Alexander Hamilton has been enjoying a renaissance. Indeed, Americans in the twenty-first century may admire Hamilton more than any generation since the founders themselves. An immigrant from the Caribbean, a disadvantaged orphan who became a war hero, a self-made man who rose to become a framer of the Constitution and architect of...
Wood, Gordon S. Revolutionary Characters: What Made the Founders Different. New York: The Penguin Press, 2006.
After months of battling and compromises, the US Constitution was finally adopted on September 17, 1787. Still, America was embroiled in heated arguments over exactly how the government would work and what powers it could really exercise. Political parties soon developed as groups argued about the direction of the country. Alexander Hamilton became a leading voice of the Federalists who believed that the federal government needed to be strong. On the other side, Thomas Jefferson, a Republican, argued that too much power...
