by far the longest of the convention, and also the broadest in its intent and scope. For every step taken by Paterson and company away from national government, Hamilton took two steps toward it, insisting, “We ought to go as far in order to attain stability and permanency as republican principles will admit.” That was Madison’s generous rendition. Hamilton himself jotted down notes to organize his speech, and his extant words reveal a deep disregard for the republican notions that had shaped political dialogue during the Revolutionary era: “It is said a republican government does not admit a vigorous execution. It [republican government] is therefore bad; for the goodness of a government consists in a vigorous execution.” 1
Fearing rule by the untutored masses, several delegates grumbled freely about democratic government, but republican government, in which educated men like themselves deliberated on public affairs, was not to be so readily dismissed. Almost to a man, they had been rearedon a steady diet of republican virtue. Hamilton had not. He was a child in the West Indies during the Stamp Act and Townshend Act crises and did not become politically active until late in 1774, just as resistance was turning into revolution, so he never did internalize a commitment to the progressive ideals that pervaded those times. Within two years he was a professional soldier, an experience that shaped his thinking along very different lines. He pegged his career to his mentor, George Washington, and adapted readily to the military’s top-down chain of command. Now, a decade later, he showed no special attachment to the notion that people must freely and frequently choose their own leaders.
Hamilton admitted that republicanism could not be entirely abandoned, but he would limit its reach as best he could. He started with a frontal assault on confederations, which could not produce viable governance. All confederations were doomed to fail, he asserted. He produced numerous examples from history, he leaned on political philosophy, and, most significantly, he pointed to human nature, to people’s timeless pursuit of power, influence, and their own parochial interests. Judging from the proportion of notes that Madison and three other delegates took on this subject, Hamilton spent a good two hours demolishing New Jersey’s plan for continuing the confederacy.
Did Hamilton think the Virginia Plan was any better? A little, perhaps, but not much. The states still retained some degree of sovereignty, which would hamper the national government. Worse yet, its solution to the “excess of democracy” (here Hamilton echoed the words of Elbridge Gerry) was yet more democracy. From Hamilton’s own cryptic notes: “Gentlemen say we need to be rescued from the democracy. But what the means proposed? A democratic assembly is to be checked by a democratic senate, and both these by a democratic chief magistrate. The end will not be answered—the means will not be equal to the object. It will, therefore, be feeble and inefficient.” And from notes taken by the delegate Robert Yates: “What even is the Virginia plan, but
pork still, with a little change of the sauce
.” 2
To find a better way, Hamilton proclaimed, delegates need look no further than the government they had rejected eleven years earlier. “British constitution best form,” he wrote cryptically in his notes. According to Madison, Hamilton stated “he had no scruple in declaring … that the British Government was the best in the world; and that he doubted much whether any thing short of it would do in America.”At the outset, delegates had promised to share their thoughts, even if unpopular, and Hamilton, with heightened drama, indulged liberally, even gleefully, in that permission.
Ironically, Hamilton was the only delegate not taught obedience to the British Crown as a child; he came to this view not from nostalgia but by some combination of reason and taste.
Fearing rule by the untutored masses, several delegates grumbled freely about democratic government, but republican government, in which educated men like themselves deliberated on public affairs, was not to be so readily dismissed. Almost to a man, they had been rearedon a steady diet of republican virtue. Hamilton had not. He was a child in the West Indies during the Stamp Act and Townshend Act crises and did not become politically active until late in 1774, just as resistance was turning into revolution, so he never did internalize a commitment to the progressive ideals that pervaded those times. Within two years he was a professional soldier, an experience that shaped his thinking along very different lines. He pegged his career to his mentor, George Washington, and adapted readily to the military’s top-down chain of command. Now, a decade later, he showed no special attachment to the notion that people must freely and frequently choose their own leaders.
Hamilton admitted that republicanism could not be entirely abandoned, but he would limit its reach as best he could. He started with a frontal assault on confederations, which could not produce viable governance. All confederations were doomed to fail, he asserted. He produced numerous examples from history, he leaned on political philosophy, and, most significantly, he pointed to human nature, to people’s timeless pursuit of power, influence, and their own parochial interests. Judging from the proportion of notes that Madison and three other delegates took on this subject, Hamilton spent a good two hours demolishing New Jersey’s plan for continuing the confederacy.
Did Hamilton think the Virginia Plan was any better? A little, perhaps, but not much. The states still retained some degree of sovereignty, which would hamper the national government. Worse yet, its solution to the “excess of democracy” (here Hamilton echoed the words of Elbridge Gerry) was yet more democracy. From Hamilton’s own cryptic notes: “Gentlemen say we need to be rescued from the democracy. But what the means proposed? A democratic assembly is to be checked by a democratic senate, and both these by a democratic chief magistrate. The end will not be answered—the means will not be equal to the object. It will, therefore, be feeble and inefficient.” And from notes taken by the delegate Robert Yates: “What even is the Virginia plan, but
pork still, with a little change of the sauce
.” 2
To find a better way, Hamilton proclaimed, delegates need look no further than the government they had rejected eleven years earlier. “British constitution best form,” he wrote cryptically in his notes. According to Madison, Hamilton stated “he had no scruple in declaring … that the British Government was the best in the world; and that he doubted much whether any thing short of it would do in America.”At the outset, delegates had promised to share their thoughts, even if unpopular, and Hamilton, with heightened drama, indulged liberally, even gleefully, in that permission.
Ironically, Hamilton was the only delegate not taught obedience to the British Crown as a child; he came to this view not from nostalgia but by some combination of reason and taste.
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