The Founders

Over at Colorado Pols the question is asked "Who is your favorite Founding Father and Why?"

Being a nerd I of course have a favorite Founder - Alexander Hamilton.

As others in the thread point out Hamilton created our financial system, was the most important member of Washington's first Cabinet (elbowing out chief rival Thomas Jefferson) and did more than any other single member of the government (save arguably for Washington) to hold the Republic together through those very trying first 8 years. We of course shouldn't forget his role in shaping the Constitution and ensuring its passage through his authoring of The Federalist Papers. If we can say that our current nation most closely resembles the vision of any one man of the Founding generation then it is Hamilton.

Hamilton was not a native born American and as such could not serve as President but I believe that he, more than any other Founder, shaped the Constitution and young Republic in his vision. As I state later in the thread, I think that Hamilton's contributions are swept aside far too quickly today.

There are many charges of elitism bandied about and certainly some are true but Hamilton's views were hardly extreme for the time. Indeed it was Jefferson who ended up embracing the most extreme ideologues of the era during the French Revolution. Beyond that I think much of the mud-slinging directed at Hamilton is meant to distract from Jefferson's many flaws. It was Hamilton who possessed a vision of future greatness for the United States, not Jefferson.

Jefferson was a good man who made tremendous contributions to our nation but he was not indispensable, Hamilton was.