Was an element of Alexander hamiltons vision of the US?

Answer 1

Hamilton's vision for America was much like Roman virtue. The expansion and domination of trade backed by an elite military. However, as is often a source of misperception Hamilton was not a love of England just its' empire. "While extolling as vice England's practices, it was not Hamilton's intention to improve but to replace England's supremacy. "To make a second England of America, eventually to take over Britain's ascendancy."1

However, Hamilton was much unlike his brethren. It must be remembered that Hamilton was a late comer to the Revolution and was not a part of the causes and motivations that preceded that event by a century. "There was no sharp break between a placid pre-Revolutionary era and the turmoil of the 1760's and 1770's. The argument, the claims and counter-claims, the fears and apprehensions that fill the pamphlets, letters, newspapers, and state papers of the Revolutionary years had in fact been heard throughout the century."2

"...Hamilton stressed the representative variety of popular government, he never committed himself to the definition of republican government propounded in the Federalist by his collaborator James Madison. Madison is the creator and sole advocate of the idea of republican government."3 "A republic, by which I mean a government in which the scheme of representation takes place."4

Eventually, Madison found himself disillusioned after the adoption of the federal Constitution. "He [Madison] was apparently not aware of the results which the Constitution would produce. He soon became one of the chief architects of the party which opposed the Federalists' interpretation of the Constitution."3 Madison had soon realized that "not all of his Federalist colleagues shared his particular conception of a republican America; some of them he was appalled to learn, even thought in terms of deliberately promoting what he thought necessary to forestall."5

"Although Hamilton's policies were adopted at the time, they were not the only policies available and many of these same policies were actually abandoned within a few years after Hamilton's retirement from government."6

In my book The Never Realized Republic: Political Economy and Republican Virtue I have two chapters devoted to Hamilton's vision:

Chapter V

The Foundation of Hamilton's Vision:

The Power of Authority

Chapter VI

Hamilton as Secretary of the Treasury:

The Financing of His Vision

This is fresh scholarship based in a precise historicity. Please see it on Amazon.com.

1Gerald Stourzh, Alexander Hamilton and the Idea of Republican Government, (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1970), 6.

2The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution,(Cambridge: Mass, 1992), rev. ed., Foreword, XV.

3 The Federalist Papers, Clinton Rossiter, ed., (New York: Nal Penguin Inc., 1961), No. 10, 81.

4 Robert E. Brown, Charles Beard and the Constitution,(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1956), 81.

5 Drew R. McCoy, The Elusive Republic: Political Economy in Jeffersonian America (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1980), 120.

6 Rose, "Alexander Hamilton and the Historians," 855, For other proposals of Morris, see ibid., 862, Madison, ibid., 863, and Jefferson, ibid., 867. See how "the government could have settled its obligations honorably with a far smaller load of debt than Hamilton wished to impose." Frank Bourgin, The Great Challenge: The Myth of Laissez-faire in the Early Republic, (N.Y.: George Braziller), 74.

Answer 2

Hamilton thought the country would be better off with a strong, central government run by the well-educated and wealthy. His position allowed him to control the economy of the new nation, making a national Bank with the consent of Washington.

Answer 3

1. Bolster national credit: Urged Congress to assume the debts of the states and fund the national debt at par. By assuming the debt it would become a national obligation and force the states into a bond with the federal govt. as well as unite the states.

2. Funding at par: The federal govt. would pay off its debts at face value + intreats.

Answer 4

he wanted a strong national government and didnt want trust the states alone
His vision was; a Commercial, Urban, Manufacturing Empire.