History
How Alexander Hamilton’s Greatness Affected America’s Institutions
We still overlook how much Alexander Hamilton shaped American institutions that support civic culture, free enterprise, liberty, and self-government.
By Tony Williams
July 30, 2020
In recent years, American civic culture has suffered deep cleavages. Civil conversations have been poisoned by battles over the meaning of America’s past, and which figures we should revere — and condemn.
Even America’s Founding Fathers have come under the microscope, but one — Alexander Hamilton — has been spared such judgments by the massive popularity of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s runaway hit musical, “Hamilton.†Miranda has made Hamilton by far the most popular Founder, at least for the time being.
Hamilton’s new stature is heartening, though it’s unlikely that it has led to a significantly deeper understanding of his contribution as a thinker and statesman in helping to establish the American constitutional order.
Hamilton came to the American colonies as a young immigrant as the tensions with Great Britain were coming to a head in the mid-1770s. He studied ancient and Enlightenment thinkers at King’s College and developed a Lockean political philosophy that prized natural rights and republican self-government.
In his 1775 “Farmer Refuted†pamphlet, he argued for universal natural rights. “The sacred rights of mankind are not to be rummaged for, among old parchments, or musty records,†he wrote. “They are written, by the hand of divinity itself; and can never be erased or obscured by mortal power.†The purpose of government was to protect the natural rights of the sovereign people, who could overthrow an unjust government that failed to fulfill its purpose.
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https://thefederalist.com/2020/07/30/how-alexander-hamiltons-greatness-affected-americas-institutions/
