Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton--two of the most influential
Founding Fathers--were also fierce rivals with two opposing political
philosophies and two radically different visions for America.
While Jefferson is better remembered today, it is actually Hamilton's
political legacy that has triumphed--a legacy that has subverted the
Constitution and transformed the federal government into the very
leviathan state that our forefathers fought against in the American
Revolution. How did we go from the Jeffersonian ideal of limited
government to the bloated imperialist system of Hamilton's design?
Acclaimed economic historian, Thomas J. DiLorenzo reveals how Hamilton,
first as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention and later as the
nation's first and most influential treasury secretary, masterfully
promoted an agenda of nationalist glory and interventionist economics.
These core beliefs did not die with Hamilton in his fatal duel with
Aaron Burr, but were carried on through his political heirs.
The Hamiltonian legacy wrested control into the hands of the federal
government by inventing the myth of the Constitution's "implied powers,
transforming state governments from Jeffersonian bulwarks of liberty to
beggars for federal crumbs. It also devised a national banking system
that imposes boom-and-bust cycles on the American economy; saddled
Americans with a massive national debt and oppressive taxation, and
pushed economic policies that lined the pockets of the wealthy and
created a government system built on graft, spoils, and patronage.
By debunking the Hamiltonian myths, DiLorenzo exposes an uncomfortable
truth: the American people are no longer the masters of their government
but its servants. Only by restoring a system based on Jeffersonian
ideals can Hamilton's curse be lifted, at last.
