What is a Hamiltonian?

Hamiltonianism is derived from the political philosophy of Federalists in early American history. The purpose of this branding is to use a narrative derived directly from the founding of America to interrogate other political narratives which have claims to the same source. Hamiltonianism offers a way to directly confront any pretense that somebody is speaking authoritatively on behalf of the Founding Fathers. Hamiltonian analysis works because politicians, pundits, professors, and journalists who tout themselves as representatives of our founding values tend to have never bothered to study the source material. They sometimes don’t even know that there is a contending narrative to the one they have learned. Public intellectuals in America can be challenged on their own turf without introducing irrelevant foreign philosophers and political movements. Discourse about the foundational American ideas of “liberty” and “equality” has been bothered with references and contrasts to Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. The Founding Fathers didn’t know what Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union were. They had their own debates and discussions.

During the first administration under the US Constitution, there was a political divide between two schools of thought. The Federalist camp had as its champions President George Washington and Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton with considerable contributions from John Adams. This school of thought I have called “Hamiltonianism.” The Hamiltonians believed that the United States of America was the embryo of a great empire which needed to be dislodged from the inertia of its heritage as a colonial dependency and imbued with a truly national character so that Americans could hold their own against rivals with interests in the Western Hemisphere. The Hamiltonians believed that the United States would necessarily either attain freedom through the power to pursue its own interests and defend itself from foreign interference or succumb once again to subjection.

During the presidency of George Washington, Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson and Virginian congressman James Madison created an Anti-Administration Party, which was called “Anti-Federalist” as it also contained some people from the original Anti-Federalist camp that opposed the Constitution. Using the designation of “Anti-Federalist” to refer to the political philosophy of the Anti-Administration Party proves confusing today for many reasons, including the fact that James Madison contributed to The Federalist Papers which advocated for the Constitution. I have preferred the term “Jeffersonian” instead. The Jeffersonians believed that the Hamiltonian view of government would be too much like the one from which the colonies had just liberated themselves. The Jeffersonians believed that the nascent American nation had rid itself of corrupted cultural baggage from the Old World, granting Americans a blank state onto which they could write a fundamentally new conception of politics based on modern 18^th century liberal principles. The Jeffersonians believed that without the shackles of tyranny, free men would naturally desire to use reason and create social contracts that determine the most harmonious and equitable outcomes among themselves. Jeffersonians believed not only that the concentration of power in national politics would be unnatural and dangerous but that the economic and commercial forces used to engage in power politics in international affairs would have a pernicious influence upon this radical project to reinvent a new kind of man previously unknown to history.

Hamiltonians also had new ideas, but these were based on the Christian idea that we live in a fallen world and that humanity has a natural temptation to sin. Americans could create a new nation but not a new world or man. Hamiltonians believed that history contains the experience of mankind and provides real-life lessons about how liberty is won, maintained, and lost. The Hamiltonians did not believe in human equality and did not consider that it was possible except through a miracle performed by God. Equality was considered neither a fact nor a goal. The Hamiltonians believed that political divisions arise naturally inside nations. According to the Hamiltonians, the history of the world shows that the activity and ambition of a minority of the citizenry has always tended to distinguish one class above other citizens. The nature of this eminence is associated with an outsized but not necessarily undue influence in politics. From ancient Rome to medieval England, nations have found the need for an effective check to irregular political combinations animated by jealousy in the democratic class and avarice in the aristocratic class which are susceptible to seditious activity, tyrannical ambition, and alien intrigue. These are the Hamiltonian’s threats to national independence and liberty. The effective check to these was supposed to exist in the form of an energetic executive who could maintain a justifiable equilibrium using the full power of the state, if necessary. It was for these reasons that Jeffersonians accused Hamiltonians of supporting monarchy and oligarchy in the English fashion. This brief outline shows some examples of the fundamental differences between Jeffersonians and Hamiltonians--the classical liberals and classical conservatives of early American history.

If you have any suggestions, critiques, or questions, you can write me at @Hamiltonianist on the website formerly known as Twitter.