisted from generation to generation in American politics. Their opposing views are like the twin strands of DNA in the American body politic. In the nineteenth century, partisans clashed over banks, tariffs, the money supply, and workers’ rights, among other things. In subsequent generations, political parties have battled over issues such as regulation of trade, the distribution of wealth and power, and government’s role in health care. Always, however, the divisions in these battles stretch back to the