Hamilton’s Curse
by admin on 01/04/2018 4:59 AMby Thomas J. Dilorenzo (Author)
Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton–two of the most influential Founding Fathers–were also fierce rivals with two opposing political philosophies and two radically different visions for America.
While Jefferson is better remembered today, it is actually Hamilton’s political legacy that has triumphed–a legacy that has subverted the Constitution and transformed the federal government into the very leviathan state that our forefathers fought against in the American Revolution. How did we go from the Jeffersonian ideal of limited government to the bloated imperialist system of Hamilton’s design? Acclaimed economic historian, Thomas J. DiLorenzo reveals how Hamilton, first as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention and later as the nation’s first and most influential treasury secretary, masterfully promoted an agenda of nationalist glory and interventionist economics. These core beliefs did not die with Hamilton in his fatal duel with Aaron Burr, but were carried on through his political heirs.
The Hamiltonian legacy wrested control into the hands of the federal government by inventing the myth of the Constitution’s “implied powers, transforming state governments from Jeffersonian bulwarks of liberty to beggars for federal crumbs. It also devised a national banking system that imposes boom-and-bust cycles on the American economy; saddled Americans with a massive national debt and oppressive taxation and pushed economic policies that lined the pockets of the wealthy and created a government system built on graft, spoils, and patronage.
By debunking the Hamiltonian myths, DiLorenzo exposes an uncomfortable truth: the American people are no longer the masters of their government but its servants. Only by restoring a system based on Jeffersonian ideals can Hamilton’s curse be lifted, at last.
About the Author
Thomas J. DiLorenzo is the author of “The Real Lincoln “and “How Capitalism Saved America,” A professor of economics at Loyola College in Maryland and a senior fellow at the Ludwig von Mises Institute, he has written for the “Wall Street Journal,” “USA Today,” the “Washington Post,” “Reader’s Digest,” “Barron’s,” and many other publications. He lives in Baltimore, Maryland.
“From the Hardcover edition.” The Introduction: The Real Hamilton
Read the original full chapter online at Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/Hamiltons-Curse-Jeffersons-Revolution-Americans ebook/dp/B001FA0JNC?SubscriptionId=AKIAI63WS3YGA3Y5U2QA&tag=lrc18-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B001FA0JNC
INTRODUCTION
The Real Hamilton
[T]he power to raise money is plenary and indefinite [in the Constitution]… The terms general Welfare were doubtless intended to signify more than was expressed.
—ALEXANDER HAMILTON, REPORT ON MANUFACTURES
Implied powers are to be considered as delegated equally [to the federal government] with express ones.
—ALEXANDER HAMILTON, OPINION ON THE CONSTITUTIONALITY OF THE BANK OF THE UNITED STATES
Ideas have consequences,” wrote the renowned conservative scholar Richard M. Weaver in a book by that title.1 Big ideas, moreover, can have big consequences, and there are probably no ideas in American political history bigger than the ones debated by Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson at the time of the founding. This battle of ideas—and it was indeed a battle—formed the template for the debate over the role of government in America that shapes our history to this day. The most important idea of all, in the minds of Hamilton and Jefferson, was what kind of government Americans would live under. . . Read more online at Amazon. . . Purchase the Kendel, paperback or hardback versions at Amazon.com
Feedback . . .
Subscribe MedicalTuesday . . .
Subscribe HealthPlanUSA . . .