[In the excerpt below, Boutell provides a laudatory account of Hamilton's life and works.]

When New York ratified the Federal Constitution, the people of that State celebrated the event by a festival procession, in which was borne a flag with the portrait of Washington on one side and that of Hamilton on the other. The enthusiasm of the hour, which recognized these great men as foremost among the founders of the republic—as the men who knew how to build and save a State—has been justified by the political history of succeeding years, and especially by the fierce and bloody struggle of our own time. That we are to-day a united and powerful nation, and not the weak and hostile fragments of a once great republic, is owing to the triumph of those sentiments of nationality which Hamilton strove throughout his life to foster and strengthen.

To estimate aright Hamilton's greatness, we need to remember that while he was a many-sided man, and great in many different ways, as statesman, lawyer, financier, orator, writer and soldier, he was greatest in the successful solution of those difficult problems of civil government which most profoundly affect human welfare, but in respect to which men are most liable to err. While the science of political economy was in its infancy, he exhibited a mastery of its principles which placed him beside Adam Smith and Turgot. He saw, as with an unerring instinct, the kind of government best suited to the needs of a handful of people as they emerged from the war of Independence, and which would also prove adequate to the needs of the greatest of nations. Although he had never been in Europe, he was able to forecast the movements of European governments with a correctness that led Talleyrand to say of him, "He divined Europe."

In his lifetime, it was the fashion of his opponents, the State-rights men of that day, to call him a monarchist. His writings abundantly prove the falsity of this assertion. He was, above all things, a practical statesman, and never wasted an effort in attempts to establish a government unsuited to the genius of the people. But what he did believe in, and saw was essential to the very existence of the nation, was a strong central government, supreme in its own domain, springing from the people and acting directly upon them, and sufficiently expansive to meet the wants of a continental republic. To establish such a government, he exerted to the utmost all the powers of his richly-gifted nature. This was the great work of his life; and for this work he is entitled to rank, not merely among the greatest statesmen of his time, but among the great benefactors of the race.

No man ever labored more diligently to produce an enlightened public opinion. His tongue and pen were never idle. He had an abiding faith in the ability and disposition of the people to form correct judgments on public affairs when properly instructed. As a political controversialist, he had no equal. His bitterest enemy, Aaron Burr, said of him: "If you put yourself on paper with him, you are lost." Jefferson thought that Madison was the only person competent to measure swords with him. He was not a literary artist like Burke. His power as a writer consisted in the clearness of his statements and the strength of his arguments. He persuaded men, not by stirring their passions or charming their fancies, but by convincing their judgments.

No adequate report of Hamilton's speeches has been preserved, from which to judge of his powers as an orator; but from the testimony of the ablest of his contemporaries, and from the effect which his speeches produced, we know that he is entitled to rank among the great orators of the world. His greatest efforts as an orator were put forth in the Constitutional Convention at Poughkeepsie. When that convention of sixty-five members assembled, forty-six were opposed to the adoption of the Constitution, and only nineteen were in favor of it. The opposition to it was headed by Governor Clinton, one of the most astute and influential politicians of his time. Some of the ablest debaters in the State were arrayed on the same side, and at their head was Melancthon Smith, a most acute dialectitian. Day after day the great debate went on, the speeches of Hamilton filling men with wonder at their power, and melting them to tears with their pathos; but on the test votes the majority against the Federalists was always two to one. Finally, Melancthon Smith, overpowered by the arguments of Hamilton, gave up his opposition, and one after another of his followers joined the Federalists, till on the final vote there was a majority of three in favor of the Constitution. We know of no triumph of oratory in modern times surpassing this.

Although the specimens of Hamilton's oratory which are preserved to us are exceedingly meagre, it is not difficult to see what was the secret of his oratorical power. He had the requisite physical qualities—the charm of voice, of eye, of action. He had the requisite intellectual equipment—clearness of perception, argumentative power, and fullness of information. And in addition, he had the moral earnestness, the intensity of conviction and the force of will essential to arouse and sway an audience.

Hamilton's loyalty to his adopted country is one of the most interesting features of his character. His faith in its future greatness and his devotion to its welfare never wavered. And when the clouds of disaster were gathering thick and dark above it, he exclaimed, "If this Union were to be broken, it would break my heart." Opposition to slavery was no uncommon thing in these early days, but few expressed that opposition so strongly as Hamilton. "I consider," he said, "civil liberty, in a genuine, unadulterated sense, as the greatest of terrestrial blessings. I am convinced that the whole human race is entitled to it; and that it can be wrested from no part of them without the blackest and most aggravated guilt." His views on this subject, as on every other, took a practical form. On the 14th of March, 1779, he wrote a letter of introduction for his friend, Colonel Laurens, to the President of Congress, in which he advised the raising of negro troops in the South. After stating the reason why he thought the negroes would make good soldiers, and why such a plan seemed necessary for the safety of the South, he goes on to say:

An essential part of the plan is to give them their freedom with their swords. This will secure their fidelity, animate their courage, and, I believe, will have a good influence on those who remain, by opening a door to their emancipation. This circumstance, I confess, has no small weight in inducing me to wish the success of the project; for the dictates of humanity and true policy equally interest me in favor of this unfortunate class of men.

The first two papers in the volume before us illustrate the precocity of Hamilton's genius. Very young men have exhibited marvellous skill in music and painting, in mathematics and the acquisition of languages. But we know of no other instance in which a boy in his eighteenth year has produced such essays on government as these papers on the rights of the colonies. His great admiration for the English Constitution at first inclined him to side with the mother country. But maturer reflection satisfied him that the colonies must be governed by laws of their own making, and be taxed by their own representatives, or lose forever the qualities that made England great. The case of the colonies against the mother country was never more ably stated than in these essays. On their first appearance they attracted universal attention, and so marked was their ability that they were attributed to the pen of John Jay. From this time on, Hamilton was constantly seeking, by letters, by pamphlets, and by newspaper articles, to impress others with his views of public affairs. And this he did, though his days and nights were full of the most arduous labors. Some of the papers in this volume were produced amid the confusion and excitement of the camp, others were the work of hurried moments snatched from the exacting labors of the law. An interesting anecdote, illustrative of Hamilton's habits in this respect, is related in the autobiography of Jeremiah Mason. Speaking of William Coleman, the editor of the New York "Evening Post," Mr. Mason says:

His paper for several years gave the leading tone to the press of the Federal party. His acquaintances were often surprised by the ability of some of his editorial articles, which were supposed to be beyond his depth. Having a convenient opportunity, I asked him who wrote, or aided in writing, these articles. He frankly answered that he made no secret of it; that his paper was set up under the auspices of General Hamilton, and that he assisted him. I then asked, "Does he write in your paper?" "Never a word." "How, then, does he assist?" His answer was, "Whenever anything occurs on which I feel the want of information. I state the matter to him, sometimes in a note. He appoints a time when I may see him, usually a late hour of the evening. He always keeps himself minutely informed on all political matters. As soon as I see him, he begins in a deliberate manner to dictate, and I to write down in short hand (he was a good stenographer); when he stops, my article is completed."

Hamilton's fame as a financier, as the creator of the national credit, is so great that we are apt to overlook his greatness in other respects. But as a lawyer he stood at the head of the New York bar, and his opinion on the constitutionality of the act creating the United States Bank has been a model for all succeeding arguments on the implied powers of the Constitution. The manner in which this argument was produced (it was in great part written in a single night) illustrates the rapidity with which his mind worked, even upon the greatest themes. The famous opinion of Chief-Justice Marshall on this subject was little more than a reproduction of Hamilton's arguments.

Hamilton began life as a soldier, and though his position as a staff-officer, after the first year of the war, gave him but little opportunity for the display of soldierly qualities, yet Washington was so impressed with his military abilities that, when placed for the second time in command of the army, he insisted that Hamilton should be the next to him in command. In his letter to President Adams on Hamilton's military qualifications, Washington said: "He is enterprising, quick in his perceptions, and his judgment is intuitively great; qualities essential to a military character." We have sometimes wondered, had we then gone to war with France, what new laurels Hamilton would have won in fighting the armies of Napoleon. To the close of his life, Hamilton kept himself ready to obey the call to arms. He never was free from the fear that at any time war might break out with foreign nations, or among these newly united but jealous States. That he might, in such an emergency, be prepared to command the armies of his country, he felt that he must keep his soldier's reputation without a stain. It was his solicitude for that reputation that led him to accept Burr's challenge. And so he perished, yielding to the requirements of a false code of honor, rather than have the suspicion of cowardice tarnish his soldier's fame.

Of all the great men of the Revolution, Hamilton deserves to stand nearest to Washington, for the importance of his services and for the unselfishness of his devotion to the country. He never sought public office. He declined the position of Chief-Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. At a great personal sacrifice he accepted the most difficult and important place in Washington's cabinet; and when he had organized the Treasury Department so perfectly that his methods have remained substantially unchanged to the present time, and had lifted the nation out of almost hopeless bankruptcy to a position of the highest financial credit, and had assisted in shaping that foreign policy which has kept us free from the complications of European politics, he returned to the practice of his profession so poor that little was left him besides his household furniture. After his retirement from office, he was constantly consulted by Washington on all important affairs, and he spared no pains in giving to every subject submitted to him the most thoughtful attention. So that, although nominally out of office, he never ceased to be in the public service. We may say of him as Burke said of his dead son: "He was made a public creature, and had no enjoyment whatever but in the performance of some duty."

Hamilton was a man of exceedingly generous and kindly disposition. While minutely exact in regard to all his pecuniary obligations, he was ever ready to lend a helping hand to others—especially to an old army comrade. He had no personal quarrel even with the man who killed him, and made quite an effort to relieve him from pecuniary embarrassment only a short time before the fatal duel. He died at the age of forty-seven. Had he lived to the allotted period of human life, what might he not have accomplished! His work as the leader of the party in power was over, for the government had passed into the hands of Jefferson and his followers, and was there to remain for the next twenty-one years. But had his life been spared he would have enriched our jurisprudence; and he would doubtless have given to the world some work on civil government, the fruit of life-long studies, and meditations, and experience in public affairs, which would have been a storehouse of political wisdom for all coming time.

A few months before Hamilton's death Chancellor Kent spent a night with him in his charming home. In the course of the conversation Hamilton spoke of a work on civil government which he had in contemplation. Referring to this, the Chancellor writes:

I have very little doubt that if General Hamilton had lived twenty years longer he would have rivaled Socrates or Bacon, or any other of the sages of ancient or modern times, in researches after truth, and in benevolence to mankind. The active and profound statesman, the learned and eloquent lawyer, would probably have disappeared in a great degree before the character of the sage philosopher, instructing mankind by his wisdom, and elevating his country by his example.