Alexander Hamilton Portrait by John Trumbull (1806)

Alexander Hamilton

Quotes: 1. Man can be called a reasoning rather than a rational being. 2. A reasonable national debt would be a blessing to our country.

Achievements and contributions:

Professional, social position: Alexander Hamilton was an American statesman, politician, political scientist, and lawyer.
Main contribution (what is known): Author of the main articles in The Federalist, which formed the basis of the US Constitution, the first secretary of the treasury of the United States, one of the founding fathers of the state of the United States of America philosopher. Hamilton is known as the hero of the American Revolution, the first Secretary of the Treasury of the young American state, the architect of its monetary system,
Contributions: He was Chief of Staff and Secretary to General George Washington during the American Revolution, and was one of the leaders of the Nationalist forces that advocated a new Constitution.
He was one of America's first lawyers and wrote half, with John Jay and James Madison, of the famous "Federalist Articles" - which served as the main source text of the Constitution. During the troubled times that led to the American Revolution, he wrote articles and pamphlets supporting the colonial struggle for independence.
Hamilton was a delegate from New York to the Constitutional Convention (1787) and the first US Secretary of the Treasury or Secretary of the Treasury (1789-95). He served in the New York Legislature and was the only New Yorker to sign the US Constitution. Although Alexander Hamilton was not as famous as the other Founding Fathers, Benjamin Franklin and George Washington, he played a key role in the formation of the first American government under President Washington.
He played a key role in the formation of the country's first political party. So the US Federalist Party was formed in 1800 to support his policies. Hamilton was a proponent of the first system of proportional representation, which he proposed as a means of winning more seats for each state.
An admirer of the British political system, Hamilton was a nationalist who insisted on a strong central government and argued that the implied powers of the Constitution could be used to fund the national debt, assume the debt of the states, and create the United States National Bank. Hamilton believed in a strong centralized state and a strong national bank, and these beliefs were the basis of his famous spat with Thomas Jefferson.
Honorary titles, awards: Hamilton's portrait is featured on the ten dollar bill. Several monuments have been erected to him in the United States, in particular Washington, New York and Boston.
Main works: Author of most of the 85 articles in the famous collection The Federalist (1788), considered the source of interpretation of the US Constitution.

Career and personal life:

Origin: Hamilton was born in Charlestown, the capital of the Caribbean on the island of Nevis (now Saint Kitts, Nevis), in the British West Indies. He was the illegitimate son of James Hamilton, a Scot, and Rachel Fawcett Lyon, daughter of a French Huguenot physician.
Education: When his mother died in 1768, at the age of 13, he began working as a clerk in a trading firm in Santa Cruz. In 1772 he went to America in the Thirteen Colonies. There, after a few months at an academy in New Jersey, he entered King's College (now Columbia University) in New York. With high ambition, he became a serious and successful student, but his studies were interrupted by the Boston Tea Party and the outbreak of an uprising against Great Britain. In 1776 he left college without finishing it. He publicly supported the Boston Tea Party, in which Boston colonists destroyed a shipment of tea in protest of the English tea tax.
The main stages of professional activity: In March 1776, Hamilton was drafted into the army as an artillery captain. He displayed conspicuous bravery at the Battle of Trenton and was noticed by George Washington. In February 1777, Washington invited him to become his adjutant with the rank of lieutenant colonel. During four years of service with Washington, he rose to the rank of general and became his confidant.
The main stages of personal life: With the aim of achieving wealth and increasing influence, Hamilton married Elizabeth, daughter of General Philip Schuyler, head of one of the most famous families in New York. Hamilton's political feud with Jefferson's vice president, Aaron Burr, led to their duel with pistols. On July 11, 1804, Hamilton was mortally wounded and died the next day. He was buried in Trinity Church Cemetery in Manhattan, New York.
Zest: Young Hamilton, on arrival at the Thirteen Colonies, claimed to have been born in 1757. However, he also recorded in the documents of his will, shortly after the death of his mother, the date of birth 1755. Hamilton often spoke approximately of his age in his later life. The portrait of Alexander Hamilton is placed on the 10-dollar bill, while among all the figures depicted on banknotes, only he and Benjamin Franklin were not US presidents.

33\34. Founding Fathers of the USA.

Payne on State and Law

Thomas Paine (1737-1809) is one of the most radical representatives of the democratic political and legal ideology of the Revolutionary War. Later than its other representatives, joining the liberation movement of the colonies (Payne in 1774, i.e. on the eve of the War of Independence, moved from England to North America), he was the first among them in 1775 in the article "Serious Thought" raised the question of secession of the colonies from England and the creation of an independent state. In the pamphlet "Common Sense" - his most famous work - he showed the imperfection of the political system of England and proposed the name of the state that the colonists should form - "the United States of America". The ideas of this pamphlet were reflected in the Declaration of Independence of the United States, the author of which was T. Jefferson. After the outbreak of the revolution in France, Payne published the work "Rights of Man", in which he defended the democratic rights and freedoms proclaimed in the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen of 1789.

Like many other representatives of the natural law theory of that time, Payne distinguished between natural and civil human rights "The first are inherent in him by nature," by the right of his existence. "Payne attributed the right to happiness, freedom of conscience, freedom of speech to them. These rights are a person possessed in a natural state, which, according to Payne, was a historical fact (here he is close to Locke) and which, in his opinion, was still preserved among the North American Indians.

With the formation of society and the state, people transferred part of their natural rights to the "common fund". This is how civil rights arise, which belong to a person as a member of society. These are the rights that a person is not able to protect with his power. Payne also referred to them the right of property - an acquired right, and not a natural one.

Like Rousseau, Payne believed that in the state of nature there was no private ownership of land - the land was "the common property of the human race." Private property appears with the transition to agriculture, and also as a result of "underpayment to workers." Along with it, there is also a division of people into rich and poor. By nature, all people are equal in their rights, and the division into rich and poor is a consequence of the emergence of private property (Payne's ideological opponent A. Hamilton has a natural division into rich and poor).

Back in 1775, Payne was one of the first in North America to speak out against slavery and demand the emancipation of slaves.

The state, according to Payne, arises after the unification of people into society, because the united people are not able to maintain justice in their relations with each other. It is created by people under a social contract - the only possible way to form a state. Therefore, the supreme power in the state should belong to the people themselves. From this idea of ​​popular sovereignty, Payne infers the right of the people to establish or destroy any form of government—the right of the people to revolt and revolution. With the same ideas of popular sovereignty and the right to revolution, Payne substantiated the admissibility and necessity of separating the colonies from England and forming their own independent state.

Analyzing the forms of the state, Payne distinguished between "old" (monarchist) and "new" (republican) forms. The basis of this. classifications are based on the principles of education (government - inheritance or election. Payne sharply criticized the political system of England and pre-revolutionary France. He called government based on the transfer of power by inheritance "the most unfair and imperfect of all systems of government." Having no legal basis , such power is inevitably tyrannical, usurping popular sovereignty.

Republican government, according to Payne's ideas, should be based on the principle of popular representation. It is "government established in the interests of society and exercised in its interests, both individual and collective." Since it is based on popular sovereignty, the legislative body, elected on the basis of universal suffrage as the realization of the natural equality of people, must have supreme power.

From these positions, Payne criticized the US Constitution of 1787, during the adoption of which he was in Europe. So, in fixing the system of "checks and balances" in the Constitution, he rightly saw the influence of Montesquieu's theory of separation of powers, with which he did not agree. He also saw the lack of the Constitution in the creation of a bicameral legislature, formed on the basis of the qualifying suffrage that existed in the states. Too long (six years) was, in his opinion, the term of office of senators. He preferred the collegiate head of executive power (president), provided for by the Constitution, to the sole head of the executive branch. He also objected to giving the president the right to veto, to the irremovability of judges, who, he believed, should be re-elected and be accountable to the people. Finally, Payne argued that each generation should determine for itself what is in its interests, and therefore have the right to change the Constitution.

Payne's political views expressed the democratic and revolutionary tendencies in the liberation movement of the colonists, the interests of the broadest sections. They had a tremendous impact on the course and outcome of the War of Independence. Moreover, they influenced the liberation movement in Latin America against Spanish colonial domination and even "crossed" the Atlantic Ocean and in Payne's homeland, England, contributed to the formation of the political ideology of the Chartist movement with its demands for universal suffrage and annual parliamentary elections.

§ 3. Political and legal views of T. Jefferson

The political views of Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) were close to those of Paine. Like Payne, Jefferson embraced the natural law doctrine in its most radical and democratic interpretation. Hence the proximity of his political and legal views to the ideas of Rousseau. True, before the start of the Revolutionary War, Jefferson hoped for a peaceful resolution of the conflict with England and was influenced by Montesquieu's theory of the separation of powers. But this did not prevent him from later criticizing the US Constitution of 1787, which perceived the separation of powers as a system of "checks and balances" and gave the president the opportunity to be re-elected an unlimited number of times and thereby, according to Jefferson, turn into a lifelong monarch. He considered the absence of a Bill of Rights in it, especially freedom of speech, press, and religion, to be a major drawback of the Constitution.

A radical and democratic interpretation of the natural law concept was manifested in Jefferson's idea of ​​a social contract as the basis for the organization of society, giving all its participants the right to constitute state power. From this logically flowed the idea of ​​popular sovereignty and equality of citizens in political, including electoral, rights.

Jefferson criticized capitalism, which was gaining strength in the United States, leading to the ruin and impoverishment of large sections of the population. However, he considered the development of large-scale capitalist production to be the main cause of these disasters and idealized small-scale farming. His ideal was a democratic republic of free and equal farmers. This ideal was utopian, but Jefferson's active promotion of it played a large role in attracting the broad masses of the people of the colonies to actively participate in the Revolutionary War.

Of even greater importance was the fact that Jefferson was the author of the draft Declaration of Independence, a constitutional document that, based on a democratic and revolutionary interpretation of natural law doctrine, justified the legitimacy of the separation of the colonies from England and the formation of an independent, independent state by them.

A break with religious ideas about state power, still characteristic of that era (the mention of the creator god was made in passing in the Declaration and does not change anything in its content), and natural law argumentation, popular sovereignty and the right to revolution, protection of individual freedom and rights citizens - all this made the Declaration of Independence an outstanding theoretical and political document of its time. It should not be forgotten that feudal-absolutist arbitrariness still reigned on the European continent in those years, and the English monarchy tried to maintain its dominance in the North American colonies by practically feudal-absolutist means.

For Jefferson, as the author of the Declaration, "the following truths are evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." The natural equality of people proclaimed in the preamble of the Declaration was directly opposed to the class privileges inherited from feudalism, inalienable rights - to feudal lack of rights. These ideas also had a specific practical and political meaning in the struggle against the British colonialists, who denied the equality of the colonists with the inhabitants of the metropolis and encroached on the rights of the colonists.

The list of inalienable rights named in the Declaration does not include the property right contained, as noted, in the Declaration of Rights of the First Continental Congress. The absence of this most important right, sacred to bourgeois society, is due to the influence of Paine, who in American historical literature is sometimes called the author of the Declaration of Independence, although he himself unambiguously indicated that Jefferson was its author (it was said above that Payne considered the right to property an acquired right and, therefore not an inalienable human right). We must keep in mind another, no less important practical, political circumstance. Drafting the Declaration, Jefferson took into account that as the conflict between the colonists and England escalated, their ideas about freedom and property became more and more merged. After all, the source of the conflict lay primarily in the encroachment of England on the material interests of the colonists. It was these encroachments that helped the colonists to understand that they were not free. The colonists saw their freedom in the unhindered development of property; the main thing for them was not abstract-theoretical freedom from foreign power, but practical freedom, ensuring their material interests. Therefore, freedom as a natural and inalienable right was seen by the colonists (and Jefferson had to take this into account) as a guarantee of freedom of property. In practice, freedom in the Declaration of Independence included the right to freely use and dispose of one's material goods, i.e. the right to property.

Government, Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence, is created by the people to protect the natural rights of man, and the power of government derives from the consent of the people to obey it. Consistently developing the idea of ​​popular sovereignty, Jefferson concludes that by virtue of such an origin of the power of the government (created by the people) and such a condition for its existence (the consent of the people), the people have the right to change or destroy the existing form of government (the existing government), that the "duty and right" of people is the overthrow of the government, striving for despotism. The right to revolution is thus justified, and convincingly justified.

Further, the Declaration of Independence contains 27 points of accusing the English king of striving for despotism, giving reason to proclaim in the Declaration "in the name and authority of the good people of our colonies" the separation of the colonies from England (the overthrow of a government striving for despotism - the right to revolution) and the formation of independent U.S.A.

To characterize Jefferson's political views, it is important to pay attention to the fact that in the draft Declaration of Independence he compiled, there were not 27, but 28 points of accusation against the English king. The paragraph, which did not make it into the final text of the Declaration as a result of the strong objections of the planters of the southern colonies, condemned the slavery of the Negroes that flourished in the southern colonies. Jefferson was convinced that it was contrary to human nature and the natural rights of people and accused the English king of "capturing people and enslaving them in another hemisphere, and often they died a terrible death, unable to withstand transportation."

Jefferson entered the history of political thought and modern history in general as the author of the Declaration of Independence of the United States. The significance of the Declaration is not only that it proclaimed the formation of the United States, but even more so in the proclamation of the most advanced political and legal ideas and ideas at that time. The ideas of the Declaration and of Jefferson himself had and continue to influence the political life in the United States.

§ 4. Views of A. Hamilton on the state and law

Alexander Hamilton (1757-1804) was one of the most prominent political figures of the period of the formation of the United States, whose theoretical views and practical activities had a decisive influence on the content of the US Constitution of 1787.

During the period of immediate preparation of the Constitution, and especially after its adoption, a sharp political struggle flared up in the country between federalists and anti-federalists. Outwardly, the basis of the split into these political groupings was the attitude towards the federal form of the US state structure outlined by the Constitution.

Hamilton was one of the most influential leaders of the federalists, who believed that the federal structure overcomes the weakness of the confederate organization of the United States, enshrined in the "Articles of Confederation" of 1781. Only a strong central government, in their opinion, is capable of creating a stable state and preventing the further development of the democratic movement of the masses, increased after the victory in the War of Independence. Federation, Hamilton argued, would be a barrier against internal strife and popular uprisings.

The Federalists actually represented the interests of the big commercial and industrial bourgeoisie and planters. The anti-federalists expressed the aspirations of the poor and poor sections of the population - farmers, small entrepreneurs and merchants, hired workers.

Hamilton's political positions were determined in the period preceding the War of Independence, when he advocated a peaceful settlement of the conflict, a compromise with England. His theoretical views quite coincided with this position. They were formed under the decisive influence of the theory of the separation of powers of Montesquieu, who, as is known, was greatly impressed by the constitutional structure of the English monarchy. Hamilton considered this device to be the basis of the US Constitution.

However, the logic of the liberation struggle of the colonies forced Hamilton to recognize the possibility of a republican system. But prerequisite This he considered the creation of a strong presidential power, not unlike the power of a constitutional monarch. The president, in his opinion, should be elected for life and have broad powers, including the ability to control the representative body of the legislature, which, under pressure from voters, can make "arbitrary decisions." The same idea was contained in Hamilton's proposal to make ministers appointed by the President practically not accountable to Parliament.

The parliament itself was conceived by him as a bicameral one, created on the basis of suffrage with a high property qualification. The division of people into rich and poor, and, accordingly, into enlightened and unenlightened, capable and incapable of managing the affairs of society, according to Hamilton, is of natural origin and cannot be eliminated. The rich, and therefore enlightened by nature, have the right to be represented in the highest organs of government. Only they are able to ensure the stability of the political system, because any changes in it will not give them anything good. Giving the people the opportunity to actively participate in state affairs will inevitably lead to errors and errors due to the unreasonableness and inconstancy of the masses, and thereby weaken the state.

Not all of Hamilton's ideas were accepted by the US Constitution (President for life, qualifying suffrage). But both the general thrust and most of Hamilton's specific proposals were adopted by the Constitutional Convention. In this regard, it should be noted that of the 55 members of the Constitutional Convention, only 8 participated in the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. Therefore, it is understandable that the Convention supported Hamilton, who objected even to the inclusion of the Bill of Rights in the text of the Constitution, although such bills were already contained in the constitutions of the founding states of the United States.

On September 15, 1776, the British troops occupied New York, and George Washington almost fell into the hands of the enemy. After the end of the war, the American commander retired to his estate in the hope of a measured life as a landowner. However, there was no escape from the glory of a national hero; The Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army was unanimously elected President of the Constitutional Convention. On April 30, 1789, he assumed the presidency of the United States.

Washington was not the only "Founding Father" of the States. What was the fate of the politicians who drafted the US constitution and secured its ratification?

Benjamin Franklin: self-taught encyclopedist

The future scientist and diplomat was born in 1706 in the family of a craftsman. He was the 15th child, and his parents did not have money for his education. Therefore, Franklin independently studied chemistry, mathematics, physics and ancient languages. In 1724 he moved to London to study the printing business. Returning to Philadelphia, the young man published the Pennsylvania Gazette. Franklin also had the idea of ​​creating the first public library in the colonies.

The range of scientific interests of the future founding father of the United States was wide: he studied the Gulf Stream and atmospheric electricity, invented bifocal glasses, a rocking chair and a small stove for the home. For writing scientific works, Franklin was recognized as a member of the Royal Society of England, as well as the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. Benjamin became one of the first American Freemasons. He was known to the general public for his aphorisms: “do not put off until tomorrow what you can do today”, “time is money”, “laziness, like rust, corrodes faster than labor wears out”. Gave Franklin and practical advice Savings: "Spend one penny less than you earn."

Benjamin Franklin has died at the age of 85. More than 20,000 people attended his funeral.

Thomas Jefferson: prominent politician and wealthy slave owner

Jefferson chaired a committee to create a declaration of independence. After two days of discussions, part of the text that dealt with criticism of the slave trade was removed from his draft. It is noteworthy that the politician opposed slave labor, but used it on his plantations; he inherited 2,750 acres of land from his father. And here is a record of contemporaries about working conditions in his workshop: “Locked up in a stuffy, smoky workshop, the boys minted 5-10 thousand nails a day, which in 1796 brought Jefferson 2 thousand dollars in total income. Then his nail factory competed with penitentiary state."

In 1779, Thomas Jefferson became governor of Virginia, and in 1785 he went to France as ambassador. Four years later, he entered the service of Secretary of State under President George Washington. In 1801 he was elected head of state.

John Adams: unknown president

A brilliant lawyer who was brought to prominence by a lawsuit in 1770. English soldiers turned to him for protection, who were accused of killing five citizens in Boston. Despite enormous public pressure and risks to his reputation, Adams took on the case. The man had the talent of an orator; The audience listened to him in complete silence. He won the case, six soldiers were acquitted.

John Adams became one of the creators of the US Constitution in 1787, in 1789 he took the post of vice president. On March 4, 1797, he was elected head of state (at the same time, Adams himself did not participate in the election campaign; instead of public speaking and fighting for votes, he sat at home). His tenure as president was marred by diplomatic conflict that led to an undeclared war at sea between the United States and the French Republic in 1798-1800. It was under Adams that the White House was built. The president has been criticized for his lack of decisive action in the conflict between the Federalist and Democratic-Republican parties.

After the end of the presidential term, the "founding father" left big politics. He died on July 4, 1826. On the same day, his main opponent Thomas Jefferson died.

Pamphleteer Alexander Hamilton

Alexander Hamilton became US Secretary of the Treasury in the first American government. On his initiative, the National Bank was created. During the financial crisis of 1792, when securities lost a quarter of their value, Hamilton ordered $150,000 to be paid to buy government bonds. In addition, he proposed offering loans secured by US debt securities. It took the finance minister just over a month to stabilize the market.

Hamilton was known for his poignant pamphlets. Because of them, the politician died. In July 1804, he was mortally wounded in a duel with Vice President Aaron Burr and died the next day, six months before his 50th birthday.

John Jay

In 1789, Jay became the first Chief Justice of the United States, and in 1795 he was elected Governor of New York. The politician did not seek re-election for a second term. He moved out of town and took up farming. John Jay died in May 1829 at the age of 83.

James Madison

James Madison studied at a private school, after which he entered the prestigious Princeton University (then the College of New Jersey). In 1775, he headed the committee of safety in Orange County, and two years later he became a member of the governor's council of Virginia. In 1785, he proposed a bill on freedom of religion. Became the author of a series of articles in defense of the constitution, the purpose of which was the ratification of the document in the states. In March 1809, Madison took over as president. In 1810, he ordered a ban on the entry of English ships into American ports. In the same year, he initiated the expansion of West Florida, which at that time belonged to Spain. In 1812, a devastating war began for the United States with Great Britain.

After his retirement, Madison settled in Virginia. He passed away at the age of 85.

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Books

• , Doctorov B.Z. In this monograph, the history of the formation of technology for studying public opinion in 1930 50s. in the USA and 1960-70s. in the USSR is revealed through the analysis of life and creative heritage ...
• The Founding Fathers: A History of the Study of Public Opinion. Monograph, Doctorov B.Z. In this monograph, the history of the formation of technology for studying public opinion in the 1930-50s. in the USA and 1960-70s. in the USSR is revealed through the analysis of life and creative heritage ...

The Founding Fathers were military leaders, rebels, politicians, and writers who were diverse in character, status, and background, yet who played their part in shaping a new nation and laying the foundation for the young democracy of the United States.

Who are the founding fathers?

All of the Founding Fathers, including the first four US presidents, initially considered themselves British subjects. But they rebelled against the restrictive rule of King George III, laying out their grievances in the Declaration of Independence, a powerful (albeit incomplete) call for liberty and equality, and won a stunning military victory against what was then the preeminent superpower of the world.

What role did Thomas Jefferson play there?

The well-educated and prosperous Thomas Jefferson was a Virginian lawyer and politician who concluded that the British Parliament had no power over the thirteen colonies. In 1776 he was given the important task of writing the Declaration of Independence, in which he stated that "all men are created equal" and "that their creator is endowed with certain inalienable rights" such as "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" .

As Secretary of State under Washington, Jefferson constantly clashed with Hamilton over foreign policy and the role of government. He later served as vice president of John Adams before becoming president himself in 1801.

The contribution of the founding fathers to the development of the United States

The Founding Fathers proved to be just as adept in times of peace as they were in war. When the British federal government made concessions under the Articles of Confederation, prominent citizens reconvened to craft the US Constitution, overcoming major divisions between large and small, southern and northern states, to form a stable political system. Showing foresight, they included a Bill of Rights that enshrined many civil liberties and served as a model for other emerging democracies.

There is no official consensus as to who should be considered a founding father, and some historians object to the term altogether. In general, however, this applies to those leaders who started the revolutionary war and created the Constitution.

Here are eight of the most influential characters in America's origin story:

• George Washington.
• Alexander Hamilton.
• Benjamin Franklin.

• John Adams.
• Samuel Adams.
• Thomas Jefferson.
• James Madison.
• John Hay.

Many other figures have also been called Founding Fathers (or Mothers). Among them is John Hancock, best known for his flamboyant signature on the Declaration of Independence. Gouverneur Morris, who wrote most of the Constitution. Thomas Paine, British author of Common Sense. Paul Revere, Boston silversmith whose "midnight ride" warned of the approach of the redcoats.

George Mason, who helped draft the Constitution but ultimately refused to sign it. Charles Carroll, single Catholic signer of the Declaration of Independence. John Marshall, Revolutionary War veteran and longtime Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. and Abigail Adams, who pleaded with her husband John to "remember the ladies" as the new country was formed.

Conclusion

Without the Founding Fathers, there would be no United States of America. A group of predominantly wealthy plantation owners and businessmen who united thirteen disparate colonies fought for independence from Britain and drafted a series of influential governing documents that govern the country to this day.