Biographical Sketches of Eminent American Statesmen, with Speeches, Addresses and Letters

Amongst all the eminent American statesmen there have been none greater intellectually than Alexander Hamilton. I well remember that Governor McDuffie, more than forty years ago, expressed this same opinion in a speech which he made in Congress on the tariff question. Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Calhoun, Clay and Webster died when they were sixty, seventy and eighty years old. But Alexander Hamilton died under a false sense of honor, when he was only forty-six years old. In that short period of human existence, when the English think that a statesman or barrister is just beginning to enter the arena of fame, Hamilton had achieved all his greatness in war, at the bar, in the halls of legislation, as a cabinet minister and as a voluminous public writer of unsurpassed ability. His writings have been published by his son in six large volumes, and they are a monument of his genius and ability as a statesman.

Jefferson and Hamilton were great rivals in politics, and bitter enemies. They traduced each other very much in life, and on the part of Mr. Jefferson his calumnies were continued after the death of his opponent. Hamilton was at the head of the Federal party, and Jefferson was the great leader of the Republican or Democratic party. They were both members of Washington's cabinet, and came into it every day pitted against each other. Washington generally sided with Hamilton, and Jefferson could bear his daily defeats no longer, and retired from the cabinet to organize his party more effectually throughout the United States. In the contest for the Presidency between Jefferson and Burr, there is a noble letter from Hamilton to Senator

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