Chapter VI

The Charge That Hamilton Had Not Any Confidence in a Government of the People Refuted

But it is charged that Hamilton had not any confidence in a government of the people,
especially in the State governments. That he feared the encroachments of the State governments
upon the general government is not denied even by his partial friends.
These fears were grounded upon the unequal population among the several States,
the larger States in his opinion having too great advantage over the smaller in the House of Representatives.
Virginia, being the largest State in point of population, had the greatest representation
and dominated the policy of the government and the legislation of the times.

They were divided on the Alien and Sedition Laws, opposed by Hamilton,
and successfully charged up to the administration by the unsurpassed political acumen
and unexcelled craftiness of Mr. Jefferson. (Letter to S. T. Mason, 1798; also letter to James Madison, 1798.)

These bald assertions are again refuted by the further fact that during the contest in Congress
in 1800 and 1801 he planted, with his own hands, in the lawn fronting his residence,
thirteen trees in honor of the thirteen original States.
He likewise implicitly trusted his debtors and lost few debts, the most conspicuous being that of his assassin.
While on the other hand, Mr. Jefferson would not even sell a bushel of corn without the cash or note with surety;
nor would he rent even a small piece of land to anyone without it being in writing and verified by witnesses.
This was properly regarded in him as nothing more than a careful business transaction;
but in the judgment of the traducers of Hamilton, or the voicing of the backbiters of the day,
it would have been conclusive evidence of his want of confidence in the people —
in other words, conclusive evidence of “Hamiltonism.”

“To know Hamilton was to trust him,” Simpkins writes, “and to misunderstand him was to misjudge the Republic he helped to create.”