The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-03-26
SATURDAY, MARCH 9e, 1904.
AMBASSADOR CHoATE ON HAM
 TTTON

Ambassador Choate has been telling an Edinburgh audience what a great man Alexander Hamilton was. Perhaps in the cloud of doubt surrounding Hamil- tons parentage, the fact that the most credible tradition gives him Scotch father, furnished our Ambassador an ex- cuse for his Edinburgh discourse. Noth- ing could excuse. however, his vain boasting about Hamilton and particular ly his claim that Hamilton wrote the noble preamble to the Constitution. The pretension is dying hard, but surely 1t will die that Hamilton was a potent factor in framing that instrument. It is difficult to understand why Northern historians so persistently mlsrepresent the work of tho Philadelphia convention and Hamilton's connection herewith. He was present for a fe-'' days and after submitting his mona .uleal scheme left for New York and only returned during the closing hours of the convention. There is not one idea in the constitution that can be fairly attributed to Hamilton and yet we are continually being ad- monshed to worship him as the possess sor of the greatest constructive intellect of the Revolutionary epoch and father of the Constitution. As to the preamble, that Ambassador Choate Is now claiming for Hamilton 1t was reported in its original shape during his long-continued absence in New York. The shape it finally assumed was given it by the conn mittee on revision, of which Hamilton, 1t is true was a member. The stylist of that committee was Gouverneur Morris and comparing the writings of the two men. we should be constrained from in ternal evidence to declare Hamilton was not the author and that Morris proba- bly was the author. Can Ambassador Choate have overlooked Morriss letter to Timothy Pickering where he asks this question. What can a history of the Constitution do toward interpreting It's provisions?" and goes on to add ''The instrument was written by the fingers which write this letter" There was abundant opportunity to destroy pre- tension of this sort if 1t had been un- IOuluCO' III hAAS NNly lSlicI Wlllle CldlI- ing that he wrote the Constitution he does it modestly and in order to make a point as to the futility of precision in language in saving a constitution from infractions What does 1t signify that men should have a written constitu- ton containing unequivocal provisions and limitations? The legislative lion will not be entangled in the meshes of a logical net" MT. Choate is giving his foreign auditors some green talk. Hamil- ton was a man of marked ability. He dlstrusted Republican institutions and profoundly distrusted the people, whom he termed "a great beast. He used his will and intellect to bend our insti tutions in the direction of a centralized monarchy. Washington gave him every notable opportunity he enjoyed during his brief life and when Washington diet Hamilton was shattered by impact witt free and liberal Republican institutions If his fame grows in the future 1t will be due to the abandonment by the Ameri can people of all the ideals that in the mass were cherished by them during the earlier years of our history as an inde. pendent nation.