Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-05-18

brilliancy and genius. The AAo, We take
it, misreads Hamilton and imputes to him
motives he did not entertain, and
while we do not now take space to point
out in full the reasons for this
conclusion, we can say that if the great
Federalist retired from the convention he
did so but to return to it and affix his sig
nature to the Constitution and to devote
his best energies to securing its adoption.
To no individual influence indeed are we
SO much indebted for the adoption of the
Constitution as to that of Hamilton. But
for him New York would certainly have
rejected the instrument. In the annals OF
debate there is no record of greater or
more brilliant effort than that made by
the illustrious statesman in defense OF the
charter of the Union, and so powerful
were his labors that all historians concede
10 them the result achieved in New York,
if not throughout the country. 1t must be
concluded that the loyalty of the Alta to
the rival of Hamilton, that most brilliant
of all our statesmen, has led our contem-
porarv into undue exhibition of its bias
for Jefferson, and against the sincerity of
Hamilton in his defense of the Constitu-
ton. To say that he advocated it because
it was better than the chaos that would
follow its rejection, is to put a false esti-
mate upon the motives of the statesman.
That his scheme was rejected in the con-
vention is true but it is also true that he
knew it could not be adopted, and that its
proposal, more than anything else, served
to bring that body to the condition of
mind that resulted, happily for free insti-
tutions, in the Constitution as given to us.
But the revival of the Hamilton e fer
son controversy, which the eulogium pro-
nounced by Chauncey Depew has made
prominent, is not profitless. If it is possible
to shed new light upon it, by all means let
it be done. But really there is nothing
new to lie said about it, and the reawak-
ened interest in it can only serve to en-
Tighten many Indifferent readers upon the
politics of the early period of our history
and to clear away good deal of misun-
Outstanding about the formation Of the
Constitution, in which, indeed, Jefferson
had no personal part, since he was in
France at the time. 1t is a matter of his
tory that he was with difficulty induced to
accept the document and give it the sup
port Of his powerful influence. He de-
clared that there were things in it that
staggered his disposition to subscribe to it,
and he scarcely knew whether the good or
the bad predominated in it, 1t cannot be
denied that the arguments of Hamilton in
the FederdliSt operated powerfully to win
Jeferson's support for the instrument. In
November, 1888, he wrote to Madison con-
corning the Fsderalist, saying: "It does
the highest honor to the third Hamilton
as being, in my opinion, the best COM
mentary on the principles of government
which was ever written < But in gen
eral it establishes firmly the plan of gov
eminent. | confess it has rectifed me on
several points" 1t matters not what may
be the division of opinion as to the real
thought of Hamilton concerning the Con-
stitution prior to its PRONUNCIATION by the
convention, since it is fact of history, we
repeat, that without his defense and advo-
cacy of it when once put before the people,
it would not have been adopted. 1t is too
late, therefore, we reiterate, to attempt, as
our contemporary does at this late day, to
suggest that Hamilton was but an unim-
portant figure and his work secondary in
evolving Of the system of the Republic
1t is as lofty an honor to have been the
means of making an Act the firm and en-
during substructure of nation as to have
drawn and phrased it.