texas_ex2000
2,500+ Posts
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/18/u...on=inside-nyt-region&WT.nav=inside-nyt-region
Why? Hamilton is a guy everyone can get behind. Identity over accomplishment?
The guy was freaking brilliant. You can't say if he would be conservative or liberal today because the political situation was so different back then. I think everyone would have something to admire about him. Which brings me to this. With all the technology and information at our hands, it's pathetic that we fail to recognize and honor the truly worthy, authentic, and virtuous in our lives and in our history. Technology has made us lazier and more discriminating to the ideas we digest. People do not appreciate that if it were not for Hamilton and the few other Founding Fathers like him this country would be completely different, if it endured at all. We are so focused on interpreting and promoting the world through our perspective and our identity, that ironically, people have less empathy and respect for each other than in the past.
While I disagree in principle with making the first qualifying criteria a person's gender, I am all for having a woman on one of our paper currency. But there is not one American woman that can make a more deserving case than Alexander Hamilton for that honor - even to "share" a bill.
I'll list some highlights of his history in comparison to his rival Jefferson.
1) If you are into identity politics, he was illegitimately born in the West Indies to a mixed race woman in the British West Indies and was orphaned at 11. Immigrated to America to study at Kings College in New York City - now Columbia University, on a scholarship funded by a penny campaign by the folks in his hometown who saw his potential. Hamilton was an ardent abolitionist who co-founded the New York Manumission Society and Hamilton College - originally a school for Native Americans.
Main rival Jefferson, however, was a white male born into privilege into one of the wealthiest families in Virginia. According to his autobiography, Jefferson's earliest memory was being handed to a slave on horseback and carried 50 miles away to their new home which overlooked the Rivanna River. You know the rest of the story. I'm not going to assassinate someone's legacy because they were a man of their time, which Jefferson was. But I will give extra credit to forward thinkers, especially when it took courage to be one.
2) Served in the Revolutionary War. He fought gallantly in New York City leading a company of Kings College volunteers on a raid on a British armory while under fire from the ship-of-the-line HMS Asia and at the Battle of Yorktown leading three battalions on a night bayonet assault on a British fort. Can you imagine Jack Lew doing that? If that wasn't badass enough, he was Gen. Washington's Chief of Staff and central figure in the planning, execution, and administration of the Continental Army. He eventually became the Senior Officer of the Army (precursor to the Army Chief of Staff).
During the Revolutionary War, Jefferson was in the Continental Congress and served as Governor of Virginia in Richmond.
3) Author of the Federalist Papers, 1st Secretary of the Treasury, architect of the modern United States. Structured the States' post-Revolution Debt (that would have defaulted) into a National Debt that was paid down by a sinking fund. The rehabilitation of the Debt provided credit and access to capital markets for the growing US Economy. He was a proponent of a strong national military, especially a Navy, that would be vital to the evolution of the country. This was a very unpopular position at that time.
Jefferson believed in a gentleman farmer/planter paradise - a paradise, only if you were a white privileged male. Critics of Hamilton, a lot of conservatives, say he was the Father of Big Government. That's not true. You have to understand the context of the time this was all being debated. Hamilton was arguing for just a government, hopefully an effective one, that would protect natural rights (at that time would seem like he was arguing for Emperor Palpatine)...as opposed to Jeffersonian/Westerosi "gentlemen" agrarianism/feudalism which benefited the elite who already had the resources and liked the status quo. For example, without the consolidation of the National Debt the country would have gone bankrupt and there would have been another Revolution like the Reign of Terror in France. It's funny to hear some conservatives lionize Jefferson and criticize Hamilton. Jefferson did not believe in capitalism, especially as it relates to economic liberty. For Hamilton, that was the foundation of the new country and economy.
Ironically, two of Jefferson's most important accomplishments as President are extremely Hamiltonian. The Louisiana Purchase was a huge use of the Treasury and Executive Power. The other was the naval campaign during the Barbary War - sending a US Navy Squadron to North Africa to kick some Islamic pirate ***.
4) Hamilton believed in a meritocracy. People, primarily the Jefferson planters, wanted to call him an elitist in hock with bankers, which is funny considering he was a mixed-race, immigrant, bastard, orphan. He was a self-made man who didn't label folks' potential by their skin color or ethnicity. He felt if you're a patriot, honorable, intelligent, and willing to work, there is a place for you in this country.
Jefferson wrote that "all men are created equal," come on dude. Jefferson also didn't care for bankers, economics, or issues of money. That's because his family was rich. Not surprisingly since he didn't care for or concern himself with money, he died completely broke with a huge amount of debt. Hamilton of course was born in poverty and understood the virtue of disciplined financial management.
Why? Hamilton is a guy everyone can get behind. Identity over accomplishment?
The guy was freaking brilliant. You can't say if he would be conservative or liberal today because the political situation was so different back then. I think everyone would have something to admire about him. Which brings me to this. With all the technology and information at our hands, it's pathetic that we fail to recognize and honor the truly worthy, authentic, and virtuous in our lives and in our history. Technology has made us lazier and more discriminating to the ideas we digest. People do not appreciate that if it were not for Hamilton and the few other Founding Fathers like him this country would be completely different, if it endured at all. We are so focused on interpreting and promoting the world through our perspective and our identity, that ironically, people have less empathy and respect for each other than in the past.
While I disagree in principle with making the first qualifying criteria a person's gender, I am all for having a woman on one of our paper currency. But there is not one American woman that can make a more deserving case than Alexander Hamilton for that honor - even to "share" a bill.
I'll list some highlights of his history in comparison to his rival Jefferson.
1) If you are into identity politics, he was illegitimately born in the West Indies to a mixed race woman in the British West Indies and was orphaned at 11. Immigrated to America to study at Kings College in New York City - now Columbia University, on a scholarship funded by a penny campaign by the folks in his hometown who saw his potential. Hamilton was an ardent abolitionist who co-founded the New York Manumission Society and Hamilton College - originally a school for Native Americans.
Main rival Jefferson, however, was a white male born into privilege into one of the wealthiest families in Virginia. According to his autobiography, Jefferson's earliest memory was being handed to a slave on horseback and carried 50 miles away to their new home which overlooked the Rivanna River. You know the rest of the story. I'm not going to assassinate someone's legacy because they were a man of their time, which Jefferson was. But I will give extra credit to forward thinkers, especially when it took courage to be one.
2) Served in the Revolutionary War. He fought gallantly in New York City leading a company of Kings College volunteers on a raid on a British armory while under fire from the ship-of-the-line HMS Asia and at the Battle of Yorktown leading three battalions on a night bayonet assault on a British fort. Can you imagine Jack Lew doing that? If that wasn't badass enough, he was Gen. Washington's Chief of Staff and central figure in the planning, execution, and administration of the Continental Army. He eventually became the Senior Officer of the Army (precursor to the Army Chief of Staff).
During the Revolutionary War, Jefferson was in the Continental Congress and served as Governor of Virginia in Richmond.
3) Author of the Federalist Papers, 1st Secretary of the Treasury, architect of the modern United States. Structured the States' post-Revolution Debt (that would have defaulted) into a National Debt that was paid down by a sinking fund. The rehabilitation of the Debt provided credit and access to capital markets for the growing US Economy. He was a proponent of a strong national military, especially a Navy, that would be vital to the evolution of the country. This was a very unpopular position at that time.
Jefferson believed in a gentleman farmer/planter paradise - a paradise, only if you were a white privileged male. Critics of Hamilton, a lot of conservatives, say he was the Father of Big Government. That's not true. You have to understand the context of the time this was all being debated. Hamilton was arguing for just a government, hopefully an effective one, that would protect natural rights (at that time would seem like he was arguing for Emperor Palpatine)...as opposed to Jeffersonian/Westerosi "gentlemen" agrarianism/feudalism which benefited the elite who already had the resources and liked the status quo. For example, without the consolidation of the National Debt the country would have gone bankrupt and there would have been another Revolution like the Reign of Terror in France. It's funny to hear some conservatives lionize Jefferson and criticize Hamilton. Jefferson did not believe in capitalism, especially as it relates to economic liberty. For Hamilton, that was the foundation of the new country and economy.
Ironically, two of Jefferson's most important accomplishments as President are extremely Hamiltonian. The Louisiana Purchase was a huge use of the Treasury and Executive Power. The other was the naval campaign during the Barbary War - sending a US Navy Squadron to North Africa to kick some Islamic pirate ***.
4) Hamilton believed in a meritocracy. People, primarily the Jefferson planters, wanted to call him an elitist in hock with bankers, which is funny considering he was a mixed-race, immigrant, bastard, orphan. He was a self-made man who didn't label folks' potential by their skin color or ethnicity. He felt if you're a patriot, honorable, intelligent, and willing to work, there is a place for you in this country.
Jefferson wrote that "all men are created equal," come on dude. Jefferson also didn't care for bankers, economics, or issues of money. That's because his family was rich. Not surprisingly since he didn't care for or concern himself with money, he died completely broke with a huge amount of debt. Hamilton of course was born in poverty and understood the virtue of disciplined financial management.
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