The Vermont transcript. [volume] (St. Albans, Vt.) 1864-1870, 1866-07-06
Alexander Hamilton.

An article in the dHantic lonUly
places Alexander Hamilton at the
head of the great men Of America, and
gives some substantial reasons for the
rank assigned him. 1t says:
What strikes us most foroibly, in
considering Hamilton's career, is the
remarkably eaily development of his
powers. At thirteen he was found
competent to take charge Of n NOR
camille establishment. At fifteen his
writings win for him public applause
and the aid of friends At seventeen,
he addresses with success n great
public meeting At eighteen, his
anonymous productions are attributed
to some Of the leading men of Ameri-
ca. At nineteen, he has thought out
that prii ciple of government which is
indelibly associated with his name
At twenty, he has not only approved
himself skillful and courageous
soldier, but he has won the esteem of
the grave and reserved Washington
and is placed by that great man in a
post of the closest confidence, and
1 which really makes him second man
in the American service At twenty
three, he has shown that he is master
of the intricate subject of finance.
AT twenty-five, after an active mill
tary life that had allowed no time
for study, he is known as lawyer of
the first order At twenty-six, he is
distinguished as a member of Con-
gress. At thirty, he takes leading
part in framing the Constitution of
the United States. And in his thirty
third year, he becomes the most ex-
traordinary finance minister the
world has ever seen. He was states
man, soldier, writer and orator. and
/ first in each department; and he was
as ready for all the parts which he
filed as if he had been long and stu
diously trained for each of them by
the best instructors. When Mr.. Web
ster so happily compared the instan-
taneousness and perfection of his
/ financial system to "the tabled birth
of Minerva" he did but allude to what
is to be remarked of all Hamilton's
works. All that he did was perfect,
and no one seems to have been aware
+ of his power, until he had established
the fact of his existence. Such a com
bination of precosity and versatility
stands quite unparalleled. Octavius,
VIM. I'LL, Henry st. John, Chas
James Fox, and VIM. Pitt, the young
er, all showed various powers at early
periods of their lives; but not one of
them was the equal of Hamilton in
respect to early maturity of intellect.
or ability to command success in every
department to which he turned his
attention. The historical character of
whom he most reminds us is the elder
Africanus. In the early development
of his faculties, in his patriotism, in
his kindliness of mind. in his personal
purity, in his generosity of thought
and of action, and in the fear and en-
Wy that he excited in Inferior minds,
he was repetition of the most majes-
tic of all the Romans. But, unlike
the Roman soldier statesman, he did
not desert the land he had saved, but
which had proved ungrateful; and
the grave only was to be his Liter
mum. He died at not far from the
same age as that to which Africanus
reached. In comparing him with GER
tain other men who achieved fame
early, it should be remembered that
they all were regularly prepared for
public life and were born to it as an
inheritance; whereas he, though of
patrician blood, was possessed of no
advantages of fortune, and had to
fight the battle of life while fighting
the battles of the nation.