Alexander Hamilton

Alexander Hamilton

10/24/05

Alexander Hamilton believed in a strong centralized government which, in the late 1700's, meant he was a Federalist. He interpreted the constitution liberally, using the elastic clause as his weapon to get the advantage shown in his fight for a national bank. Hamilton supported the idea of the rich being tied to government which was demonstrated in his financial plan. Hamilton was afraid of the masses because he thought they were too impulsive, demonstrated by his respect for aristocracy. Finally, Hamilton believed that trust in governmental representation was not based on numbers, but rather on the quality of representation and the products of their work.

In September of 1786 Hamilton was among the few people who attended a meeting discussing the common problems of commerce. While the meeting was dull, Hamilton did suggest another meeting to deal with the problems associated with Articles of Confederation. The result of that meeting was the U.S. Constitution. Hamilton felt the Constitution was too weak, but he still fought hard for its ratification. He worked with John Jay and James Madison to publish the Federalist Papers. These papers emphasized the fact that the Constitution was safe, and that states would still have some power. It was through these papers and Hamilton's hard work to get New York representatives to accept the Constitution that it was ratified. Early on most of the founding fathers were Federalists because they all agreed that a Federal government should be established, after the constitution was ratified, however, it was a question of how much power that government should have and Hamilton led the charge for a powerful centralized government.

During the New York Ratifying Convention Hamilton gave his full views on what government should and should not be. He gave examples of how pure democracy was not an ideal government as the Democratic Republicans had said, but rather made way for chaos. He also gave examples from earlier Republics about how more representatives did not gain the peoples trust but rather the quality of the representatives is what did that. His examples were Sparta, which used a check system made up of only five men, and Rome, whose people were represented by ten men. Hamilton did not think that more representatives would help to understand the interests of the people either. This is not to say Hamilton wanted a monarchy, but he would have been for the New Jersey plan before the Constitution was ratified. During this Convention Hamilton also spoke about aristocracy. Although Hamilton did have respect for aristocracy, he realized that it was important every person had some say in their government thus showing his support for a republic.

Hamilton was asked to create a financial plan to solve the problem of national debt in October of 1789. What he proposed was that a certain amount of the government's revenue be strictly used for paying off national debt while remaining in debt to the rich so that they