Master Passion/Alexander Hamilton/Schuyler A Master Passion
Here we are again in January, which is a month crowded with family birthdays as well as the birthdays of two of my great heroes. As to the family birthdays, I have two cousins, an uncle, my mother, and two granddaughters who were born in this month--Capricorns, everyone. They prize stability, are detail-oriented and hard workers.
As to my heroes, the gentleman above, Hamilton, was born under Capricorn. He was therefore--according to the astrologers--the perfect man to have been America's first Secretary of the Treasury. Trained in the laws of commerce, he was the first balancer of our new nation's books, which, after the War of Independence were a sea of red ink. This initial knotty problem was solved through his knowledge of the way the young global economy functioned, as well as and a lot of unpleasant negotiating with the less well-fiscally-educated members of the legislature. In fact, some of what have proved to be America's original sins--those that endlessly plague us today, are the result of the political horse-trading--the compromises--that were necessary to stabilize a totally broke infant republic.
Hamilton was also one of the three Founding Fathers who authored The Federalist Papers. From that framework, the one created by those three thoughtful lawyers, (Hamilton, Madison, and Jay) our American Constitution was born. Hamilton, who loved
an elaborate sentence, doubtless was the most verbose, though James Madison, the bachelor with whom his young family shared a back garden at the time, was a deeper philosopher and a pithier wordsmith.
I follow on with a series of quotes from this statesman, "the ten dollar bill guy." There is plenty to chew on here, the words of a man who lived and died according to an elevated personal code of honor. I wish there were more in public service today who were as far-sighted, as self-sacrificing, and as honest. Unlike so many legislators today, Hamilton did not feather his nest while he held power. Within three years of his death, his wife had to sell their fine country home and take her seven children into New York City to live in a rented apartment.
"There are seasons in every country when noise and impudence pass current for worth; and in popular commotions especially, the clamors of interested and factious men are often mistaken for patriotism."
"In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place, oblige it to control itself."
“The inquiry constantly is what will please, not what will benefit the people. In such a government there can be nothing but temporary expedient, fickleness, and folly.”
"History will teach us that...those men who have overturned the
liberties of republics, the greatest number have begun their career by paying
an obsequious court to the people; commencing demagogues, and ending tyrants."
“For in politics, as in
religion, it is equally absurd to aim at making proselytes by fire and sword.
Heresies in either can rarely be cured by persecution.”
“If the federal government
should overpass the just bounds of its authority and make a tyrannical use of
its powers, the people, whose creature it is, must appeal to the standard they
have formed, and take such measures to redress the injury done to the
Constitution as the exigency may suggest and prudence justify.”
“Divide et impera must be the
motto of every nation that either hates or fears us.”
“Constitutions should consist only of general provisions; the reason is that they must necessarily be permanent, and that they cannot calculate for the possible change of things.”
"Now mark my words. So long as we are a young and virtuous people, this instrument (the Constitution) will bind us together in mutual interests, mutual welfare and mutual happiness, but when we become old and corrupt, it will bind us no longer."
~ Juliet Waldron
