Page 179 - Beers With Our Founding Fathers

A Patriot’s view of the history and direction of our Country

But prior to this, he also saw that the Articles of Confederation

was weak in that it was more divisive of the colonies than uniting.
As a New York delegate to the Constitutional Convention, he was not

prominent in the drafting of the new Constitution, but he was
prominent in both the negotiations. He played a key role in New

York’s ratification, and along with John Jay and James Madison, was
one of the ghost writers of the Federalist Papers, writing fifty-one of

the eighty-five essays.
With the authorities granted to him by the Constitution (some

feel they were not), Hamilton setforth various economic policies to
strengthen the central government. These included central taxation,

credit with foreign countries, assumption of state debts arising from
the war, and payment of the war bonds. In trying to enact these

policies, James Madison blocked them in Congress. Hamilton and
Madison met and agreed that the nation’s capital, until this time in

New York, would be along the Potomac River and Madison would
not block Hamilton’s policies before Congress.

The politics of the next two presidential elections were
pugnacious – the person with the most votes would be president

and the person with the next most votes would be vice president. In
the first election, there was an Electoral College tie between

Jefferson and Burr; Hamilton backed Jefferson, who won. Burr then
became vice president to Jefferson. Jefferson did not trust Burr, and

often did not include him. In the second election, Jefferson did not

include Burr, who instead ran for New York governor and lost. Burr
read that Hamilton had declared Burr, “The most dangerous and
unfit man for the community.” This incensed Burr, who challenged

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