"[Alexander Hamilton is] a man whose history, from the moment at which history can stoop to notice him, is a tissue of machinations against the liberty of the country which has not only recieved and given him bread, but heaped it’s honors on his head."
"[Hamilton], man whose mind was really powerful, but chained by native
partialities to every thing English: who had formed exaggerated ideas of
the superior perfection of the English constitution, the superior
wisdom of their government; and sincerely believed it for the good of
this country to make them their model in every thing: without
considering that what might be wise and good for a nation essentially
commercial, and entangled in complicated intercourse with numerous and
powerful neighbors, might not be so for one essentially agricultural,
& insulated by nature from the abusive governments of the old world.
The exercise by our own citizens of so much commerce as may suffice to
exchange our superfluities, for our wants, may be advantageous for the
whole. But it does not follow that, with a territory so boundless, it is
the interest of the whole to become a mere city of London, to carry on
the business of one half the world at the expence of eternal war with
the other half.
The agricultural capacities of our country constitute it’s distinguishing feature: and the adapting our policy & pursuits to that, is more likely to make us a numerous and happy people than the mimicry of an Amsterdam, a Hamburg, or a city of London. Every society has a right to fix the fundamental principles of it’s association, & to say to all individuals that, if they contemplate pursuits beyond the limits of these principles, and involving dangers which the society chooses to avoid, they must go somewhere else for their exercise; that we want no citizens, and still less ephemeral & Pseudo-citizens on such terms. We may exclude them from our territory, as we do persons infected with disease. Such is the situation of our country. We have most abundant resources of happiness within ourselves, which we may enjoy in peace and safety, without permitting a few citizens, infected with the Mania of rambling & gambling, to bring danger on the great mass engaged in innocent and safe pursuits at home."
The agricultural capacities of our country constitute it’s distinguishing feature: and the adapting our policy & pursuits to that, is more likely to make us a numerous and happy people than the mimicry of an Amsterdam, a Hamburg, or a city of London. Every society has a right to fix the fundamental principles of it’s association, & to say to all individuals that, if they contemplate pursuits beyond the limits of these principles, and involving dangers which the society chooses to avoid, they must go somewhere else for their exercise; that we want no citizens, and still less ephemeral & Pseudo-citizens on such terms. We may exclude them from our territory, as we do persons infected with disease. Such is the situation of our country. We have most abundant resources of happiness within ourselves, which we may enjoy in peace and safety, without permitting a few citizens, infected with the Mania of rambling & gambling, to bring danger on the great mass engaged in innocent and safe pursuits at home."
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